5 Things Your Smile Says About You
Smiles are a universal symbol of happiness. Smiles change based on the social context in which we use them. Smiles tell a lot more about you than you and many other people may realize, including the following:
- Will Your Marriage Last? – People who smile more freely are less likely to experience a divorce, and if they do experience divorce its likely to be at an older age after the marriage has survived longer. Looking at old photos and seeing how often someone smiles and how natural or forced the smile is can tell this about a person. This study is based on people who smile more being more free and “happy-go-lucky” in attitude versus a person who is usually forced to smile. Odds are the happier person is easier to get along with, and can keep a marriage together longer than someone who is more serious and rigid in personality.
- How Fertile Are You? – A smile reveals your overall health and well-being. For women, this can even reveal their level of fertility. Women with gum disease on average take 2 months longer to conceive than women who do not have gum disease. Gum disease can also predict the risk of future conditions like Type 2 Diabetes, respiratory issues, and even kidney disease. The link here is due to the increased inflammation in the body.
- How Much Earning Power Do You Have? – A teenager’s grin can determine how much they earn as an adult. Happy teens tend to earn about 10% more than their average peer the same age, and depressed teens can earn up to 30% less than their average peers at the same age. Happiness is believed to be linked to less stress and worries that allow people to focus on their on-job tasks more, and to help boost their productivity in the workplace
- How Powerful Are You? – Smiles signal social status as well as power in a social situation as people without power smiled regardless of emotions. Studies show that people in higher positions of power only smile when their emotions genuinely make them happy. Powerful people are afforded the privilege of showing their real emotions, where people in lower positions feel they must appear happy regardless of how they really feel.
- How Good a Fighter Are You? – The link between smile and power hold physical meaning. Studies show that professional mixed martial artists who smiled in their photos the day before a competition were more likely to lose than those who put on an intimidating face. Fighting is about dominance and many experts suggest the smile meant that the person may not be as aggressive and hostile as they would like to be seen as. Therefore, they are not likely to fight as well as someone who comes off as hostile and aggressive to others in appearance.