Smiling is one of the first facial expressions we learn to control.
Even before entering the world, babies seem to be practicing this uniquely human expression.
By 3 months of age, we learned to inspire smiles in others by looking at them.
Shortly thereafter, we begin to engage in one of the first childhood games we initiate, the smiling exchange game. Smiling exchange occurs when a baby smiles at someone in order to get that person to smile back, and when he does the baby in turn smiles again.
The size of the smile is not necessarily correlated with amount of emotion we feel.
Spontaneous smiles are on average 10 times smaller than intentional ones, yet we feel the rush of joy.
East smiles with eyes, while West smiles with mouths.
This explains the difference in smiley emoticons in America 🙂 and those in Japan ^_^.
Smile, your wallet will appreciate you.
British researches found it takes lots of money to beat out the most rewarding smiles we see. It took up to 16,000pounds in cash to generate the same level of brain stimulation as one smile! You can feel like a billionaire just by smiling.
Smiling creates a positive loop in customer service.
Big smiles cause customers to smile more which in turn causes customers to express increased happiness and which primes the service provider to smile even more in future encounters.
Smile creates a ripple effect.
By sharing one smile with another person, we’re creating and sending many more smiles out into the world.