The Impact of Smile on Human Interactions: A Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Emotions have a great influence on the ways in which humans think, act and behave, and on the process of interpreting and deriving meaning out of life situations. Happiness is one of the primary emotions and the fundamental expression of happiness is a smile, a facial expression formed by flexing of the muscles on both sides of the mouth, forming a curve. A smile is perceived as a sign of warmth which foster human interaction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of smile from a psychological perspective in order to understand its influence on human interactions. Research has attempted to uncover the biological, psychological and socio-cultural impact of a smile on human lives at various levels of analysis, including individual, dyadic, institutional, and societal influences. The act of smiling could possibly be understood as a convenient and tranquilizing form of human action which has abundant therapeutic value and potential for enhancing the individual, dyadic and societal contexts to a great extent. Future research with regard to the impact of the smile could probably be directed towards formulating an integrated approach in utilizing and enhancing the power of smile therapy.