There’s a video over at TED that has received over 1.2 million views entitled, The Hidden Power of Smiling by Ron Gutman. It’s only 7 1/2 minutes long, so it’s worth a quick view (below) if you haven’t already seen it.
The premise of the video is simple — smiling can help you lead a happier, healthier life and lead to all sorts of positive outcomes. The research even says so!
The problem? Mr. Gutman has done what a lot of laypeople do — confused correlation with causation, press releases with scientific studies, and interpreted research results in a way the researchers themselves never did.
For good reason — longitudinal and historical research (the type Gutman cites time and time again in his presentation) generally can rarely speak to causation.
So while it’s good for a engaging soundbite at TED (and a followup book), it’s also dead wrong and an example of someone promulgating science at the behest of a “feel good” finding.
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I felt there needed to be a connection in his attempt to the growing popularity of laughter therapy, in which creating the emotional state does in fact contribute to short and long term emotional stability.
Also congruent is this study of faces before and after a month of meditation:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-3391/Before-and-After-Photos-A-Month-of-Meditation.html
Which would be a subtle and simple enough study even if empirically flawed and gimmicky.
I think what is being said in these comments on Ron is that his premise is dead wrong based on the data he was using. Fair game.
I am forming these comments without having made it through the original TED talk. I would suspect his premise would prove true for many people on a basic enough level, but it is true that TED talks need not turn into casual self-help assemblages.
That being said, glad to have found this article. In my ambitions of combining ideas both scientific and artistic in my non-fiction and fictional musings, quite the layperson yet, I’m glad to experience this rigorous critique. Thanks for reading.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg. The Dinosaur. I had heard some time ago of the chemicals released when smiling. I was on my way to work and grumpy so I gave it a shot. I was alone in my car smiling as wide as I could. I thought of how I must look to others and began laughing. I was no longer grumpy.
I had not wanted to smile. But the conscious act of smiling caused me to reflect on positive thoughts.
We are too complex to be definitive either way.
Your statement “Smiling itself isn’t the Key Factor caught my eye as I am a smiler a big smiler I smile more than most.
I was in a car accident a few years ago and my neck and shoulder were giving me a lot of pain.
I am not a person that usually complains about much of anything and do not take meds for pain, and I had stopped smiling. I really had not noticed at first that I had stopped smiling it was a realization one day at a friends house.
I said you know I don’t remember the last time I smiled, and I started to smile as I sat on the couch and as my smile grew and the more heart felt my smile was I could not feel the pain as badly as when I was not smiling.
So, I decided to put my smile to the test since then. Any time a negative situation arises in my life I put my smile to work and I have found that when I smile negativity can not take hold.
I broke my foot last year and I did not take one day off I worked 5 days a week on my feet everyday. I did use the elevator more than the stairs and before the break never used the elevator. My recovery was fast and no meds were needed.
Now, it might just be me
and maybe I am a different smiler than most
but, I do profess to everyone in my family and people I meet when depressed, or in pain or faced with troubles SMILE…make it a heartfelt SMILE and negativity will have a hard time taking over their life.
The saying LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE
I do believe helps
but, It is the Smile that is the medicine
and I have been toying with writing about my experience, but again maybe its just me..