Why Are Fake Smiles Detrimental to Our Health?

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Many of us believe that fake smiles are necessary to maintain good relationships with other people and help us go through gloomy days in the workplace. However, a recent research has shown that fake smiles may be detrimental to our health. According to study, people who use fake smiles tend to withdraw and poorly perform assigned tasks. Counterintuitively, fake smiles not only do not improve team spirit and productivity but make employees less motivated about work. Experts believe that we should opt for the better option: to be engaged in deep acting mode and share genuine smiles with other people. It has more positive effects on the outcome of our work and team atmosphere. On the other hand, if a genuine smile is not rooted in the true sense of happiness it will make a person miserable in the long run. People who keep smiling, not allowing negative emotions to be recognized, have bigger chances to get depressed. When making fake smiling a habit, we may feel inauthentic. We simply lose touch with our inner truth. For that reason, experts emphasize the importance of acknowledging negative emotions and cultivating the positive ones. To learn more about why fake smiles are detrimental to our health, the article “The Claim: a Fake Smile Can Be Bad for Your Health” gives us the following explanation.

In a study published this month in the Academy of Management Journal, scientists tracked a group of bus drivers for two weeks, focusing on them because their jobs require frequent, and generally courteous, interactions with many people.

After following the drivers closely, the researchers found that on days when the smiles were forced, the subjects’ moods deteriorated and they tended to withdraw from work. Trying to suppress negative thoughts, it turns out, may have made those thoughts even more persistent.

If we want to stop pretending that everything is fine and keeping fake smiles on our face, we may use the emotional freedom technique (EFT) to release negative emotions. Better known as tapping, this technique enables us to connect with our deep feelings and see them as what they really are. This is the first and essential step if we want to cultivate positive emotions and become genuinely happy. The technique helps our body to feel negative emotions. When we experience this raw energy, we immediately feel better. After letting go of negativity, we will be able to release our need to keep pretending and put fake smiles.