You've probably heard or read it:laughing is healthy. Even a fake smile would have an effect. Your brain gets signals that you are smiling and that would have a positive effect, even if the smile is fake. How about that?
The study after which this conclusion was (partly) drawn dates from 1988. Two groups of people read comic strips from the newspaper. The people from one group clamped a pen between their teeth, so that they had a fake smile. They rated the comics as funnier.
After this study was repeated, it turned out that there is no evidence that laughing makes you happier. At Nu.nl they were curious to find out exactly how this works. Have we been told all these years that laughing is healthy when it isn't?
A psychologist and university lecturer indicate that they continue to believe that laughing is healthy. And above all:smile with the eyes. What hasn't been proven is that endorphins are released when you smile. That this happened is only a conjecture, it has not been scientifically proven. Yet it once turned up as a fact and everyone is taking it from each other. It has been proven that humor influences pain thresholds. Laughter also has a social effect:if you see someone smiling, you tend to mirror it.
Read also: 6 reasons to smile today
It seems that there are still plenty of (proven) positive effects to laughter. Healthy or not:we keep smiling.
