You’ve probably heard the claim that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. It’s usually framed as a feel-good reason to turn your frown upside down – less effort, more joy. But anatomically, ...

Smiles are strange things. People use them when they are happy, yes, but also when they are uncomfortable, bored, anxious, or trying to be polite. Sometimes a smile has nothing to do with joy at all.

Everyone knows how to fake a smile. We learn when to show and hide our genuine emotions from early face-to-face exchanges. Parents instinctively want to shield their children from negative social ...

Put a pencil between your lips in just the right way, and you’ll feel happier—though you won’t know why. The result is so reliable, I used this trick on students as a foolproof demo when I taught ...