Happy Hack #2: The Smile Experiment
Can smiling induce happiness?
The little boy in the picture above could be one of my grandsons. I’ve got a five-year-old grandchild who looks just him; superhero t-shirt, smiles and all.
Anyway, this is day two of my happy hack project. I designed a simple fake-a-smile experiment to see if the fake it till you make it maxim is true.
Let me do a recap of my previous post.
The goal is to record the effects of a fake smile with others and myself.
First, I am going to walk around all day with a fake smile and observe other people’s reactions. Second, I am going to record the emotional and physical responses.
Happy Hack Smile Project
Interaction #1:
Time: 10:15–11:15 AM Central
No one was at my house, so I had to figure out to whom or what I could smile. Fresh air was calling to me so I cruised over to my lawn chair in the backyard and sat down.
I lifted my head and smiled at the sun. He smiled back with such intensity, his rays burned my skin.
Then, I ambled across the lawn to sit under the massive sycamore tree in the southwest corner of my yard, and smiled at my birdhouse. A symphony of…
