Quick summary: A study of 138 young adults in India found that holding a pen between the teeth improved recognition of happy faces more than real time smile scoring software, supporting the idea that facial muscles can feed back into mood. The software group may have been distracted by constant prompts, so a simple, well defined facial exercise outperformed the high tech tool. For everyday well-being this points towards a cheap, standardisable self-care habit that clinics and public health programmes could teach without relying on apps.

Can forcing a smile make you feel happier? A new experiment from India suggests that how you force that smile may matter more than you would expect, and that a

Can forcing a smile make you feel happier? A new experiment from India suggests that how you force that smile may matter more than you would expect, and that a low-tech approach may work better than a high-tech one.

The idea behind the research is the facial feedback hypothesis, which holds that the muscles of the face send signals that can shape how we feel. If a forced smile really can lift mood, it could become a cheap self-care habit, but there is no agreed way of doing it.

The study, published in The Open Psychology Journal, was carried out by Achal Shetty, PhD, associate professor at Father Muller Medical College in India. It tested whether software that scores a smile in real time could help people produce a better smile and so feel happier. Asked what prompted the work, Shetty said: “I wanted to use technology to do something to our happiness directly. Not indirectly by providing us access to online content etc. I wanted to build on something which is already proven. I thought a tried and tested method of generating happiness if it meets more precision will only be good for the society.”

A total of 138 young adults aged 18–35 took part, most of them medical or engineering students. They were placed alternately into two groups: 70 used computer vision software that tracked and scored their smile, while 68 followed the traditional method of holding a pen sideways between their teeth, which pulls the face into a smile shape.

Data were collected in Mangalore in May and June 2022. Six people were excluded because of problems with near vision or with following the instructions, and 57% of those who remained were medical students.

To measure mood without simply asking people how they felt, the researchers used an emotion recognition task. People who are feeling a particular emotion tend to be quicker and more accurate at spotting that same emotion in other faces, so better recognition of happy faces was taken as a sign of a happier state.

Both groups first completed the task normally and then again while smiling. The pen group showed a greater improvement in correctly identifying happy faces, and when the two groups were compared directly, the pen group scored significantly higher.

The result ran against the author’s expectations. One likely explanation, the paper suggests, is that people using the software were repeatedly prompted to keep smiling, and those constant reminders may have distracted them from the task and worked against any boost in mood.

There were also some differences between subgroups. Among the engineering students, only the traditional pen group showed an improvement, which hints that the effect may depend on who is taking part.

The study has limits. Every participant completed the normal round before the smiling round, so growing familiarity with the task may have lifted scores in both groups, and the author describes this fixed order as a threat to the findings. The top two performers were offered a cash prize, which seemed to keep people motivated, but the author notes that the same cannot be assumed of their attention, particularly in the software group.

Even so, the findings suggest that the simple approach deserves more attention. The author argues that if clear, standard guidelines were written for the pen technique, its benefits for mood could be shared more widely, while future studies of smile-tracking software should find ways to avoid distracting prompts. On follow-up work, Shetty said: “Currently I am occupied with other mental health related topics. I am sure my future studies will eventually stumble upon this, again.”

For anyone hoping to lift their spirits, the message is a modest one. In this experiment, a simple and well-defined facial exercise did more than a high-tech coaching tool. Shetty’s single biggest takeaway for everyday people is: “Keep smiling, even if forcefully at times.”