Smile...You're in PR :)

For my small group communication class this semester, we were required to do research on a particular area of nonverbal communications, so I chose smiling. My researched showed that smiling, no doubt has a positive effect on human communication. The studies discussed in the articles I read proved that people are more responsive to other people when they are approached with a smile. In communication, public relations especially, a simple smile may be the key opening the doorway to gaining trust and building positive relationships.

Here are a few interesting things I found:

1. In Top 10 Reasons to Smile, Dr. Mark Stibich tells us that smiling can improve our attractiveness, health, and stress level. He notes that smiling can trick the body into changing the mood, and can even reduce stress and boost the immune system. It can lower blood pressure, release endorphins, as well as make one look younger and seem successful. Smiling is contagious; it helps one stay positive.
2. A Slow Smile Attracts found that a longer smile was seen as more authentic, flirtatious, and trustworthy and less dominant. Head tilting increased attractiveness and trustworthiness, but only when the head was tilted to the right. Smiling was associated with attractiveness in females and dominance in males, and in general, female smiles were found to be less genuine than those from males, though women seemed to be better at detecting the difference in short and long onset smiles.

3. Four graduate students in Amsterdam stopped people in the city square and asked them to help with a survey; when the experimenters approached participants with a smile, they were much more likely to get a positive response. They found that smiling participants were more willing to help and that smiles from the experimenter increased the helpfulness of the participants. Interestingly, it was also found that women smiled more than men, but a smile from a male experimenter was more likely to elicit helpfulness than a smile from a female experimenter.

4. A 2003 BBC news article showed a sonogram picture of a baby that appeared to be smiling, even though typically babies do not smile until about six weeks after birth. Dr. David Chamberlin says that infants instinctively respond to smiles. In his studies of brain activity in early infants, he found that smile centers in the brain become active early on in prenatal development.
5. Dr. Norman Cousins claimed to have cured his cancer by watching funny movies, stating that the body has its own biochemical responses to laughter and that even a fake smile can bring happiness by activating pleasure centers in the brain. Also, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hughes tells of how he and his troops used smiles rather than weapons when dealing with a hostile situation in Iraq.

So, PR professionals, get out there and show off those pearly whites!! :)