Botox May Keep You From Reading Other People's Emotions

Gah, needle to the face! From Beauty Resurgence.

You may know that Botox makes smiling difficult, but WebMD reports that it also dampens one's ability to read the emotions of others. Researchers in Los Angeles took 31 women who had received either Botox or Restylane--a treatment similar to Botox, but without the muscle paralyzing effects. Researchers also looked at 56 women and 39 men who used a cream that augmented signals from facial muscles. All participants were then asked to look at faces on a computer screen and identify the displayed emotion. Researchers found that the women who used Botox were less likely to name the correct emotion than their Restylane counterparts, but people who used the facial cream were best of all.

David R. Neal of the University of California, one of the authors of the study, says, "If you have a poker face because your facial muscles are paralyzed, you can’t read others emotions as well." This happens because our faces subtly mimic the emotions we see in others, giving the brain multiple ways to process emotional information. But since Botox paralyzes facial muscles, that avenue is closed to users.

Dr. Neal points out, however, that this deadening effect is subtle, and probably only affects heavy Botoxers. "People are not becoming automatons," he says. "It’s just a matter of weighing whether the aesthetic and self-esteem boost outweighs any subtle impact on your ability to perceive others emotions."

Fake Smiles Can Apparently Make You Depressed

BBC's "Spot the Fake Smile" test. From Greg Hughes.

Do you often try to smile, even when you're not happy? According to this story from The New York Times, you may actually be worsening your mood. This information comes from a study in the Academy of Management Journal, wherein researchers examined a group of bus drivers for two weeks. Why bus drivers? Because they often smile whenever a passenger gets on their bus, which theoretically gave researchers a large data set.

The study found a difference between "surface acting," or fake smiling, and "deep acting," which is a technique of using positive thoughts or memories to bring out real smiles (similar to method acting, I guess). The researchers had the bus drivers alternate between surface acting and deep acting on different days. On days when the drivers surface acted, they tended to become depressed and withdrawn from work. On days when they deep acted, their moods became more positive and their productivity increased.

These differences in technique affected women more than they did men. Dr. Brent Scott, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study, suspects that cultural norms are to blame. He says that women are socialized to be more emotionally expressive, so hiding their emotions may strain them more.

So the lesson here might be to avoid smiling when you're not feeling it. Instead, try to recall enough positive feelings that your smile comes naturally.

By the way, want to know which of your friends are genuinely happy and which ones are secretly wallowing in an existential morass of boredom and contempt, hidden only by a plastered-on contraction of facial muscles and teeth that they think will dull the pain, but in fact only pulls them deeper down the gaping hole of self-pity that they call life? Then head over to BBC's Spot the Fake Smile test! It only takes a minute or two, and you may not be as good as you think. I scored 16 out of 20! See if you can beat that!