Why is it so difficult to portray sincere joy?
Psychologist Paul Ekman, an expert on emotions, explained it this way: when we smile sincerely, we tense a special group of muscles that are associated with the pleasure center in the brain*. Psychologists assumed that only a feeling of genuine joy causes the contraction of these muscles. But recent research by the University of Erfurt (Germany) found that when we pronounce the sounds “and”, “e”, “e”, we also use the “muscles of joy”. The brain reacts to this movement with increased activity in the pleasure center, as if we were laughing or smiling sincerely at that moment **. In doing so, we actually begin to perceive what we see or hear in a more positive way (for example, we notice more joyful moments in the movie we are watching).
* P. Ekman “Psychology of emotions” (Peter, 2010).
** Emotion, 2014, vol. 14, № 2.