Lopez, Ian Raphael M.

HUMSS 11-6
Personal Development

Reaction Paper on TED Talks: Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling

Before watching the TED talk made by Ron Gutman about his power of smiling, I did not know how powerful a smile can
be. I know that I have a contagious smile because my friends has told about me about my sense of humor, and maybe
because when I am with them, you will never see them frown. I never realized how a simple smile can have an effect on
our well-being and how can it affect the people around us.

There is a reason to believe what Gutman has said in the talk. First, it is backed by a variety of scientific evidence derived
from studies by different universities. Second, on research, Gutman is very active and involved in the field of personal
health since his days at Stanford University.

The video is informative. It was almost like a carefully-charted journey. Gutman used illustrations to drive his point home.
It made me think on every point the speaker has presented. Allow me to share my thoughts on some of the points in his
talk that struck me the most:

On living a longer life

Gutman started things off with a UC Berkeley study. It used photographs of students in a yearbook and the researchers
measured how successful they were in their life. Gutman said that the research measured data on how the subjects
marriages ran, or their score in standardized tests of well-being. Gutman did not specifically point out the results were
positive, but the audience, and I, thought that it were. Browsing the internet to satiate my need for hard numbers, I
stumbled upon the actual study. It concluded: Consistent with recent theorizing, we found that individual differences in
positive emotional expression were linked to personality stability and development across adulthood, the impressions and
reactions from other people, and marital satisfaction and personal well-being up to 30 years later.

But that study only used women, as the study even pointed. It reasoned that it only used women they tend to be more
emotionally expressive, and were found to smile more and with greater intensity in high school and university yearbook
photographs. Gutman, I understand, then stumbled upon a year book picture of a man named Barry Obama. We all
know how successful and inspiring that man became to be.

If this is the case, I told myself, then I can live a pretty fulfilling life. Or, my friends will live being successful. This made me
realize that my frequent smiles are helpful in my state of well-being.

I am used to people pointing out to the negative that I smile too much, or the things I watch are too happy. One case in
point: The only thing I watch on television these days is Dobol B sa News TV, a simulcast of DZBB programs every morning.
What kept me watching that program, one that is meant for adults, is their lax way of broadcasting. In stark contrast with
other radio stations in the morning timeslot, they are the only ones to inject humor in their news reports. They even have
a segment where they lampoon the news events using a song. Maybe because of these uniqueness in style, the people in
the program have been very successful in their career and have very fulfilling lives, as what is being pointed out in the
study used by Gutman. As an effect, I was ultimately inspired by the personalities in the program to pursue a career in
broadcasting.

I also have to point out how this study runs parallel to examples we see on joyful workers being reported on news
broadcasts. One example of these that instantly went to my mind are those dancing traffic enforcers, who entertain
motorists by dancing in the middle of intersections (and so, in the middle of their work). I remember the reactions of
people while they see enforcers like these, and in general, those were all broad smiles.

Smiles are usually contagious

Gutman also pointed out that we are naturally smiling when we are being smiled at by children. He said that children smile
as many as 400 times per day. He said that according to a study by Uppsala University, it is very hard for us not to smile to
a person who is doing it to us. It is evolutionarily contagious, and it suppresses the control we usually have on our facial
muscles.

That can be the case with the people watching that traffic enforcers in the example I used earlier. The enforcers, who we
perceive as stiffy and strict, is dancing to us and so is sending us an expression of joy; that he is happy and he is enjoying
the work he does. In effect, we respond back with a smile on our face as we see it as a reprieve to the stressful metropolitan
traffic.

In the other case I used, in the Dobol B sa News TV program, it is the same. We are accustomed to radio news bulletins
and commentaries in the morning that are very serious, usually did by people with authoritativeness. And then people
like the broadcasters in DZBB do it the same way and add a pinch of humor. We also respond with a smile on our face:
News doesnt have to be stressful. And we are attracted to watch again.

It is natural for us to smile

I know the feeling in suppressing our smiles or expressions of enjoyment. Using the Dobol B sa News TV case, I have to
pretend in front of other people that I am not enjoying the program for the reason that they openly express their disdain
for their humor-infused way of broadcasting. In the talk, Gutman said that developing babies appear to smile. And when
they get out, they smile while hearing a human voice. Gutman even used an example of a specific tribe in Papua New
Guinea, who, even they are so detached in the culture of the outside world, they smile at the things that we also smile at,
too.

I have realized that as time went by, I cannot hold back my laughter from those people criticizing the program. (I have
learned to defend my choice of programming, and they have learned to tune in.) I cannot say if that is in line, scientifically,
with Gutmans point that smiling is natural. But I see how these two things run in parallel. I agree with Gutman when he
said that smiling is one of the most basic, biologically-uniform expressions of all humans.

We can be rich and healthy

Gutman cited a study by British researchers, saying that smiling stimulates our brain in a way that chocolate, a food we all
know that makes us happy, cannot. A smile can stimulate us the same way that 2,000 bars of chocolate can only match.
Gutman also said that a smile can stimulate us like receiving 16,000. Convert that to Philippine peso, and that amounts
to 1,045,804 in June 28s exchange rates. Gutman even joked that children can feel that they are as rich as Mark
Zuckerberg, if we say that they smile as many as 400 times a day.

He also pointed out how, unlike chocolate, smiling makes us healthier. Gutman said that smiling can help reduce the level
of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones
like endorphin and reduce overall blood pressure. And to top it all, Gutman said that smiling can make us feel better,
citing Darwins facial feedback response theory. It can also make us look likeable and more competent to the people
around us.

This final point Gutman did made me realize that one does not need to spend much to be happy. We should just look for
things that make us smile, that lets us enjoy, that induces us to be happy. It erased my stigma of being happy for a
prolonged period of time. It debunked my belief that people are meant to be sad: We are biologically set to be smiling.
So, the next time I watch Dobol B sa News TV, or see a dancing enforcer, or just happen to see a funny Filipino Tweets
That Matter post, I will keep it in mind not to be ashamed to smile.