Men: A Smile is All It Takes

We don't need you to figure out our lives, save the day, or lie and say we look fabulous in coolots and clogs.  We just want you to smile when you look at us just like George:

Scientists found that women who are unhappy with the way they look feel significantly better about themselves after being greeted by a smiling face.

The boost in self esteem has led psychologists to think that for many, confidence in their appearance is all about social acceptance.  The study found that women who are unhappy with the way they look feel better after being greeted by a smiling face.

The research was conducted on women of normal body weight who had varying degrees of satisfaction with the way they look.

Psychologist Carolien Martijn, of Maastricht University, Holland, said: 'The positive effect we witnessed supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval.

'Simply showing these women photos of themselves followed by a smiling face -signalling social approval - increased their body satisfaction and self esteem significantly.

'This may be a useful way to increase body and weight satisfaction, and it may be worth extending this experiment to a group of people with clinically diagnosed eating disorders.'

In the study, her team tested 57 women on their levels of body satisfaction and self esteem.

Women were then shown pictures of themselves in among photos of other women.

For 26 of the women, the photos of themselves were always followed by a smiling face and for the remainder their photos were followed randomly by neutral, smiling or frowning faces.

For those always shown smiling faces after their picture, body satisfaction and self esteem increased. This outcome was not seen in the other group.

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