And did you know there is a way of studying "Smile intensity"? You see, there are real true happy smiles, and there are fake, mirthless smiles. Man oh man, is that ever true!
But over at Wayne State University, some researchers looked through the pictures of 230 big-league baseball players from 1952 to see a) who looked happy then and b) how things worked out for all those guys, happy or otherwise.
They categorized the players' countenances as “no smile,” “partial smile” and the real true “Duchenne smile,” or the authentic, unfaked happy face named for a 19th century French neurologist. And, these 230 people and their lives bore out the calculation that the happier smilers lived longer, happier lives.
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| Gus Zernial of the 1952 Philadelphia A's lived to be 88, even though he had major problems under- standing how the game was played. |
Here are the stats: the unsmiling ballplayers averaged lives of 72.9 years, semi-smilers hung around for 75 years on the average, and the big real happy smilers made it for around 79.9 years.
The researchers also took into account that, maybe, some of the big-leaguers smiled because they were told to. But anyone who has ever tried to take pictures at any family gathering can tell you that even when you ask people to smile, you don't get a true grin from a crotchety old choleric uncle.
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| Bobby Doerr's dour countenance belies the fact that he beat the odds and lived to just short of 100 years! |
So the conclusion is, if you want to see 80, put a smile on that mug and be happy to be here!
Unless you're Bobby Doerr.
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