Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2012;23(11):1372-8. doi: 10.1177/0956797612445312. Epub 2012 Sep 24.
In the study reported here, we investigated whether covertly manipulating positive facial expressions would influence cardiovascular and affective responses to stress. Participants (N = 170) naive to the purpose of the study completed two different stressful tasks while holding chopsticks in their mouths in a manner that produced a Duchenne smile, a standard smile, or a neutral expression. Awareness was manipulated by explicitly asking half of all participants in the smiling groups to smile (and giving the other half no instructions related to smiling). Findings revealed that all smiling participants, regardless of whether they were aware of smiling, had lower heart rates during stress recovery than the neutral group did, with a slight advantage for those with Duchenne smiles. Participants in the smiling groups who were not explicitly asked to smile reported less of a decrease in positive affect during a stressful task than did the neutral group. These findings show that there are both physiological and psychological benefits from maintaining positive facial expressions during stress.
在本研究中，我们调查了暗中操纵积极的面部表情是否会影响对压力的心血管和情感反应。对研究目的一无所知的参与者（N=170）在嘴里叼着筷子的情况下完成了两项不同的压力任务，这种方式会产生杜兴式微笑、标准微笑或中性表情。通过明确要求微笑组的一半参与者微笑（而另一半则没有与微笑相关的指令）来操纵意识。研究结果表明，所有微笑的参与者，无论他们是否意识到微笑，在压力恢复期间的心率都低于中性组，而杜兴式微笑者的优势略小。没有被明确要求微笑的微笑组参与者在进行压力任务时报告的积极情绪下降幅度小于中性组。这些发现表明，在压力期间保持积极的面部表情既有生理上的好处，也有心理上的好处。
