Why is a smile so contagious?

The most remarkable thing about a smile is its infectiousness. When you smile at someone, a person will surely smile back at you, even if both interlocutors will only imitate the sincerity of feelings.
Professor Ulf Dimberg from the University of the Swedish city of Uppsala conducted an experiment that showed that the subconscious controls the facial muscles of a person. Using instruments that capture electrical signals from muscle fibers, he measured the activity of facial muscles in 120 volunteers who were shown pictures of happy and angry faces. Participants in the experiment were asked to frown, smile, or maintain an indifferent facial expression depending on what they saw before them. Sometimes they were offered to try to express a feeling opposite to that which they saw in the picture - to frown in response to a smile or smile at the sight of a gloomy face. As a result, it turned out that the participants in the experiment did not fully possess the facial muscles. Although it was not difficult to frown at the sight of a snapshot of an angry man, it was much more difficult to smile in the same situation. The participants in the experiment did their best to control the natural reactions, but the electrical activity of their facial muscles spoke of something else. The muscles unconsciously copied what they saw in the picture, despite the fact that people tried to behave differently.
Professor Ruth Campbell from University College London believes that there is a so-called “mirror neuron” in the brain that activates the part of the brain that is responsible for recognizing faces and expressions and causing a mirror reaction. In other words, consciously or unconsciously, but the person automatically copies the face expression that he sees in front of him.
That is why a constant smile should be an important part of your body language. Smile even when you do not want it. A smile directly affects other people and affects their attitude towards you.

Science proves that the more you smile, the more positively those around you react to you.

Over thirty years of studying the negotiation process and sales techniques, we found that a smile at an appropriate time, for example, at the beginning of negotiations, when participants meet and evaluate each other, causes a positive reaction from both sides, and therefore allows us to count on the success of negotiations and higher rates sales.