微笑是如何控制我们所有人的

One wonders whether it is only a coincidence that those of us who socialize the most tend to get less depressed. We have seen how socializing is a great activator of smiling -- perhaps smiling is doing more than we think. Do children suffer less often from depression because they spend more time playing and smiling? It is so easy to forget that your face is always speaking to you: 24/7, your brain is keeping track of how many smiles you created with your face. Your smile scorecard is not something you are consciously aware of, but your unconscious has intimate knowledge of it.
人们不禁要问，我们这些与人交往总是不怎么碰壁是否仅仅是一个巧合。我们已经看到了如何应酬是微笑一个极好的催化剂——也许微笑比我们想象的做得更多。孩子是否因为他们花更多的时间玩耍和微笑,患有阴郁症的几率更小？你的脸总是对你说：每天24小时，你的大脑保持追踪你在你的脸上创造了多少笑容，这是很容易忘记的。你的微笑记分卡不是你是自觉意识到的东西，但你的潜意识非常熟悉它。

I believe that smiling more benefits you directly -- even without its social benefits. You go to the gym to strengthen your muscles. Why not go to the smiling gym to strengthen your positive emotions?
我相信，微笑对你有更直接的益处—— 即使没有它的社会效益。你去健身房增强你的肌肉，为什么不去微笑健身房，以激励你的积极情绪？

One study found that women who had smiled the most in their college yearbook photos had happier lives, happier marriages, and fewer personal setbacks in the following 30 years. Another study finds a correlation between how big a smile you made for a baseball card photo and how long you will live. Those baseball players who had the broadest smiles lived, on average, seven years longer than those who smiled the least.
一项研究发现，在他们的大学纪念册照片里笑的最多的女人有更幸福的生活，幸福的婚姻，并在随后的30年里有更少的个人挫折。另一项研究发现在你为一张棒球卡照片笑的有多大和你会活多久之间的一种相关性。这些有着最为灿烂的笑容的棒球球员平均比笑的最少的棒球球员多活七年。

How could smiling lead to happier marriages and longer lives? The key is probably the reduction of stress that your body and mind feel. Smiling helps generate positive happy emotions within you, and this leads to a decrease in the stress-induced hormones that negatively affect your physical and mental health. Now, of course, there is only a correlation between smiling and a happy life -- it certainly doesn't prove that smiling will make your marriage better or lengthen your life. Perhaps those who smiled most were just innately happier people or smiled more because life was already treating them well in college, predicting more good things to come. Studies such as these can't show what causes what. Waves are correlated with beaches, but do beaches cause waves or waves bring beaches?
微笑是怎样使婚姻更幸福，使生命更长的？关键可能是你的身体和头脑感受压力的减少。微笑让你内在产生积极愉快的情绪，这导致了负面影响你的身体和心理健康的应力感生激素的减少。现在，当然，微笑和幸福的生活之间只有一种关联——这当然不能证明微笑会让你的婚姻更好或者延长你的寿命。也许那些笑的最多的人只是天生更快乐的人，或者笑的多是因为在大学里的生活已经对他们很好，预示着更美好的事情到来。研究像这些的东西不能表明是什么引起了什么。波浪与海滩相关，但是是海滩引起了波浪吗？或者是波浪带来的海滩？

But if one assumes that those who smile more will be happier, what happens to those who smile less? Shouldn't those who developed difficulty smiling as adults suffer more from depression, all other things being equal? Nature has done the experiment if one knows where to look. To probe for cause and effect, doctors studied what happened to patients who, because of facial nerve damage, were unable to move their faces normally. The facial nerve is commonly damaged in adult life by a condition known as Bell's palsy. There are three major parts of the facial nerve, so it is possible to lose the ability to frown but be able to smile, or vice versa. These researchers asked their patients to raise their eyebrows, squint, smile, and pucker their mouths to assess the extent of their facial disability. Their hypothesis was that the inability to smile would increase one's risk of depression.
但是，如果假设那些多笑的人会更快乐，那些笑的人少会发生什么？不应该那些难以微笑的成年人人更容易患有抑郁症，所有其他的事情都是一样的吗？自然已经做过实验，如果有人知道去哪里看。为了探讨原因和影响，医生研究了面部神经受损，无法正常移动他们的脸的患者发生了什么。面部神经在成年生活中一般是被称为贝尔氏麻痹的疾病损伤的。面部神经有三个主要部分，所以失去皱眉头的能力，却能够微笑是可能的，反之亦然。这些研究人员要求他们的病人，以扬起他们的眉毛，眯着眼睛，微笑，抿嘴以评估他们的面部残疾程度。他们的假设是，无法微笑会增加一个人患抑郁症风险。

The results showed that a general impairment in moving one's face was not associated with depression. However, patients who specifically lacked the ability to smile were much more likely to become depressed, and their depression was more severe. There are several possible explanations. First, smiling occurs in social situations and helps facilitate positive emotions and relationships with others. Those individuals who find themselves unable to smile may experience more social isolation, leading to more depressive symptoms from loneliness. This could be a strong negative feedback loop. Second, smiling, by activation of the smile muscle, would initiate a feedback loop to the brain, activating our happy part of the brain, contributing to a more positive mood and more smiling. Those with impaired smiling would have the positive feedback interrupted and more consistent weight on the side of depression. I believe the second explanation is more important, but there is no evidence to help us decide.
结果表明，移动一个人的脸的一般损伤与抑郁症无关。然而，明确地缺乏微笑的能力的患者更可能变得沮丧，他们的抑郁症更严重。有几种可能的解释。首先，面带微笑出现在社交场合，有助于促进正面的情绪和与他人的人际关系。这些发现自己无法微笑的人可能会遇到更多的社交隔离，从孤独导致更多的抑郁症状。这可能是一个强烈的消极反馈循环。第二，微笑，通过激活微笑的肌肉，会启动一个反馈环路到大脑，激活我们大脑快乐的一部分，促成一种更加积极的心情和更多的微笑。那些有身体缺陷微笑的人将中断积极的反馈，对抑郁症的一面是更一致的加重。我认为第二种解释更重要，但没有证据来帮助我们决定。