Frowns v. Smiles

Which Hurts More?

I’m sure you’ve heard that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. I’ve heard “13 to smile and 33 to frown,” “10 muscles to smile and 100 to frown,” “four to smile and 64 to frown,” even “one muscle to smile and 37 muscles to frown.”

Whatever the correct figures, the fact is that nobody has ever done an accurate count. The purpose of the aphorisms is actually to say that smiling makes one feel better than frowning does.

Have you ever tried walking around all day with a smile on your face? It’s tiring and your cheeks will begin hurting. Smiling is unnatural. But if you let your face relax, it droops down into a natural mini-frown. And after a day of that, do you think your cheeks will hurt? Heck no.

Consequently, this is my conclusion: Smiling tires you out; natural frowns do not.

So there.