How to Smile Better: 8 Science-Backed Techniques

Learn 8 research-backed techniques to improve your smile, from the Duchenne Upgrade to the tongue trick. Plus the science of when to smile and when to hold...

Children smile up to 400 times a day. The average adult? About twenty.¹ Somewhere between kindergarten and your first LinkedIn headshot, most of us forgot how to do the one thing that came naturally before we could walk.

Here’s the moment that probably brought you here: you’re standing in a group photo, someone says “say cheese,” and you feel your face freeze into something that looks more hostage video than holiday card. You see the photo later and think, Who is that tense person, and why do they look like they’re in pain?

The good news is that smiling well isn’t a genetic gift reserved for Dwayne Johnson and golden retrievers. It’s a motor skill — one you can train just like any other. A massive 2022 study across nineteen countries confirmed that deliberately posing a smile changes your brain chemistry. And specific techniques — from the “squinch” to the tongue trick — can help your facial muscles produce genuinely warm expressions on demand.

Below are eight research-backed techniques to upgrade your smile, plus the science of when (and when not) to use it.

1. Smile with Your Eyes First (The Duchenne Upgrade)

The single biggest difference between a smile that connects and one that falls flat? Your eyes.

Researcher Paul Ekman identified the Duchenne smile — named after 19th-century anatomist Guillaume Duchenne — as the gold standard of genuine expression. It requires two muscle groups working together²

• The zygomatic major (mouth muscles) pulls the corners of your lips upward. You can control these voluntarily — it’s the “say cheese” muscle.
• The orbicularis oculi (eye muscles) crinkles the skin around your eyes, creating those little “crow’s feet.” For most people, these only fire during genuine enjoyment.

As Ekman puts it: “In a smile, the absence of movement in the outer part of the muscle that orbits the eye distinguishes a fabricated smile from the genuine thing.”²

Supermodel Tyra Banks turned this science into a pop culture phenomenon when she coined the term “smize” (smile with your eyes) on America’s Next Top Model. She coached contestants to engage their lower eyelids while thinking of something emotionally meaningful — essentially teaching Duchenne activation without ever mentioning the science.

Headshot photographer Peter Hurley independently developed a nearly identical technique called the “squinch” — a subtle narrowing of the lower eyelids that projects confidence. His viral YouTube tutorial on the technique has racked up millions of views. The key difference between a squinch and a squint: a squinch focuses on the lower eyelid only, while a squint closes the entire eye. Overdo it and you look like you’ve lost your glasses.

How to practice the Duchenne Upgrade:

1. Stand in front of a mirror with a neutral face.
2. Think of a specific happy memory — not “happiness” in the abstract, but a particular moment (your dog greeting you at the door, a friend’s laugh at dinner).
3. Let the feeling reach your eyes first. You should see your lower eyelids lift slightly and your cheeks push upward before your mouth moves.
4. Now let your mouth follow naturally.
5. Notice the difference between this and a mouth-only smile. The eye engagement is what people read as warmth.

Action Step: Practice this for 60 seconds tomorrow morning. The goal isn’t to memorize a facial position — it’s to build a fast mental pathway between “think of something real” and “face responds authentically.”

The single biggest difference between a smile that connects and one that falls flat is your eyes.

One nuance worth knowing: a 2024 study in PNAS Nexus found that the eye crinkle can also be an artifact of intensity — meaning any smile that’s wide enough will naturally crinkle the eyes, regardless of genuine emotion. And roughly 25–30% of people can voluntarily produce a convincing eye crinkle on demand. So the science has moved beyond “eye crinkle = real” to something more sophisticated: context, timing, and intensity all matter. That’s why the “happy memory” hack works — it generates the real emotion, not just the muscle movement.

But what about the rest of your face? Your mouth shape matters more than you think.

2. Use the Tongue Trick for a Natural Smile

This one sounds strange, but photographers and dentists swear by it: lightly press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, just behind your upper front teeth.³

Why it works:

• It prevents your smile from going too wide or “gummy” by limiting how far your upper lip can rise.
• It keeps your jaw relaxed instead of clenched — and jaw tension is the number-one reason smiles look “off.”
• It creates a subtle parting of the lips that looks natural and confident rather than forced.

How to do it:

1. Close your mouth and find the ridge just behind your upper front teeth with the tip of your tongue.
2. Press gently — like you’re about to say the letter “N.”
3. Now smile while maintaining that tongue position.
4. Notice how your smile feels more controlled and relaxed compared to a wide-open grin.

Action Step: Try this in your next selfie or video call. The difference is subtle but immediate — your smile will look more relaxed and less like you’re bracing for a dentist visit.

The tongue trick fixes the shape of your smile. But what about the sound that triggers it?

3. Ditch “Cheese” — Say “Mocha” Instead

The word “cheese” is a smile saboteur. That long “ee” sound stretches your mouth into an unnatural, flat shape that emphasizes your bottom teeth and tightens your jaw — a hallmark of fake smiles.

You know the scene: a photographer says “say cheese,” twelve people bare their teeth like they’re at the dentist, and the resulting photo looks like everyone got arrested together.

Instead, try words ending in “uh” or “ah” sounds — like “mocha,” “yoga,” or “money.” These sounds drop the jaw slightly and lift the cheeks into a more natural position. The “ah” ending relaxes the lower face while the preceding consonant engages the upper cheeks.

The phonetics breakdown:

• “Cheese” → flat mouth, exposed bottom teeth, tense jaw
• “Mocha” → dropped jaw, lifted cheeks, relaxed expression

Pro Tip: If you’re the one taking the group photo, say “On three, everyone say yoga” instead of “say cheese.” You’ll get noticeably better expressions from everyone — and probably a few laughs, which leads to the next technique.

4. Practice the Incremental Smile Exercise

Most people have exactly one smile: the one that fires when someone points a camera at them. But your face has a whole range of smile positions, and the most flattering one probably isn’t your default.

This 2-minute mirror exercise helps you find it⁴

1. Lips together, corners slightly stretched — hold for 10 seconds. This is your “pleasant neutral.”
2. Part your lips slightly to show just the tips of your upper teeth — hold for 10 seconds.
3. Open wider to show about half your teeth — hold for 10 seconds.
4. Full smile with eyes engaged (use the Duchenne Upgrade from Technique #1) — hold for 10 seconds.
5. Slowly reverse back to neutral, pausing at each stage.

Pay attention to which position feels most natural and looks best. For most people, it’s somewhere around stage 2 or 3 — not the biggest possible grin, but a warm, open expression that doesn’t look like it’s trying too hard.

Action Step: Do this exercise once a day for a week. By day 4 or 5, you’ll have built enough muscle memory that your “good smile” becomes your default smile.

Once you’ve found your best resting smile, you need a way to reset when it starts feeling stale — especially during long photo sessions or networking events.

5. The “Fake Laugh” Reset (A Photographer’s Secret)

Professional portrait photographer Peter Hurley uses this technique in every studio session: he asks subjects to give a big, exaggerated, over-the-top fake laugh.⁵

The laugh itself isn’t the point. The magic happens in the half-second immediately after — when your face naturally relaxes and you genuinely giggle at how silly you just looked. That “after-laugh” moment produces one of the most authentic expressions possible, because your brain briefly drops its self-monitoring.

How to use it:

1. Give the most ridiculous fake laugh you can muster. Ham it up — “HA HA HA” with your whole body.
2. The instant you stop, notice the natural smile that follows. That’s the expression you want.
3. If you’re in a photo session, have the photographer shoot during the recovery moment, not during the fake laugh itself.

Variation — The Grumpy Face Trick: If your smile is getting stale during a long event, deliberately make an exaggeratedly grumpy or serious face for a few seconds. Releasing that tension causes you to revert to a more natural, relaxed smile. It works on the same principle: contrast resets your facial muscles.

6. Relax Your Jaw Before You Smile

Tension is the invisible saboteur of every smile. When you’re nervous — meeting someone new, posing for a photo, walking into a room full of strangers — your jaw clenches, your shoulders creep up, and your face tightens. Then someone says “smile!” and you layer a grin on top of all that tension. The result looks strained because it is strained.

Researchers at the University of Kansas found that people who smiled during stressful tasks had lower heart rates during recovery — but the effect was strongest when the smile was relaxed, not forced. Your body can’t send “calm” signals to your brain if your jaw is clenched tight enough to crack a walnut.

The 4-Step Pre-Smile Reset:

1. Breathe: Take one deep breath in through your nose, exhale fully through your mouth.
2. Drop: Let your shoulders fall away from your ears.
3. Unclench: Consciously release your jaw. Let your lips part slightly.
4. Then smile: Now let the expression happen.

The whole sequence takes about 5 seconds. Use it before photos, before walking into a meeting, or anytime you notice your face feels frozen.

Action Step: Set a phone reminder for your next meeting or social event that just says “jaw.” That one-word cue is enough to trigger the reset.

7. Imagine the Person Is an Old Friend

This is the technique that ties all the physical mechanics together with genuine emotion.

Professional photographers use it constantly: imagine the camera lens — or the person you’re looking at — is a beloved friend you haven’t seen in years. Someone whose face makes you light up without thinking about it.

Why it works: this visualization bypasses your voluntary motor system (which produces stiff, controlled expressions) and activates your brain’s emotional center (which produces the natural warmth that Ekman identified as the Duchenne marker). You don’t have to think about which muscles to engage. Your face does it automatically because the emotion is real — even if the scenario is imagined.

How to apply it:

• In photos: Before the shutter clicks, picture your best friend’s face where the lens is. Let yourself feel the warmth of seeing them.
• Meeting someone new: Instead of mentally rehearsing your handshake and opening line, briefly imagine this person is already someone you like. Your face will soften and your body language will open up.
• On video calls: Imagine the person on screen just told you something that made you genuinely happy for them.

Imagine the camera lens is a beloved friend you haven’t seen in years. Your face will do the rest.

Pro Tip: Combine this with the jaw reset from Technique #6. Relax your body first, then summon the warm thought. The physical relaxation gives the emotional expression room to land naturally.

You now have seven techniques for producing a better smile. But knowing when to deploy it — and when to dial it back — might matter even more.

8. Match Your Smile to the Moment (The Context Calibration)

Not every situation calls for the same smile. And in some situations, smiling too much can work against you.

Research from NYU, the University of Chicago, and Wharton found that people who display constant high-intensity happiness are often judged as more naive and gullible. In negotiations, this can lead counterparts to use more aggressive tactics against you.

USC researcher Peter Carnevale discovered something more specific: smiling after “winning” a negotiation — the “winner’s smile” — can damage long-term relationships because it signals to the other party that they got a bad deal. Contrast this with someone like Warren Buffett, whose warm but measured smile is part of what makes business owners actively seek him out as a buyer — even when competitors offer more money.

Research from Northeastern University warns that excessive smiling during interviews for serious roles — management, law, data analysis — can sometimes be perceived as a lack of seriousness. Smiling works best in social and relationship-oriented contexts.

Your Smile Calibration Guide:

Paul Ekman’s Most Useful Smile Types:

Ekman identified over eighteen distinct smiles, each sending a different message. Here are the ones worth knowing:

• The Duchenne Smile: Eyes crinkle, cheeks lift, mouth corners rise. The gold standard of connection.
• The Dampened Smile: A genuine smile you’re suppressing — pressing your lips together while your eyes still show happiness. Useful when you’re pleased but want to appear modest.
• The Listener Smile: A small, steady smile used during conversation to show you’re engaged and encouraging the speaker to continue.
• The Qualifier Smile: Used when delivering bad news — it signals empathy and softens the message.
• The False Smile: Often asymmetrical, with “off” timing — it starts too late or vanishes too abruptly. Genuine smiles build up and fade away smoothly; false smiles appear and disappear like a light switch.

Action Step: Before your next important interaction, decide which smile type fits the context. A board meeting calls for the listener smile. A first date calls for the Duchenne. A salary negotiation calls for warmth during small talk and neutral composure during numbers.

Why Your Smile Is More Powerful Than You Think

Now that you have the techniques, here’s the science that makes practicing them worth it. Your smile doesn’t just change how you look — it changes your brain, your body, your relationships, and how others perceive you.

It Actually Makes You Happier

For decades, scientists debated whether smiling could genuinely change your mood. In 2022, the question was settled. The Many Smiles Collaboration — nearly 100 researchers across nineteen countries with thousands of participants — confirmed that posing a smile can make you feel happier.⁶ The most effective methods were mimicking a smiling photograph or deliberately moving facial muscles into a smile position.

Lead researcher Nicholas Coles of Stanford noted the effect is real but modest — it won’t transform a terrible day, but it does nudge your emotional state in a positive direction. Your brain receives feedback from your facial muscles and uses that information to help construct your emotional experience.

It Reduces Stress

The University of Kansas study mentioned earlier found that people who smiled during stressful tasks had lower heart rates during recovery — and even forced smiles provided some benefit, though genuine smiles were most effective.⁷ Smiling triggers the release of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins while helping to lower cortisol, the stress hormone.

It May Help You Live Longer

In one of the most striking smile studies ever conducted, researchers at Wayne State University analyzed baseball card photos from the 1950s. Players with big, genuine smiles lived an average of about 80 years, while non-smilers lived an average of about 73 years — a seven-year difference.⁸ A separate long-term study tracked women from their college yearbook photos and found that those with genuine smiles were more likely to have stable relationships and higher well-being decades later.

Players with big, genuine smiles lived an average of seven years longer than non-smilers.

It Changes How Others See You

People with genuine smiles are consistently rated as more trustworthy, warm, and competent — qualities that also drive strong first impressions. A 2024 study in PNAS Nexus found that smiles “leak” personality traits: even when observers know a smile might be posed, they still rate Duchenne smilers more positively.⁹

But there’s a sweet spot. Research published in Cognition & Emotion found that extreme or overly intense smiles can decrease perceived trustworthiness — they start to look forced or deceptive. More isn’t always better.

A Penn State University study found that when you smile, you don’t just appear more likable — you appear more competent. An Oxford University study found that happy workers were 13% more productive — smiling is both a signal and a driver of that happiness.

It’s Contagious

When you smile at someone, their mirror neurons fire automatically, creating an impulse to smile back. In a Swedish study, participants shown smiling faces and asked to frown found that their facial muscles automatically twitched into a smile first — it took deliberate effort to override the impulse.

Research from the Framingham Heart Study suggests happiness can spread up to three degrees of separation — meaning your smile can influence not just your friends, but your friends’ friends’ friends.

As Ron Gutman put it in his TED Talk: “Whenever you want to tap into a superpower that will help you and everyone around you live a longer, healthier, happier life — smile.”¹

All of this assumes your smile is well-calibrated. But what happens when it’s not?

The Smile Sweet Spot: What to Avoid

Forcing a smile when you don’t feel it — what researchers call “surface acting” — is psychologically draining. This behavior links to higher rates of burnout and exhaustion because the effort to maintain the mask depletes mental resources.¹⁰ If you work in a role that demands constant cheerfulness, the techniques in this article matter even more — they help you generate genuine positive emotion rather than just performing it.

There’s also a gender dimension. Yale researcher Marianne LaFrance found that women smile significantly more than men — but not because women are happier. Women are often socialized to be “emotional managers,” using smiles to maintain harmony. When men and women occupy the same professional roles, the gender gap in smiling largely disappears.

The takeaway: smile because it serves you and the moment — not because you feel socially obligated to.

Your Smile Across Cultures: A Quick Guide

Your smile doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. If you travel or work internationally, this matters.

Researcher Kuba Krys studied smiling across 44 cultures and found that in countries with high societal uncertainty, smiling at strangers can be interpreted as a sign of low intelligence or dishonesty.¹¹

Even emoticons reflect these differences: Western emoticons focus on the mouth :) while East Asian emoticons focus on the eyes ^_^ — mirroring where each culture looks to judge sincerity.

Western emoticons focus on the mouth :) while East Asian emoticons focus on the eyes ^_^ — mirroring where each culture looks to judge sincerity.

Action Step: Before traveling internationally or joining a video call with colleagues from a different culture, check this table. A big American smile in Moscow or Tokyo can create the opposite impression you intended.

How to Smile Better Takeaway

Smiling well isn’t about genetics or dental work. It’s a skill built from specific techniques, practiced consistently, and deployed with awareness. Here are your action items:

1. Start with your eyes. Use the Duchenne Upgrade — think of a specific happy memory and let the feeling reach your eyes before your mouth moves.
2. Use the tongue trick to keep your smile natural and prevent the “gummy grin.”
3. Replace “cheese” with “mocha” in photos for an instantly more relaxed expression.
4. Practice the incremental smile exercise in a mirror for one week to find your most flattering smile position.
5. Deploy the fake laugh reset when your smile feels stiff — the genuine expression that follows is gold.
6. Relax your jaw first using the 4-step pre-smile reset before any high-stakes moment.
7. Match your smile to the context — full warmth for social settings, measured composure for negotiations and serious professional roles.

Your smile is one of the most powerful nonverbal tools you own — a cornerstone of charisma and social skills. The difference between one that falls flat and one that genuinely connects often comes down to a few millimeters of muscle movement around your eyes — and the real emotion behind it.