A&M study: Smiling can make you feel a little happier

A new study out of Texas A&M University suggest you really can improve your mood with a simple smile.

"It's not a cure for depression," said Texas A&M Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences professor Heather Lench, one of the authors on the study. "But we found that, for the average person, smiling can make you feel a little better day to day."

Lench says that she and her fellow researchers, from the University of Tennessee, looked at a mass of data from 138 studies testing over 11,000 participants from all around the world, finding that posing facial expressions has a small impact on people's feelings.

“These findings address a critical question about the links between our internal experience and our bodies – whether changing our facial expression can alter the emotions we feel and our emotional response to the world,” Lench said to Texas A&M Today.

Lench and her team did not conclude why this is the case, simply that there is a connection--and it might be worth trying a smile when you're feeling down.