hi there good morning everyone as Clark
so kindly just introduce me my name is
Eva McGrady and today I’m here to talk
to you about how I convince people that
I’m funny even though I’m actually not
and to demonstrate I’m going to tell you
one of my favorite jokes so why were the
police suspicious of the blinds because
they were shady so as you can tell by
some of the shaking heads that I’m
seeing like the joke wasn’t funny let’s
be honest with ourselves so why are most
of you still smiling and a couple of you
gave me a nice laugh well my guess is
that it was one of two reasons either
you a pity me which is completely valid
I’m alone on stage telling you bad jokes
I would pity me too if I were you or be
you smiled because I’m smiling and well
pity does have a power all on its own it
doesn’t do much to make me seem funny so
we’re going to focus today on the power
of smiling continuing is the theme of
twos there are two possible reasons that
my smile might have made you smile the
first is that you find me attractive
according to a study conducted by a
group of Swedish researchers in 2011
both men and women found people smiling
more attractive than those who weren’t
and an additional study conducted in the
same year found that attractive people
are more often associated with positive
characteristics of confidence and
intelligence however just thinking these
things about me doesn’t make you smile
what makes you smile is that when an
attractive person smiles at you
it activates the orbital frontal cortex
which is wrong responsible for
processing sensory rewards this means
that when an attractive person smiles at
you you actually feel rewarded which is
what is causing you to smile back so if
this first case applies to you thank you
and you’re welcome but like I said there
are two possible reasons that my smile
made you smile so before I get too big
of a head we should start looking into
the second one and we’re going to do a
quick test to determine exactly what
that is I’m going to show you a series
of
images all you need to do when you see
the picture on the screen is make an
angry face so this first one we’re just
going to test it out relax your face and
the first picture in three two one
lovely you all look lovely a little
ridiculous but that’s because angry
faces especially when forced tend to
look a bit ridiculous but we’re going to
try again to relax and three two one
again you’re doing great we’re going to
have one more relax your face and three
two one mmm
see you can tell by the laughter and
looking at many of your faces that this
last one was a bit more difficult for
you and my guess is that it was for the
same reason that the first smile came
naturally you just couldn’t help it
you’ve probably heard that smiling is
contagious and that’s exactly what a
group of researchers found using a test
very similar to this one another group
of researchers expanded on their
findings more recently in 2016 and they
found that the part of the brain
responsible for processing facial
recognition is the cingulate cortex
which is an unconscious and automatic
response area of the brain so it uses a
process called sensory motor simulation
to help you better understand what
people are feeling when they’re having
different facial expressions here’s how
it works
you see an expressive face such as a
smile and your brain automatically
mimics that expression causing you to
smile back at them it then uses your own
experiences and context to determine
what emotion that person is probably
feeling you realize that that person’s
feeling happy because that’s how you
feel when you smile so what I’m really
saying is that by smiling after I told
you a bad joke I made you assume that my
joke must have been at least a little
funny because that’s why I was smiling
but the purpose of this isn’t for you to
just see a little funny I want you to
think that I’m actually funny and lucky
for me there’s more to smiling than just
what I’ve said so far when you smile
you’re activating your zygomatic major
that’s the muscle in your cheek that
pulls your lips upwards to form the
smile and the activation of this
salt triggers the release of endorphins
dopamine and serotonin if you’ve seen
the movie Legally Blonde you’ll know
what endorphins do endorphins make
people happy if you haven’t seen Legally
Blonde don’t worry I can tell you a
little more endorphins are a natural
pain reliever they help to both
alleviate physical pain and relieve your
stress levels dopamine is a motivator
that gives you a reinforcing sense of
pleasure when you do something well to
help you to accomplish your goals and
serotonin is a mood balancer that gives
you feelings of significance and
importance when released increased
amounts like when you smile all together
when you smile these things make you
feel better and feel happier which then
causes you to smile more creating a
feedback loop of positive emotions in
your body plus this feedback loop of
positivity has the added benefit of
helping to lower your blood pressure and
heart rates and increasing your overall
longevity when you start smiling enough
so you’re getting all these positive
benefits every time you smile but again
how does that affect me I want to be
funny remember well scientists have
found that when you feel happier you
have more positive responses over all to
things like different situations events
and of course humor so as long as I have
you smiling I don’t have to be quite as
funny to make you smile or laugh plus
there’s the added benefit of when you
when you smile you’re more approachable
and make friends easier and according to
the book how to win friends and
influence people it makes you more
hireable in job settings and so while
that is less relevant to the humor side
of things I am looking for a job so hit
me up if you’re interested but the this
gets even more complicated and even
cooler because whether or not your smile
is real you still get these positive
benefits and we’re going to do another
quick test to figure this out so if you
have a pen or pencil if you get it out
with me take your pencil and put it
between your lips without it touching
your teeth like so this muscle if this
is causing you to contract your facial
muscles to simulate a brown
now hold your pencils between your teeth
without it touching your lips like this
that activates that zygomatic major
muscles that I mentioned before causing
you to simulate a smile back in 1988 a
group of researchers did this test and
they found they showed participants a
series of humorous cartoons and had them
hold the pen or pencil one of the two
ways they found that the participants
that were frowning had less positive
responses compared to those that were
smiling indicating that whether or not
your smile is real as long as you’re
activating the right muscle you’re
getting the positive benefits of the
smile so in the end what I’m saying is
smiling has many positive benefits just
activating your zygomatic major makes
you appear more attractive confidence
and intelligent improve your mood
overall helps to relieve stress boosts
your immune system lowers your blood
pressure and your heart rates makes you
live longer and most importantly can
make you seem funnier than you actually
are and you have the power to share all
of these benefits with the people around
you because your smile is contagious
so I urge all of you to activate that
zygomatic major and to share it with the
people that you encounter today because
in today’s world we could all use a
little more positivity thank [Applause]