Childhood Smiles—or Frowns—and the Risk of Divorce

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hotel tuerkei of 2:09AM January 30, 2010

I'm with you, Muser. These are small studies, and the most interesting one, on childhood smiles, was too small to be statistically significant.
And yes to Tony Lee! Just look at the headlines on news stories about these studies. Many of them were waaay off base.
But when I talked with Matt Hertenstein, the researcher, he was up-front about the shortcomings of his work.
There are huge cultural differences in people's social affect, and when writing this article I thought about my many friends in Russia, where the norm is to NOT smile in school photos. Are they more likely to divorce than "Have a nice day!" Americans? Hardly.
The solid science comes in years of research in many countries, showing that people who are more optimistic and positive tend to be more successful and more healthy. Those people also tend to spread happiness, and are more fun to be with, too.

Nancy Shute of DC 9:19AM April 20, 2009

I have the impression that my family ,friends and I always smile happily taking photoes.So I can not tell the difference who are more positive or more negative. So how can I predict what will be like about their future.

Stu in China 5:27AM April 19, 2009

it's pretty hard to make the jump from coincidence to any kind of causation whatsoever. That said, it IS more fun to be with people who smile a lot.

Muser of NM 4:00PM April 17, 2009

Somebody got funded to conduct a non-scientific study whose conclusions can be no more valuable than conjecture on any subject such as Planet X and the implosion of WTC towers. The reality is people are born genetic predispositions and unique personalities. How people respond to their life's circustances, situations and other people greatly determine their level of happiness (again subjective) and consequently their perceived marital satisfaction. Controlled sociological surveys and studies tend to agree that the divorse rate is more likely to be linked to economic stress and fidelity issues than to the size of the smile on their childhood faces... which would naturally vary depending on individual physiological differences (for example, some people can jam a baseball bat in their mouths - but that would break all my teeth and dislocate my jaw, no doubt). What's next... will they claim they can predict who will be a mass murderer or the next Barney Madoff based on infant pictures on their sleep positions (curled up is insecure thus law abiding, on back is open and outgoing and on stomach with something to hide thus potentially criminal?). We are taking RIDICULOUSNESS to new heights.

Tony Lee of CA 3:01PM April 17, 2009