According to Duke University researchers, we are not only attracted to people who smile but we also tend to remember their names. In a 2008 fMRI study, Professor Takashi Tsukiura and Roberto Cabeza showed subjects pictures of smiling and unsmiling individuals, followed by their names. The results found that their subjects’ orbitofrontal cortices – the region of the brain associated with reward processing – were more active when the subjects were learning and recalling the names of smiling individuals. “We are sensitive to positive social signals. We want to remember people who were kind to us, in case we interact with them in the future.”

Isn’t it great to see science backing up the affects of positive and negative attitudes? Let’s smile more often 🙂