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1-Page Summary of The As If Principle

Overview

Smiling can make you happy. It’s not the other way around, where being happy makes you smile. Smiling can actually cause happiness.

Scientists have discovered that acting in certain ways can actually make you feel different. For example, if you act like a child again, your body will begin to feel young and energetic. If Chinese children pretend they’re about to go under the knife for tonsil surgery, they won’t be afraid of it at all. By pretending to be in a romantic movie with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the two fell in love on set!

Big Idea #1: You don’t smile because you’re happy, you’re happy because you smile.

If you want to be happy, smile. Research has shown that people who smile first are more likely to be happy than those who don’t. This idea was developed by William James, a philosopher, and Charles Darwin, an evolutionary scientist. Both agreed that facial expressions can tell others how we feel about something or someone.

James wanted to test his theory that emotions are the result of facial expressions. He believed that you’re happy because you smile, not vice versa. Similarly, if you run away from a threat, then it makes sense that you’ll become afraid as well.

Studies have shown that forcing a smile can actually make you happier. In one experiment, participants were told they were being tested on their muscle activity when in fact the study was investigating electrical impulses.

Psychologists have found that people can control their emotional state by simply smiling. This is true even if they’re just faking a smile for an experiment. The psychologists also discovered that this sort of principle works across cultures, regardless of where people are from or what language they speak.

When people are scared, their heart rate increases and their skin temperature drops. However, when they smile, their heart rate decreases and their skin temperature rises.

If you act as if you’re experiencing an emotion, it affects how your body feels. For example, to feel happy, act as if you already are. This is the “as if” principle.

The as if principle can be applied to many aspects of our lives. For example, we can feel happier by taking bigger steps and swinging our arms while walking.

Big Idea #2: You can force the flames of passion by acting as if you’re in love.

So, can acting like you’re in love make you actually fall in love? Emotions are related to physical sensations. If we replicate those feelings, we can feel the way we want.

Many people once thought that a single physical action was caused by single emotion. Psychologists realized this wasn’t true when they applied the “as if” principle to bodily reactions.

When you’re yelled at, your heart races, and you think that it’s because of anger. However, if someone sees an attractive person and their heart races, they assume that it’s because of desire.

In one study, researchers had two groups of men look at a woman’s picture. One group did jumping jacks before looking at the picture; those men found the woman more attractive than the other group, because their heart rate increased and they associated that with desire.

Since people are more attracted to those who behave as if they’re in love, we can increase the chances of falling in love by tapping our feet or looking into each other’s eyes. This is supported by a study that found students who played footsie with their partners were more likely to find them attractive than those who didn’t touch each other.

Many actors have fallen in love with their co-stars. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are just a few of those couples.