Verdict: False
The claim that frowning uses more muscles than smiling is a myth. There is no reliable scientific evidence that proves frowning uses more facial muscles than smiling, as the number of muscles involved varies by individual and specific facial expression.
- No source agrees on the numbers. Figures swing from four to over a hundred.
- A minimal smile uses around ten muscles. A minimal frown uses about six muscles.
- An eye-crinkling smile can use more muscles than a frown.
- The face holds 43 muscles, most wired to the seventh cranial nerve.
- Even if smiling took more effort, doing it lifts your mood and cheers up people nearby.
Where the Myth Comes From
Smiling doesn’t save you any effort at all. Line up the muscles, and a proper grin needs as many as a scowl, maybe a few more. That cosy “smile, it conserves energy” motto, then? Sweet. Also wrong.
We’ve all copped this one. Usually in a forwarded email or from a nan. ‘Smile more,’ they chirp, ‘because frowning is such a bloody graft’. It’s a lovely thought, but the fact is wrong.
Also Read: The Real Benefits Of White Tea And Why People Are Switching To It
What the Actual Count Shows
First red flag: nobody agrees on a figure. HowStuffWorks states that some experts believe that it takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, while Aunt Milda’s chain letter says 26 to smile and 62 to frown.
It gets dafter. Snopes scanned decades of newspapers and found a fresh number every time. The Washington Post ran with 13 to smile and 33 to frown back in 1982.
The Hindu claimed four to smile against a walloping 64 to frown. One Denver Post gag even reckoned it took 317 muscles to look amused at a guy doing a Celine Dion impression. When a “fact” shape-shifts like that, it isn’t a fact. It’s folklore.
What Happens When You Actually Count
A basic smile you flash at your old boss in the cereal aisle lifts the corners and top lip using five muscle pairs. That’s ten muscles. A matching frown, with the corners dropping and a little bottom-lip pout, needs just three pairs. Six muscles. So the smile costs more, not less.
Cecil Adams called in a plastic surgeon for his column The Straight Dope clocked 12 muscles for a genuine grin against 11 for a frown. Smiling loses again. Shrink both to a stiff, robotic twitch at the corners of the mouth, and you get a dead heat: two pairs each, four muscles apiece.
The Odd One Out
Faces differ, mind. Your beam is my smirk. Live Science gets it right: a real smile uses eye muscles that barely one in a hundred people can flex on purpose. That sort of smile leaves a frown for dust, effort-wise.
Under the skin sit 43 facial muscles, most wired to the seventh cranial nerve. It slips out of your skull just by the ears and fans into five branches – temporal, zygomatic, buccal, mandibular, and cervical – pulling your face into all sorts of shapes.
Not everyone’s kitted out the same, mind. Some people carry up to 40% fewer facial muscles, so their sums go out the window. The zygomaticus major is the key muscle that pulls your mouth into a grin.
Even a perfect count wouldn’t show which face is “easier”. Flexing one big muscle can tire you more than nudging several tiny ones, like shoving one stalled car versus wheeling five tricycles. Effort is what counts, not the tally.
Also Read: Nutritional Value of Semi Skimmed Milk: Why It’s a Popular UK Choice
One Lot Still Backs the Myth
Not everyone’s buying the debunking. Michigan State University still runs the classic line, pinning the frown at roughly 47 muscles and the smile at 13. But the anatomy leans the other way, so treat that figure with caution.
What a Smile Really Does
Writing in Yale Scientific, Marianne LaFrance reckons a smile’s main job is to build, mend and hold your friendships together.
A 2002 Swedish study found people mirror whatever expression they clap eyes on. Grin at someone and they grin back before they can stop themselves. Frowns get copied too, though only about half the time. This is because of mirror neurones – brain cells that fire whether you smile or just watch someone else do so.
Faking it works. Force a smile and your nervous system nudges your mood up anyway. Pull a fake frown and the world starts looking a bit grim. It won’t fix real grief, but for a mild dose of the blues, it genuinely lifts you.
Six Types of Smiles
UC Berkeley sorted grins into six types: the true Duchenne (named after French scientist Duchenne de Boulogne), the flirty coy one, the amused head-thrown-back cackle, the soft-eyed love smile, the interested eyebrow-raiser, and the sheepish, embarrassed job with the eyes cast down. Each uses a slightly different muscle mix. Fancy a laugh? Practise them in front of a mirror.
Apes share loads of our facial muscles, and chimps even coordinate a group hunt using nonverbal cues alone. It’s little wonder a grin reads as “friend” across nearly every culture, while a frown flags sadness or disapproval.
Also Read: Can Lemon Water Cure Fatty Liver? Here’s the Truth No One Tells You
Final Verdict
The “more muscles to frown” claim is false as it’s usually told. Honest counts put smiling on a par with a frown, or a touch ahead, and no solid number has ever stuck. So ditch the energy-saving excuse. Smiling costs almost nothing; it spreads to everyone nearby, and it also lifts your mood. Go on, crack a grin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it take more muscles to smile or frown?
Ans: Not really. A basic smile uses about ten muscles and a basic frown around six. So smiling can use more, not less.
Is the “smile saves energy” thing true?
Ans: Nope. It’s a myth. Counted properly, a smile uses as many muscles as a frown, sometimes more.
How many muscles are in the human face?
Ans: Forty-three. Most are run by the seventh cranial nerve, which pops out near the ears and splits into five branches.
Which muscles do the smiling?
Ans: The zygomaticus major. It’s the one that tugs the corners of your mouth upward when you grin.
What’s a Duchenne smile?
Ans: A proper, heartfelt smile that crinkles the eyes too. Only about one in a hundred people can fake it convincingly.
Can forcing a smile actually cheer you up?
Ans: Yes, a touch. A fake grin nudges your brain to release feel-good signals, easing a mild low mood.
Sources & References:
- How Stuff Works – Some experts believe that it takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, and some say 26 to smile and 62 to frown.
- Live Science – A real smile uses eye muscles that barely one in a hundred people can flex on purpose.
- Michigan State University – The classic line number for a frown is 47 muscles, and for a smile, it is 13.
