Reminding yourself to smile often can not only make more friendships, it can make you feel better. • And rather than wait for a reason to smile, just making the physical change of literally turning that frown upside down could affect one’s emotions, according to experts. • Research backs up the fact that smiling goes a long way.

Some older studies have focused on this “facial feedback hypothesis,” according to Jeanne Tsai, a longtime psychology professor at Stanford University who runs the Culture and Emotion Lab.

In one classic study in the late 1980s, researchers would have subjects put a pencil between their lips and adopt a smile or a frown while viewing a positive movie clip like a cartoon. Some subjects who smiled would feel the sensation of the smile more and be more amused.

“When we’ve done that demonstration in classes, it works,” Tsai says.…