No.19 Cosmetic essay by Dr. Lee Jin soo-From Capilano’s law to 'Laughing brings good fortune.'

From Capilano’s law to 'Laughing brings good fortune.'

A person's body reaction is based on emotion. On the other hand, your brain can analyze your body's reactions and feel your emotions reversely.

There's been an experiment with this.

This experiment was conducted by Columbia University psychologist Donald Dutton and Dr. Arthur Aaron in 1974 on the bridge of the Capilano River, so it is called the 'Capilano Suspension Bridge test' There are two bridges on the Capilano River near Vancouver, Canada, one of which is a strong wooden bridge built safely on a low river, and the other one is 1.5 meters wide and 70 meters high, and the railing is not high on the cliff, causing tremendous fear to the person passing by.

Experiments divided men into two groups and let them pass through each bridge. At the end of the bridge, a young and attractive woman is waiting for the survey and they have been instructed to contact her later if they have any questions about the results.

Nine out of 32 men from the dangerous bridge group called back to the female surveyor, and only two of the men in the safe bridge group called back. The results of the experiment showed that the person who was scared felt much more favorable impression towards opposite gender.

Donald Dutton and Dr. Arthur Arron interpreted the results as an illusion of their panic excitement over women. In other words, they crossed the bridge, and did a survey with their heart beating in fear, and they mistakenly thought they liked the woman they were asking. This is called the wobbly bridge effect or Capilano’s law. According to this rule, an amusement park with thrill and fear will be a good dating course that will enhance your preference for reason.

Recently, I went to see a large exhibition of world-famous artists.

It was a very hot day, but the exhibition hall turned on the air conditioner so hard that it was quite chilly. It was cool at first, but the temperature was so low enough to feel a little cold that I got a little goose bumps when I was looking at the picture. I felt like, 'Am I touched by this painting?' Actually, it wasn't my cup of tea, so I was kind of embarrassed. It was probably the Capilano effect that I described above. I got mixed up with cold and emotion. When I came back home and reviewed it on the Internet, it was full of favorable comments. Perhaps the majority of the audience thought pieces were horrifyingly good.

The next experiment was done by a German psychologist named Fritz Strack who studied students.

He handed out ballpoint pens to students, then divided them into two groups, and asked Group 1 to bite the tip of the ballpoint pen with the lips, and Group 2 to bite with the teeth. And I asked students to read the same comic book and evaluated the level of fun of the comic book.

Students at Group 2 rated comic books more interesting than students at Group 1. The results of the evaluation of comic books differ depending on whether they just bite the ballpoint pen with lips or teeth. A person evaluates whether he or she is smiling through the movement of his cheek. A group that uses their lip found that comic books don't have much fun because they don't move the cheeks, and a group with their teeth felt it’s fun because the cheeks were kept up even in the boring part.

There's a saying “'Laughing brings good fortune.”

According to the two experiments described above, the smiling face makes the brain feel happy. Even when you laugh when there’s nothing really fun.

Smile as much as you can, force yourself to laugh when there's nothing to laugh about, and you'll feel better, happier, and have happier occasion to laugh about.