Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
What makes you happy?
Family? Giggling children? Maybe ice cream? According to a new study from the University of California, Irvine, taking selfies - while smiling - can put you on the road to happiness.
Perhaps the queen of the smartphone snap, Kim Kardashian is on to something.
For more, researcher Yu Chen spoke with Take Two's Deepa Fernandes. She began by explaining the methodology behind the study.
"We asked our students to take a selfie while they're smiling, every day for three weeks and we found that they're feelings have been becoming more positive and also some of the participants they reported they're becoming more confident and also comfortable in taking their selfies."
"We designed the study in a way that we have one week control and also three-week intervention session. So during the one week control session, they did nothing but record their mood using the app that was provided three times per day. That serves as the baseline for mood. And then, for the following three weeks, in addition to recording their emotions three times per day they also took a selfie while they're smiling every day for three weeks. So we compare their self-reported moods during the first week and the following three weeks while they were taking selfies."
"So that was inspired by a recent study showing that giving makes other people happy. So basically, either for selfie or taking something that makes yourself happy, those are more self-focused. We were wondering, if we are turning the lens towards other focus, would that make people happy? So that motivated us to conduct that condition of taking photos."
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.