I spent much of an evening looking up that modern adage, and found (as expected) MANY "experts" with differing answers. Short answer: it takes 12 for a genuine smile and 11 for a frown. That aside, if it feels better to smile, do it. Those fake model smiles can take as little as two.
If one's smiley muscles are more exercised, they will feel better and take less effort to use. Besides, smile lines look a lot better later in life than scowl furrows. Isn't the truth better incentive in just about any instance anyway?
Really, if you just believe and pass on whatever you hear or read, you may be misinforming, whether or not it's innocent and pleasant or from sources you trust. Even those mistakes and light little white lies reinforce to people like me that the only way to be is having little or no faith in what others wholeheartedly hold as absolute facts. That is, at least until it has been satisfactorily proven to/by us.
Most "experts" can't be trusted at all, they believe what they say, and believe that they know all that there is to know about their particular field of expertise. However, history has proved their ilk wrong too many times for any tome of tiny text to list, and the most modern are no exception.
Two things to remember in regards to all knowledge: First, some time in the future, the average person with the average education will look back on this century as primitive and mislead by baseless, ludicrous, superstitious beliefs. Second, centuries ago, they felt as we do now: these are the most modern times ever, with more knowledge and technological advancement than mankind has ever had, almost everything that we can know has been (or is being) figured out.
Benjamin Franklin had what, two years of school? Then, too, not all that long ago, the most educated men in the world once insisted to the point of screaming "heresy" that the world was flat.
For more details on the smile & frown issue, look it up yourself. At http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2489/does-it-take-fewer-muscles-to-smile-than-it-does-to-frown they are listed, as asked of a plastic surgeon (Dr. David Song) who works with them professionally. It was the best one I found, in plain layman's terms (except the muscles' names) and referenced repeatedly, but not exclusively.
I also found that there are only 53 facial muscles, and of those, 36 named as involved in making facial expressions at all (and decided not to list them here, but can find them again if you want)... Anyway, that means that almost all of the other allegations out there are most likely erroneous, thus lending even more credence to Dr. Song and those who agree with his numbers.
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