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Much of the beauty industry is built on helping consumers alter age perceptions. Makeup for teenage girls makes them look more mature. For those of us beyond our teens and 20s, it鈥檚 a race to look younger鈥攖o erase wrinkles and firm up sagging skin. What if you could change how old you look without spending a dime? Fan Liu, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the , and her collaborators, Ze Wang and Xin He at the University of Central Florida, have found a technique to do just that: Smile.

Dr. Liu and her colleagues specialize in consumer psychology鈥攁n area at the nexus of psychology and business that focuses on consumer behavior. Dr. Liu is interested in how we make judgments based on facial expressions and other nonverbal cues鈥攁n apt topic given our selfie culture.

Dr. Liu explained that she and her colleagues began to think about what factors drive others to perceive us as young or old. They found that 鈥渢he literature on age perception usually refers to sagging, wrinkling or the change to one鈥檚 skin texture.鈥� Dr. Liu added, 鈥淭here鈥檚 not much we can do about those without spending a lot of money, so we began thinking about how a single smile can change that perception.鈥�

They took photographs of models with a neutral expression and a maximal smile. Using morphing software, they altered the photos to create images with six levels of smile intensity.听Once the photos were properly coded, they invited participants鈥攁bout 1,200 in four studies鈥攖o estimate the person鈥檚 age.听

Using statistical analyses, Dr. Liu said that she and her colleagues consistently found that by 鈥渨earing a maximal smile compared with a neutral smile, you look three years younger.鈥�

Why? They linked the phenomenon to muscle configuration. When you smile, your face becomes rounder, your cheeks move up and your chin becomes less prominent. In other words, your face becomes more babyish. 鈥淎nd babyishness is always linked with this perception of youthfulness,鈥� Dr. Liu said.

The findings have implications beyond Instagram. Depending on how you want to be perceived in the marketplace鈥攕easoned executive or nimble new hire鈥攜ou can decide how far to turn up your smile.