Effects of Laughing, Smiling, and Howling on Mood Descriptors: One group, pretest-posttest design

ABSTRACT. This study examined the effects of forced laughter on mood and compared laughter with two other possible mood-improving activities, smiling and howling. While howling did not substantially improve mood, both smiling and laughing did. Moreover, laughter seemed to boost positive affect more than just smiling by 22 adults.