Vanessa Van EdwardsScience of People, Science Of People · Behavioral Researcher, Founder, Author, Harvard Instructor

How Do You Know If Your Happiness Is Fake

3 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this short explanatory video, Vanessa Van Edwards discusses how to differentiate genuine happiness from fake happiness by observing facial expressions. She explains that while anyone can produce a fake smile, a true smile—indicative of authentic happiness—engages the upper cheek muscles and creates crow’s‑feet wrinkles around the eyes. A fake smile lacks this upward activation and appears “dead” on the face. The presence of crow’s‑feet and the upward stretch of the side cheek muscles are presented as the sole reliable physiological indicator of real happiness.

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Anyone can fake smile. There is such a thing as fake happiness. When someone goes, oh, yeah, I'm so happy for you. And the smile's dead on their face. You are not making that up. That is your brain's way of telling you something isn't real here. Something is a little inauthentic. This is not any indicator of true happiness. The only true indicator of happiness is when the happiness reaches all the way up into these side cheek muscles. A model fake smile and real smile both have a smile, but the fake one doesn't reach up into the upper half of the face. And the real one, you can see it activates the wrinkles, fondly known as crow's feet. So a real smile, if I were to turn to the side, goes all the way up here, so my side crow's feet are activated. That is the only true indicator of happiness.