boost woman confidence

 A simple smile is all it takes to boost a woman's confidence

Forget the odd compliment or bunch of flowers, a smile can be all it takes to make a woman feel good about her appearance, according to a new study.

Scientists found that women who are unhappy with the way they look feel significantly better about themselves after being greeted by a smiling face.

The boost in self esteem has led psychologists to think that for many, confidence in their appearance is all about social acceptance.

Couple shopping,

Grin and bare it: The study found that women who are unhappy with the way they look feel better after being greeted by a smiling face

The research was carried out with women of normal body weight who had varying degrees of satisfaction with the way they look.

Psychologist Carolien Martijn, who led the study, said: 'The positive effect we witnessed for women with a high level of body concern supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval.

'Simply showing these women photographs of themselves followed by a smiling face - signalling social approval - increased their body satisfaction and self esteem significantly.

'This classic conditioning procedure may be a useful way to increase body and weight satisfaction, and it may be worth extending this experiment to a group of people with clinically diagnosed eating disorders.'

During the study, Ms Martijn's team tested 57 normal weight women on their levels of body satisfaction and self esteem and had them photographed.

Women were then shown the pictures of themselves in amongst photos of other women, and every photo was either followed by a smiling face or a neutral or a frowning face.

For 26 of the women, the photos of themselves were always followed by a smiling face and for the remaining 28 their photos were followed randomly by neutral, smiling or frowning faces.

The women were then all tested again on body satisfaction and self esteem.

For those women always shown smiling faces after their picture, body satisfaction had increased.

Ms Martijn said that for women with high body concerns, this increase in body satisfaction was 'significant'.

The self esteem of these dissatisfied women also significantly increased after the experiment.

This was not seen in the group whose photos were followed by random facial expressions.

Ms Martijn and Marlies Vanderlinden from Maastricht University, Holland, plan to continue their research together with psychologists of the University of Sheffield to test strategies to enhance body image.