Smiling is my favorite.

I use this blog to write mostly about how silly my dear students are. (Please note that the semester is over and I have submitted grades, which means that I now look back on my students with immense fondness and wholeheartedly miss them.) But I rarely reflect on the rest of my time. I spend many more hours researching and writing than I do teaching. However, clicking through research studies hardly makes for riveting blog material. Occasionally I do find fun facts in my research. For example, I found a study that researched Harry Potter fans' responses to the release of the last book in 2007. The study found that many fans demonstrated emotional and physical signs of withdrawal upon realizing that there would be no further supply of their favorite drug. Some of these signs lasted for up to 6 months. I also find fun names. Three researchers wrote an article together: Canary, Duck, and Pond. Their article was entitled "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" and was about the importance of similarity in attraction. Other authors with unfortunate names include: Goodlay and Surething. I hope they write an article together.

My main focus this semester was how we communicate emotion, and particularly how we do it nonverbally. The video below (it's short!) is a great overview of the research from psychology and communication on smiling. I have been immersed in this material all semester and find it utterly fascinating. I find that this clip encompasses all three purposes of this blog: creativity, teaching, and communicating. So, while I'm out of student stories for the time being (don't worry--summer classes start next week!), I hope to keep going on the above themes throughout the summer. Enjoy!