science

Smile mask syndrome

Smile mask syndrome is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Smile mask syndrome rather than just read about it. In short: Smile mask syndrome (Japanese: スマイル仮面症候群, Hepburn: sumairu kamen shōkōgun), abbreviated SMS, is a psychological disorder proposed by professor Makoto Natsume of Osaka Shoin Women's University, in which subjects develop depression and physical illness as a result of unnaturally prolonged smiling. Origin Natsume proposed the disorder after counselling students from the university in his practice and noticing that a nu…

Key takeaways

Smile mask syndrome belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Smile mask syndrome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Smile mask syndrome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Smile mask syndrome (Japanese: スマイル仮面症候群, Hepburn: sumairu kamen shōkōgun), abbreviated SMS, is a psychological disorder proposed by professor Makoto Natsume of Osaka Shoin Women's University, in which subjects develop depression and physical illness as a result of unnaturally prolonged smiling.

Origin Natsume proposed the disorder after counselling students from the university in his practice and noticing that a number of students had spent so much time faking their smiles that they were unaware that they were smiling even while relating stressful or upsetting experiences to him. Natsume attributes this to the great importance placed on smiling in the Japanese service industry, particularly for young women.

Description Smiling is an important skill for Japanese women working in the service industry. Almost all service industry companies in Japan require their female staff to smile for long periods of time. Natsume says that his female patients often talk about the importance of smiling when the topic of the conversation is on their workplace. He relates examples of patients saying that they felt their smile had a large effect on whether they were hired or not, and that their superiors had stressed the effect that good smiles had on customers. According to Natsume, this atmosphere sometimes causes women to smile unnaturally for so long that they start to suppress their real emotions and become depressed. Japanese author Tomomi Fujiwara notes that the demand for a common smile in the workplace emerged in Japan around the 1980s, and he blames the cultural changes wrought by Tokyo Disneyland, opened in 1983, for popularizing the demand for an obligatory smile in the workplace. Smile mask syndrome has also been identified in Korea. Korean writer Bae Woo-ri noted that smiling gives one a competitive advantage and has become a necessary attribute of many employees, just like a "neat uniform". Yoon-Do-rahm, a psychology counselor, compared the current society, which is full of smile-masks, to a clown show; both are characterized by plentiful, yet empty and fake, smiles.

Aches Smile mask syndrome can cause physical problems as well as mental ones. Natsume relates that many of his patients developed muscle aches and headaches as a result of prolonged smiling and that these are similar to the symptoms of repetitive strain injury.

See also Honne and tatemae Emotional labor

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Smile mask syndrome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Smile mask syndrome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Smile mask syndrome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Smile mask syndrome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Smile mask syndrome

In research: Smile mask syndrome appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Smile mask syndrome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Smile mask syndrome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Culture of Japan, Culture of Korea, Facial expressions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Smile mask syndrome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Smile mask syndrome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Smile mask syndrome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Smile mask syndrome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Smile mask syndrome in simple terms?

Why does Smile mask syndrome matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Smile mask syndrome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Smile mask syndrome.