A year ago, the folks behind the the nonprofit TED launched TED Books — short, digitally distributed nonfiction works spun out of the guest talks at TED’s exclusive conferences.

One of the newest books to emerge is Smile: The Astonishing Power of a Simple Act, based on a popular TED presentation in March of this year by serial entrepreneur Ron Gutman. Gutman runs HealthTap, an 18-month-old online health network that has already raised roughly $14 million from investors. And he says he settled on the TED talk — which went viral —  because of happiness research he has come across over time which suggests that people who smile more live longer, enjoy happier marriages, and in some cases, even make more money.

Yesterday, I talked with Gutman about his findings and the new book. Our conversation has been edited for length.

When did you become interested in the topic of smiling and why?

I love traveling and discovering news places, including where people don’t speak any of the languages that I speak. And what I discovered, on an around-the-world trip, was that the best way to communicate quickly with people and break the ice and connect was just to smile. It’s unbelievable how quickly a smile can diffuse tension, especially when people aren’t used to seeing people from other places.

Sure, you want to establish as fast as possible that you’re friend and not foe. But your talk, and now the book, also presents what seems like controversial research, including one study that worked off college students’ yearbook photos.

I include a longitudinal study out of UC Berkeley that looked at the yearbook photos of more than 100 women and classified their smiles based on perceived genuineness.  They tracked down those women 30 years later, and discovered that those with the biggest smiles scored higher on standardized tests of well-being. It’s amazing. And it’s scientific; it’s not just folklore.

I also think the French study you include is interesting. Can you tell readers about that?

It centered on how people detect a genuine smile versus one that’s merely social, which doesn’t activate the emotional processing centers of our brains in the same way. And one way that we discern the difference is by our natural inclination to mimic a smile when we see it.

The French study [conducted at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France] asked subjects to determine fake versus genuine smiles while holding a pencil in their mouths, and it was much harder for them to do than without the pencils. That’s because they couldn’t mimic the smiles they saw [with the pencils in their mouths], so they couldn’t vicariously experience the emotions of the people who were smiling at them. When they couldn’t mimic, their judgment was impaired.

Your book suggests that Botox is problematic for related reasons.

Yes, when you modify one’s ability to imitate a smile by suppressing their smiling muscles, it actually modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain. The reward mechanism for [the person with the Botox injection and the person looking at him or her] is inhibited.

You also argue that smiling can translate into better finances, even citing investor Howard Morgan of First Round Capital, who has told you that smiling entrepreneurs are more likely to get funded. Of course, that’s anecdotal, as you also say.

It is, but research has also shown that waitresses make greater tips when they smile while interacting with customers. And [in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology] a separate study showed that even drawing smiling faces on checks increases the tips that servers receive.

You talk about doing more smiling of your own, too, which you say has made you generally happier. Practically speaking, how can you induce yourself to genuinely smile more on a regular basis?

You can get all the benefits of smiling by just thinking about something good and smiling. I have this method that I write about in the book, but basically, I have 10 items on a list. Some are just things that I like, not necessarily happy things, but things that are just present and things that remind me about smiling. A lot of it is simple awareness, and because it’s contagious, you can generate a tremendous amount of positive feedback from others.

Related posts:

1. AOL’s Desperate/Compelling Offer: Make Us Look Cool and You’ll Live Large
2. While the Rich Grow Richer off Facebook and Twitter, Our Brains May Be Growing Poorer, Say Health Experts
3. Doerr, Moritz Make Forbes’ Billionaire List; Will They Make the Resurrected Midas List, Too?
4. NVCA Is Happier With Congress
5. Longer Exits Are New Norm in VC Deals