The effects of smiling or crying facial expressions on grip strength, measured with a hand dynamometer and the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test

The effects of smiling or crying facial expressions on grip strength and th e Bi-Digital O-Ring Test were evaluated in this study. Ten right-handed bas ketball players (age group 18-28) were included in the study. Grip strength was measured,with a Riester hand dynamometer and the Bi-Digital O-Ring Tes t successively, after the players had looked at the drawing of a "crying fa ce" for 5 seconds from a distance of 40 cm. at the eye level. Immediately a fterwards they were shown the drawing of a "smiling face" and were asked to grip with the same condition. Once all 10 players carried out this experim ent, the order in which the drawings were shown was reversed. We then proce eded to measure the same variables, using the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test. The s tatistics obtained thereby were subjected to Pearsons correlation coefficie nt and paired t-test. Using a hand dynamometer and the Bi-Digital O-Ring Te st, it was found that, in both tests, the "smiling face" drawing (first cry ing, then smiling face: with hand dynamometer, it increased from 8.34 +/- 0 .97 kg to 9.18 +/- 0.9 kg; t=5.39,p=0.0001) increased the grip strength of the basketball players, and the "crying face" drawing (first smiling face, then crying face: with hand dynamometer it decreased from 9.35 +/- 0.90 kg to 8.51 +/- 0.96 kg; t=9.81, p=0.0001) decreased the grip strength. Exposur e to the smiling face drawing increased the grip strength, and exposure to the crying face. decreased it, in every subject tested in this group. Simil ar effects were observed with the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test (first crying, the n smiling: it increased from -2.80 +/- 1.13 to 2.20 +/- 1.32; t=33.54, p=0. 0001; first smiling then crying: it decreased from 2.40 +/- 1.34 to -2.20 /- 1.62; t=15.06, p=0.0001).