Even if we choose to spend most of our time staring at a screen, humans are inherently social creatures. Social interaction still forms an important part of our day-to-day lives, whether it’s with colleagues at work, family at home or strangers on the Internet.

10 Surprising Ways To Hack Your Body

While some people seem to be naturally good at understanding social cues and carrying a perfect conversation, for the more introverted of us out there, it may not be as easy. Thankfully – and possibly due to scientists generally being introverts as well – science has come up with quite a few hacks you can use the next time you find yourself stuck in a social situation.

10 Feet Don’t Lie

Most people think of the eyes to be the best indicator of what someone is feeling, and they’re not entirely wrong. Eyes are capable of expressing a ridiculously wide range of emotions, though it’s also quite easy for most people to fake them. If you want to know what someone’s really feeling in a casual conversation at a party—according to science, at least—look at their feet.

While we’re perfectly capable of faking emotions with most other parts of the body, the feet aren’t easy to fool at all. You can tell if someone is stressed, humiliated, humbled, shy, lethargic, horny, angry or nervous just by looking at their legs or feet, as we have no control over it. For example, someone uncrossing his legs or turning his feet to point away from you is likely feeling a sense of discomfort, as his brain has already started making subconscious preparations to leave.^[1]

9 Take A Cup Of Hot Coffee To Your Next Interview

The Internet is full of advice on what to do to prepare for an interview. Depending on the source, it may be anything from color-coordinating your clothes to trying to sleep with someone related to the interviewer. None of it works, though, as interviewers are usually looking for quick decision-making abilities and confidence, and rarely preparedness.

The best way you can ace an interview is by knowing what you’re talking about, but also warming your hands up before the handshake. If that sounds random, it isn’t. Studies have found that warmth can make someone kinder and more generous towards you. While they don’t know exactly why it happens, it may be a vestige from our early days. Shared warmth would have – at some point – helped us establish closer relationships with other people, which would have, in turn, helped keep us all alive.^[2]

8 Stop Feeling Anything With Botox

While emotions are generally considered to be a good thing, they can also prove to be a detriment in many social situations. There are many times when something offensive or otherwise out-of-place ends up disproportionately affecting us. Emotions definitely work against us in those cases; if only there was a way to shut them off to avoid these situations.

As it turns out, there is; just get a Botox treatment. Botox has been long known to inhibit your ability to physically express emotions, but if some recent research is anything to go by, it may actually affect our ability to feel those emotions, too. While they don’t know how it can be possible – as emotions are entirely in the brain and shouldn’t be affected by cosmetic treatments – it’s similar to how you can fool your body into feeling happy by forcing a smile.^[3]

7 In An Argument, Keep It Simple

Whenever we’re in the middle of an argument, we tend to dig up complex, elaborate facts to counter the opposing points. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite work, as the main aim of most human arguments isn’t sharing knowledge or coming to an amiable conclusion, but winning. Keeping that in mind, the next time you’re stuck in a fairly simple argument with someone, try simplifying your language instead of making it tougher.

Studies suggest that speaking in easily-enunciable words and simple-to-understand sentences has a calming effect on the listener, and could even be used to make them more receptive to what you’re saying. It has been proven to work in areas other than social situations, too, like politics. Donald Trump’s rise, as an example, could be attributed – at least in part – to his simple, straightforward manner of speaking which innately appeals to people.^[4]

6 Use Your Non-Dominant Hand To Control Anger

Contrary to what most people think, emotions like rage aren’t limited to people with a short temper. In most cases, uncontrollable anger is a symptom of other underlying issues, but also a fairly regular part of daily life if kept under normal levels. For anyone who isn’t able to do so, you may want to actively try using your non-dominant hand for daily tasks.

As a study done by a professor at the University of Wales suggests, just the simple act of switching hands while doing basic tasks like cleaning the house or using your laptop could massively reduce your anger, as well as train the mind to control itself better in the future. Obviously, don’t try this with situations like trying to play a music instrument or writing, where switching would probably make you even angrier than before.^[5]

5 The Benjamin Franklin Effect

Ever been in a drawn-out, heated argument that has gone on long enough for you to desperately want to escape it to cut your losses in temper? At that point, there aren’t many things you can do. You can either completely blow up, shut them up and walk away, or be more polite and text a friend to help you out of the situation. As it turns out, there’s something else you can try, too; do them a favor to force yourself to like them.

It’s known as the Benjamin Franklin effect, as he was the first one to theorize that if someone is kind to you once, he’s much more likely to be kind to you in the future. That sounds baffling, as our actions should be caused by our feelings and not the other way around. It was only when it was scientifically proven in 1969 that we realized that it’s a real phenomenon.^[6]

4 Social Proof

If you ever walk past two adjacent food stalls selling the same item, chances are that one of them would always be much more crowded than the others. We see this in action in the case of cafes or restaurants, too. People tend to go to places they see other people going to, as it indicates that it’s a better place to go to. Mind you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better, only that people trust others when it comes to the value of things in our society.

This is known as a marketing strategy called ‘social proof’, and could be successfully used in social situations, too. You can make your arguments much more convincing if you make them sound like someone else came up with them, even if they didn’t.^[7]

3 The Last Impression

As a society, we give a lot of importance to first impressions. Whether it’s a first date or an interview, we make sure to put our best foot forward when we walk into the room. It makes sense, too, as conventional wisdom suggests that first impressions can make or break a meeting.

As growing research is finding out, though, first impressions are hardly impactful enough to make a difference, or even in our control. If you really want someone to remember a first meeting with you, you need to focus on your last impression instead. More clearly, people tend to remember what you leave them with over what you did when you first came into the room, especially when it comes to permanent, long-term impressions.^[8]

2 Chew Gum To Calm Your Nerves

Nerves maybe annoying at times, though they’re a pretty useful mechanism of the body to help us deal with hectic situations. Being nervous before an exam ensures that you study for it well. When it comes to social interactions, though, they can work against us, too. For many people, being nervous can be a debilitating place to be in, and could actively hamper their day-to-day productivity.

While there aren’t any medical cures for that (yet) chewing gum can help you temporarily fix it. Researchers have found that the continuous act of chewing can actually considerably lower anxiety and improve your mood, as well as help fight feelings of depression. It’s not just useful before interviews or other social meeting, either, as it could be used in many other non-social situations, too.^[9]

1 Asking For Help Actually Makes You Appear Smarter

Most people agree with the ‘fake it till you make it’ approach; appear like you know what you’re talking about and people would think that you really do. It’s a central theme of many rap songs and inspirational movies, and seems to be fairly straightforward and accurate piece of advice.

As a researcher at the Harvard Business School found out, however, asking for help may actually make you appear smarter to others for multiple, unrelated reasons. For one, admitting that you don’t know something comes across as a sign of wisdom, as gathering more information to fill gaps in your knowledge is an inherently smart thing to do. More importantly, asking for help makes the other person feel important and intelligent, in turn improving his own opinion of you.^[10]

As most of us will have discovered by now, the human body is a marvel. Many of the things it can do seem like magic compared to other life-forms on Earth, and even if extraordinary abilities do exist in nature, they’re often developed as specialized responses to their immediate environments and not as a part of an all-purpose package ready to take on any challenge the environment throws at it.

Despite all of its marvels, however, our bodies are limited in many other ways, one of them being, say, the inability to fly. While we sure can’t do anything to fix that, there are many other ways to hack the body into doing things you never thought it could do, mostly by exploiting the various loopholes in the complexity of the brain. And we’re not talking about pseudoscience or old wives’ tales, either; all of these hacks are backed by science.

10 Cut Down Your Sleeping Hours

Many people are of the opinion that sleeping is awesome, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Sleep absolutely is awesome, especially after a long day, as it helps the body rest and recharge for repeating the exact same routine the next day. Though if you really think about it, it’s largely a waste of time, as the actual part of the sleep cycle in which the body really gets things done is REM sleep. Some argue that the rest of the sleep duration might as well be eliminated altogether so that the time it takes up could be put to better use, if only we knew how.

As it turns out, we do, and all we need to do to pull it off is to phase out our sleepy time over multiple periods throughout the day. Known as the Uberman sleep schedule, it consists of six equidistant naps of about 20 minutes each in intervals of four hours. While it may sound ridiculous and tiring—which it is in the beginning—once you train your body to it for a long enough period of time, it will reportedly learn how to directly jump into REM sleep for all of those naps. Sure, it will take a bit of learning, but if you can manage it, you may be able to free up all of the rest of your usual sleep time to do whatever you want. It might even end up increasing your overall productivity, as some studies have found.^[1]

9 Reduce Pain After Surgery By Listening To Music

Not everyone loves music as much as that metalhead cousin of yours, though we can all agree that plugging in our earphones and listening to our favorite song can be immensely therapeutic at times. Music is one of the few universally appreciated art forms, as every culture has its distinct musical traditions, even if not everyone is into films or books. Not only that, but music has been proven to have some tangible physical benefits on the body as well.

As a study found, listening to your favorite music can alleviate pain before, during, and after surgery.^[2] And we’re not talking about its feel-good factor; the scientists found that listening to music of your own choosing makes the brain release chemicals and hormones that strengthen the immune system, and you may even need fewer painkillers than usual if you’re plugged in throughout your surgery. It should be music chosen by you, though, as it didn’t work as well when the surgeons chose their patients’ playlist for them.

8 Cough During Injections To Reduce Pain

No matter how old we get, many of us are as scared of injections as we were the first time we visited the doctor. Getting those shots can be daunting, as even if they don’t hurt as much as we think they will, the psychological effect of a needle piercing the skin is immense. Fortunately, there’s a quick and effective way to reduce the pain: Simply cough.

As found by many studies conducted on the subject, coughing right when you’re getting a shot increases blood pressure, which, in turn, helps reduce pain perception and therefore makes it hurt less.^[3] Any sort of distraction is helpful in reducing the pain of a shot. Coughing works more reliably than, say, turning and looking away from the injection, though, possibly because it acts as a distractor in and of itself in addition to raising blood pressure.

7 Strengthen Your Immune System By Looking At Images Of Disease

The human immune system is one of the most complex aspects of the body, as you’ll know if you’ve ever had to fight off a serious disease. It’s also one of the reasons we’ve been able to wade through everything that history has thrown at us. (Remember the Black Death?) Despite new, unknown diseases showing up every now and then, the immune system continues to evolve and strengthen itself instead of giving up.

The most mind-blowing part? You don’t even need to get infected by something to trigger it. Our immune system responds if we simply look at photographs of a particular disease. A study by a researcher at the University of British Columbia found that merely showing people photographs of sneezing and other indicators of disease causes the white blood cells to release interleukin-6, a protein they secrete in response to infections.^[4] White cells in the patients’ blood even reacted more strongly when introduced to pathogens.

6 Raise Your Eyebrows To Increase Creativity

The purpose of the eyebrow—aside from the cosmetic value, as they look amazing—isn’t quite understood, which isn’t the case for other parts of the face. While some people may argue that eyebrows help in social situations by giving us a wider set of expressions with which to convey our emotions, it’s also arguable that you don’t actually need eyebrows to do that.

As science has found out, though, the eyebrows could be much more than cosmetic. In a study conducted at University of Maryland, researchers found that raising your eyebrows actually helps to boost your creativity, as it widens your visual perception and helps you think of more solutions to a given problem than you’d be able to otherwise. Conversely, narrowing them down has the opposite effect on creativity.^[5] So the next time you have to work on a project that requires you to be creative, do it with your eyebrows as high as possible, no matter how stupid it looks.

5 Improve Memory By Being In Pain

Apart from a handful of people whose motivations we will never understand, no one likes pain. It’s our body’s way of telling us that something has gone terribly wrong, something which, if not immediately addressed, may get even worse. From infections to bruises to headaches, pain is a necessary compromise for leading a balanced, healthy life, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel.

If you want to strengthen your memory and want to remember things for longer periods of time, though, you may want to look into inducing some pain on your own, despite the unpleasantness. In a study conducted by researchers from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, it was found that subjects who were shown trial pictures while they were in pain were able to remember them better, though only after a significant time had passed—one year in this case.^[6] It wasn’t just a momentary gain, either; the effects were permanent and long-lasting.

4 Learn To Use Your Body’s Own Night Vision

If you ever paid attention in middle school, you’ll know that the human eye is an incredibly complex and marvelous organ. The eyes of few other animals possess a range of abilities as diverse and versatile as the human eye, from the sheer range of the colors it can see to its advanced depth perception.

There is, however, another badass thing the eye can do most of us aren’t aware of—being able to see in darkness. Unless it’s completely dark, the human eye’s ability to use even the scarcest source of light to spot things in a dark room is surprisingly good, though it takes quite a bit of time to adjust to the darkness. If you don’t have an hour to do whatever you went into the darkness to do, there’s a hack you can use to trigger the mechanism: Just wear an eye patch for about 25 minutes and then move it to the other eye whenever you’re going into a dark area.

This was also the reason pirates wore eye patches, rather than as a bizarre fashion statement. If you think that’s just a fake cool fact someone told you to show off at a party, it’s not; it was tested and confirmed by Mythbusters.^[7]

3 Lucid Dreaming

Dreams are the brain’s way of letting out all of its pent-up creativity when we sleep, or something else entirely, as we really don’t know enough about it to say for sure. Regardless, we’ve all dreamed, and many of us might have stopped at some point and thought, “What if I could control this?” Lucid dreaming is when people are aware they are dreaming; many people in this state are able to control the dream to an extent, though very few can actually do so at will.

If you know what you’re doing, though, it’s totally possible to train yourself to lucid dream whenever you want. Many studies have been conducted on the best ways to do it, which includes consistently checking your surroundings to know if they’re real or dreams throughout your waking hours. Do it enough times, and you’ll remember to do it while you’re dreaming, immediately switching to lucid dreaming as soon as you realize it’s a dream.^[8] You could also set an alarm for about five or six hours after you go to sleep, stay awake for a while when it goes off, and then go back to sleep. That triggers the REM phase of sleep, and you’re much more likely to lucid dream in that state.

2 Control Your Pupils Whenever You Want

As we mentioned above, the human eye is extremely complex and consists of a lot of intricate parts you may never pay much attention to. One of them is the pupil, the small black circle in the center of the iris. The pupil shrinks and expands in response to the amount and type of light entering the eye, but it’s largely an involuntary mechanism that we have no control over, even though it would be pretty cool to be able to do it at will, as our pupils influence a lot of our social interactions (like being asked, “Are you tripping?”).

That was until researchers at the University of Oslo conducted an experiment and found out that it’s totally possible to control the size of your pupils; all you need to do is think about the amount of light going into your eye. The subjects were first exposed to varying amounts of light, and the size of their pupils was noted. They shrank and expanded, as you’d expect them to. Then, they were asked to imagine the sources of light they were shown earlier. To the researchers’ surprise, the pupils reacted in the same way as earlier, suggesting that the neural responses that control the pupils work in the same way for imaginary as well as real visual cues.^[9]

1 Switch Off Your Gag Reflex

Apart from the rare few people who don’t have it, almost everyone is born with the gag reflex, even though its intensity may vary from person to person. It’s the body’s way of making sure that we don’t choke on our food, as well as making sure that we smoothly move from a liquid to a solid diet when we are infants. Of course, it can also be quite irritating, especially for those who’ve gagged while having food and, yes, those performing oral sex on a partner. Thankfully, science has found a way to switch it off, or at least make it less intense.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (the gag reflex regularly stymies dental procedures), researchers found that putting pressure on the palm significantly decreases the intensity of the gag reflex and may even switch it completely off for some people.^[10] All you need to do is put your thumb inside your fist and press as hard as you can.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs, or just say hello to him on Twitter.

The human brain is the biggest reason behind our utter dominance on Earth. We may not be able to fly, have the best claws, or run particularly fast, but thanks to the capability of our brains, we have managed to climb our way to the top of the evolutionary hierarchy. Despite all of that, though, the brain still has its limitations. There are many things we can’t do because of those limitations, and such inabilities often show up at the worst times.

Thankfully for us all, scientists are consistently working on coming up with hacks to overcome our brains’ limits, as there is still a lot we don’t understand about the most important part of the body. Here are ten ways you can hack your brain to your advantage, according to science.

10 Be More Attractive By Believing You Smell Good

It comes as a surprise to no one that smelling good makes you more attractive to the opposite sex, as we instinctively associate smell with hygiene. It’s a more understated cue of attractiveness than other, obvious ones, like looks or personality, but it nevertheless plays an equally important role in deciding the outcome of a date. We’re not just talking about how you smell, but also how you think you smell.

According to a study, merely believing that you smell good increases your chances of getting with the ladies. (The study was only done with male subjects.) Researchers gave scented spray to one half of a group of equivalently attractive participants and a generic, odorless spray to the other half and took videos. They then showed the videos to a group of women, asking them to rate the men on attractiveness. Surprisingly, the women rated the men with the scented spray to be more attractive, even if they had no way of knowing how the men smelled just from video clips.^[1]

It suggests that self-perception doesn’t just influence the level of your confidence but also affects how other people perceive you.

9 Use Gestures To Prepare For A Test

Students use a variety of techniques to help themselves retain information before an upcoming test, from the traditional writing things down to the more new-age yoga before a studying session. As all of us know, though, most of those techniques are hit-or-miss, as no one has been able to perfectly figure out the best way to guarantee memory retention. While we’re not claiming to have solved pre-test preparation, there’s one scientifically proven method you can use that definitely works: using gestures while studying.^[2]

Studies have found that when you use gestures to explain the information to yourself, the brain retains it far more effectively than, say, speaking it out aloud or even writing it down. In fact, in one study, researchers found that only speaking while learning a concept had no effect on information retention at all.

8 Use The Sun To Hallucinate

While we’d like to reiterate our stance against abusing drugs for recreation, we have to admit that hallucinations are awesome. There are a few things as fun as making the brain see things that aren’t there, but because illicit drugs seem to be the only way to do it, many people never get to experience it. If you’re one of them and would like to know how it feels without being on the wrong side of the law, there’s some good news. As one physiologist from the 19th century found out, all you need to hallucinate without drugs is the Sun.

Just close your eyes and point them toward the sun. Then wave your hand back and forth across the face while keeping one eye covered. Pretty soon, you’ll start seeing shapes, and while the exact figures vary according to person, you can expect hallucinations like spirals, hexagons, or squares.^[3]

Another way you can legally hallucinate is by exploiting something called the Ganzfeld effect, wherein the brain fills in visual information of its own after long periods of sensory deprivation. Just put a piece of white paper over your eyes, lie down under bright white light, and use noise-canceling headphones to block out any sound for 20 minutes. When you get up, you’d be treated to some good old visuals (as they presumably call them in the world of illegal drugs).

7 Trick Your Brain Into Thinking A Rubber Arm Is Real

We’ve all heard of the phantom limb, wherein people who’ve had limbs amputated can still feel the presence of their missing appendage, to the extent that they can feel pain and other sensations in it. While still mind-blowing, it has been extensively studied and talked about. What’s surprising, however, is that you can do something similar with your existing limbs, as well.

In an experiment, researchers asked volunteers to put both their arms on the table, with their right hand inside a box. They then placed a rubber arm on the box and aligned it with the participants’ right shoulders in the same position as their real arms, with just the tips of fingers visible. When the scientists stroked both the fake and real hands for a minute or two, they were surprised to find that eventually, the volunteers started perceiving the fake hand as the real one.^[4]

Scientists don’t quite understand how it works, though they’re sure that it has something to do with how the brain gives priority to visual cues over anything else while determining the ownership of its parts. Now you definitely can’t use this one to, say, get out of tricky situations, but it makes for a freaky diversion at otherwise dull parties.

6 Stop Yourself From Choking By Singing

How many times has it happened that you’re called to speak in front of a group, and before you can say anything, the words seem to get stuck in your throat? It’s not just psychological, either; for many people, that choking is quite real. And seeing how public speaking is one of the biggest fears around, it happens to more people than you’d think. If only there was a way to counter it.

Fortunately for us all, science has figured out a way to effectively halt choking in high-stress situations. All you need to do is sing a song to yourself, as it distracts the brain and helps alleviate the feeling of panic you get in those moments.^[5] In case singing is not a socially acceptable option, like during a meeting, you can also try other things like counting backward from any number or simply focusing other things.

5 Listen To Classical Music To Improve Learning

Music affects all of us in different ways that we can’t quite put into words. Essentially, though, it’s an escape from the sounds of the real world and can get us through some difficult times. It’s also related to productivity, as anyone who has ever breezed through a deadline with their earphones plugged in can tell you. However, because everyone’s brain is different, and music appeals in a different way to everyone, we don’t have a unified theory on how it relates to productivity.

While it will be some time before we can perfectly figure that out, thanks to one study, we know of one type of music that increases creativity and learning for everyone, regardless of their preference: classical music.

In the study, 249 students were observed during a lecture, albeit in two groups. One had classical music playing in the background during the lecture; the other did not. When they tested them in a multiple-choice exam immediately afterward, they were surprised to find out that the students who learned with classical music performed much better.^[6]

4 Aroma Of Rosemary Improves Mental Ability

The benefits of essential oils on the brain are oft-repeated but largely unproven. We’re not denying their effectiveness in making you feel good, which can automatically have a positive effect on your brain. In terms of tangible benefits, though, none of the essential oils are scientifically proven to do anything. Well, except for rosemary.

Presumably in a bid to decisively prove the essential oils crowd wrong, researchers put a bunch of people in a room filled with rosemary aroma and asked them to do a variety of subtraction and visual-information-processing tests. To their surprise, and possibly dismay, there was a definite improvement in the participants’ performance as the scientists increased the dosage of the aroma.^[7]

They’re not quite sure why that is, but it suggests that rosemary has a positive impact on the brain’s cognitive abilities, so stock up on it before your next test.

3 Chew Gum To Reduce Anxiety And Depression

Apart from the approximately six seconds that the flavor lasts, chewing gum doesn’t seem to have any benefits at all. Despite it not clearly falling into any category of things—like food or activities—many people love to chew gum, and it remains a largely successful industry. What gives?

According to science, there are some clear benefits to chewing gum, and it is one of the few proven ways you can force your brain to behave that we know of. In a study, they found that chewing gum significantly lowers anxiety levels. The effects were most pronounced after two weeks of regular gum-chewing. That probably explains why that guy who was always chewing gum in high school was so “chill,” though it doesn’t stop there. Gum chewers also fare better at battling depression and fatigue than others.^[8]

2 Study In Spaced Intervals To Retain More Information

Students have been trying to find the perfect way to study in order to fare better at exams since time immemorial, albeit without much success. Even scientists aren’t exactly sure about how memories are formed in the brain, and figuring it out has been a longstanding pursuit in the neuroscience world.

One oft-repeated technique that is thought to work before tests is the brute force method: Just continuously read the subject matter, and you’re bound to remember it sooner or later. We believe it because everyone says it works, though according to some research, it actually makes you remember less information than if you’d studied in intervals.

Known as spaced repetition, this method requires you to take breaks in the learning process instead of repeatedly trying to cram information in. Studies prove that the latter is actually detrimental to retaining information, as the brain needs time to make the connections required to form a lasting memory.^[9]

1 Smiling Can Trick Your Brain Into Thinking You’re Happy

People smile because they’re happy, as most of us must have figured out by now. It’s a purely social feature of the body, and its only purpose is to let other people know that you’re having a good time, even if it’s fake.

What most people may not know, however, is that smiling isn’t just a response to being happy; it works the other way around, too. As many studies have found, just the act of smiling releases a bunch of feel-good chemicals—like dopamine and serotonin—in your brain. It also reduces stress and anxiety in high-pressure situations, lowers blood pressure, and may even help you live longer.

More interestingly, it doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like smiling at all; the mere act of smiling causes the brain to do all of those things, regardless of any other factors.^[10]

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs, or just say hello to him on Twitter.