A smile can say a thousand words, but it can also make a woman feel good about her appearance, according to new research from the Netherlands.

"The positive effect we witnessed supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval," said Dr Carolien Martijn, who led the study at Maastricht University.

"Simply showing these women photos of themselves followed by a smiling face — signalling social approval — increased their body satisfaction and self-esteem significantly," she said.

"This may be a useful way to increase body and weight satisfaction, and it may be worth extending this experiment to a group of people with clinically diagnosed eating disorders."

The study tested 57 women on their self-esteem and body confidence before and after showing them pictures of themselves and then pictures of other women.

For 26 of the women, after they were shown pictures of themselves they were shown pictures of women with smiling faces. The remaining participants were shown pictures of women with faces that were neutral or frowning after they had been shown pictures of themselves.

After being shown the photographs of themselves and the other women, those who were shown smiling faces had an increased feeling of body confidence and self-esteem. The women who were shown the neutral or frowning faces did not experience this feeling.

Your say: Do you agree? How do you feel when someone smiles at you? What makes you feel better about yourself?