Does Botox Make You Mean?

It's a topic I've spent many hours discussing with my friends. Should we get Botox? At times, it seems like an economic decision. If you look younger, you're more likely to stay employed so it's worth the money you would spend on the shots. We may not approve of this kind of ageism, but it's real and we have to live with it. But there's a kind of moral decision as well. Is it right to fool Mother Nature?

Now, researchers have come up with another reason to think twice before getting Botox. According to a study published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, people who use Botox are less able to read the emotional reactions of others and that can make them less empathetic – even callous. That's because you read emotions by mimicking the facial expression of other people. Botox essentially freezes facial muscles – to prevent wrinkles – but that also means the brain doesn't get the signals it needs to understand what others are feeling.

The researchers showed people who used Botox and Restylane, a dermal filler, pictures of faces and asked them to identify the emotions they saw. They compared this to another group of people who were using a gel that amplifies muscular signals. People whose facial muscles were paralyzed by Botox had much worse emotional perception that those whose muscles were amplified by the gel.

This isn't the only study to reach a finding suggesting that there is a connection between the ability to smile or frown and emotional perception – which raises the question: is Botox worth it? What do you think?