Faking happiness has emotional costs. But it's possible to disconnect outward cheer from inner annoyance, a study suggests. Researchers surveyed workers in the United States and France who regularly offered service with a smile (at hotels and beauty salons, for example). The more people felt they had to distort their emotional expression, the more exhausted and annoyed they were with their jobs. Yet for those who said they had some job autonomy, the pretense wasn't so damaging. The French were more likely to say they put on a happy face freely, to further their own agendas. Pennsylvania State University psychologist Alicia A. Grandey says that perceiving ways to act independently or achieve one's own aims, "to the extent possible, should decrease this stress effect from emotional faking."