Do life hacks work? We’ll never know

>> Next, he asked participants to rate how much they believed in the idea that simply smiling makes you happier (which, by now, has pretty much become accepted folk wisdom). This time, he struck gold. Just as with a placebo pill, the more strongly you believe that smiling makes you happier, the more it does.

It feels like something is missing in that logic. It seems reasonable to me that different people respond differently to different cues and people who experience feeling happier when they smile will believe it and people who don't, won't. Isn't it possible with studies like these that something that might work for a substantial number of people is said to not work simply because it doesn't work for the majority?

I've enjoyed the content of one of the original "life hack" websites (lifehacker.com) for many years. Sometimes hokey, sometimes unhelpful but always with good intentions. And I think that is the spirit of a life hack- the sight positive change in perspective. Changing your paradigm, in nearly any case, often yields a good outcome.