There are many theories as to why we laugh. One brain searcher went as far as tickling monkeys to find out for himself, as the following article from The Sacramento Bee explains.
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By Cynthia Hubert – Bee Staff Writer
A silly laugh from somewhere up front. A laugh not unlike her own.
Stevens started to giggle. The person next to her began laughing at her laughter. Soon, everyone on the bus was in stitches.
“And not one of us knew what we were laughing about,” recalls Stevens, of Carmichael.
Laughter is an ancient, universal form of communication. But it remains mysterious, even to psychologists and others who study it.
Why do we laugh?
It’s a more complicated question than you might think.
Laughter is not always a reaction to humor. In fact, it can be used to express domination and even contempt, scientists say.
It can help cement someone’s social status or detract from it.
Some laughs are contagious, as Stevens learned that day on the bus. Some are so distracting that they can freeze corporate drones in their cubicles. Some are downright diabolical.
“Laughter is about relationships,” says Robert Provine, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology who has studied laughter for two decades. “It’s a social act, an instinctive behavior that binds us together.”
And it’s not unique to humans, Provine and others have found.
“When you tickle a chimp, and I’ve tickled a few, you can see where laughter comes from,” says Provine, author of the book “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation” (Penguin, $15, 272 pages).
Chimpanzees and other primates make panting and tittering sounds during “rough and tumble play,” suggesting the roots of human laughter, he says.
Another prominent laugh researcher, Jaak Panksepp of Bowling Green State University in Kentucky, has found that rats squeak, or “laugh,” during sexual intercourse and play sessions. Animal behaviorists have suggested that dogs laugh, too.
Best medicine, right?
Beyond the fact that laughing is enjoyable, it may have medicinal value. When someone laughs, scientists have discovered, blood vessels relax, stress hormones disperse and the immune system gets a boost. Though the subject remains controversial, several studies, including one by researchers at Vanderbilt University, suggest that laughter can help hospital patients cope better with pain.
The psychology and social significance of laughter is a newer field, one in which Provine, of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is a pioneer.
Laughter’s significance, he notes, has been recognized through the ages by such dignitaries as Aristotle, Darwin and Freud. But aside from a general appreciation of it, we know surprisingly little about it.
Ask most humans why they laugh, Provine says, and they are stumped.
“They might say, ‘Because this or that was funny’ or ‘Because I was nervous.’ But we really don’t know why we laugh, because it’s not under our conscious control.”
From his studies of people interacting in “natural settings” from malls to cocktail parties, Provine knows one thing for sure: Most laughter has nothing to do with jokes.
“If you want to laugh more, don’t get a comedy book or video,” he advises. “Spend more time with your friends.”
Watching groups of people in social situations, Provine has observed that “maybe 10 to 15 percent” of comments that precede laughs “are jokey.” People are far more likely to laugh after mundane comments like, ‘Hey, is that John?’ or ‘Where have you been?’ he notes. Laughter is more about “mutual playfulness” than comedy, says Provine.
Among Provine’s other conclusions? Speakers usually laugh more often than their audience when telling a story, and women generally laugh more than men.
Clues about the laughter
Whether you realize it or not, your laughter reveals subtle messages about your social status within a group, says Mary Y. Liu, who began studying the phenomenon as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, a few years ago.
Liu and her colleagues are looking at four different types of laughter and what each says about the communicator.
• Dominant laughter serves to humiliate other people, they theorize.
• Submissive laughter reflects embarrassment.
• Affiliation laughter communicates warmth.
• Contempt laughter reflects feelings of superiority or, well, contempt toward others.
The Berkeley researchers videotaped people laughing and studied their body language while they were yukking it up. For example, dominant laughter, Liu says, is usually relatively loud and accompanied by signals of confidence such as a jutting chin and thrust-out chest.
“Laughter has always interested me because there are so many different types,” says Liu, who continues to be involved in the Laughter Project even though she has moved on to the University of Michigan.
“Like any form of communication, it can be a great window into relationships and the ways that people interact with one another.”
Is laughter really contagious? Ask anyone who has encountered Laffing Sal, the mechanical, guffawing lady who has entertained millions of fun house visitors across the country since the 1930s. Or producers of comedy shows that feature “laugh tracks” that prompt giggling from live audiences.
Now, we may have a scientific explanation for the phenomenon.
British scientists published a study earlier this year demonstrating that “positive sounds” like laughter or even a triumphant “woo hoo!” trigger a response in a particular part of the listener’s brain. That response primes the brain for a smile or laugh. So laughter is, in a way, infectious, the researchers say.
“Infectious” is how Claire Gliddon of Fair Oaks describes the laughter of a former colleague. “When he laughed, everyone smiled, even if you didn’t know what he was laughing at,” she recalls. The colleague has since retired, but Gliddon still hears his laughter in her head. And it still makes her smile.
Lobbyist Beth Capell’s distinctive laugh regularly rings through the corridors of the state Capitol, where she has plugged away at health care reform for decades, says her friend Robyn Diane Boyer of Sacramento. Boyer describes Capell’s guffaw in vivid detail:
“It starts deep in her belly, comes whooping up through her windpipe and then, with a sort of quick intake and outflow of breath, it breaks into the room as a series of cackles.
“You can’t hear it and remain unaffected.”
Everyone, it seems, has a story about inappropriate or ill-timed laughter, which some scientists speculate is a way for the body to release pent-up tension.
Juliet Farmer of Sacramento recalls her own inexplicable, pew-shaking laughing fit inside the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City a few years back. Sacramentan Alene Clift and her sisters Lorie, Suzanne, Tomi and Viki, couldn’t help cracking up during a prayer at their grandmother’s funeral, just as they did when they were small girls and their beloved Nana made them bow their heads in pious grace before dinner. Shane Granicher shocked a group of fellow Sacramento Zoo docents when he began laughing uncontrollably upon hearing the sad, deadly fate of an escaped kangaroo.
“The more frigid glares I received from my companions, the more hysterical I became,” Granicher recalls.
Everyday life seems to give people plenty of reasons to laugh. But those looking for a little extra incentive can take laughter workshops, go to laughter yoga classes or hire laughter coaches.
Laugh to your heart’s delight, says Provine. But don’t fret too much about why it’s happening.
“The fact is that laughter feels great when you’re doing it,” he says.
“Shouldn’t that be enough?”
See the original article here.
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