tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/laughter-1432/articles
Laughter – The Conversation
2024-03-20T14:18:39Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224000
2024-03-20T14:18:39Z
2024-03-20T14:18:39Z
Why do children laugh? It’s not always because they’re happy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582537/original/file-20240318-16-afui6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C3000%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/portrait-african-baby-toddler-smiling-sitting-1942419196">Prostock-studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though it may seem like a paradox, children do not laugh for joy. Scientific studies, including my own, show that there is something much deeper than joy or mirth in a child’s laughter.</p>
<p>Adults’ laughter is equally complex. In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0732118X22000472">previous study on the meaning of laughter in adults</a>, I concluded that it is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-laugh-new-study-considers-possible-evolutionary-reasons-behind-this-very-human-behaviour-190193">evolutionary response</a> to something confusing or unexpected. It is a powerful “all clear” signal to ourselves and others that a potential threat is, in fact, harmless.</p>
<p>Building on this research, <a href="https://www.risu.biz/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bellieni-RISU-71-2024.pdf">my most recent study</a> focuses on laughter in children and babies. I find that it is closely connected to brain and personality development: children laugh for very different reasons at different stages of development, long before they can grasp abstract concepts like wordplay, punchlines, or even language.</p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-laugh-new-study-considers-possible-evolutionary-reasons-behind-this-very-human-behaviour-190193">Why do we laugh? New study considers possible evolutionary reasons behind this very human behaviour</a>
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<h2>Laughter’s evolutionary benefits</h2>
<p>Laughter stems from our ability to subconsciously understand and judge the incongruities in a joke or action: it is our response to an instant transition between astonishment and resolution.</p>
<p>Laughter in adults therefore <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-laugh-new-study-considers-possible-evolutionary-reasons-behind-this-very-human-behaviour-190193">signals the passing of threat or fear</a>, both to ourselves and those around us. That is also why children – and many adults – laugh on rollercoasters or in similar situations: instead of crying in fear, they pass from bewilderment and terror to resolution. Laughter is the signal of this passage.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This moment in British sitcom The Vicar of Dibley is a classic moment of physical comedy: the split-second shock is quickly offset by the (relatively) harmless consequences.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26010066/">Several studies</a> show that this process is the mechanism behind successful comedy, especially physical comedy. French philosopher Henri Bergson <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4352/4352-h/4352-h.htm">first proposed and explained this mechanism in 1900</a> with regard to slapstick: “The laughable element … consists of a certain mechanical inelasticity, just where one would expect to find the wide-awake adaptability and the living pliableness of a human being.”</p>
<h2>Babies learn how to laugh</h2>
<p>Laughter begins soon after birth. Infants learn to laugh because they want to imitate their parents, and to receive approval from them. This is the way babies learn everything at first: through imitation and receiving the approval of adults around them.</p>
<p>But as they grow, babies come out of the symbiosis with their parents that characterises the first months of life. They learn to distinguish their own person from their parents and the world around them. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24364812/">Once they begin to behave autonomously</a> – from age 2 to 5 – they begin to feel a new sensation for the first time: certain things may seem cold, strange, or out of place, and this shocks, confuses and amazes them.</p>
<p>This is where laughter comes in: after a moment of hesitation, they understand that what seemed frightening or unexpected is actually harmless. </p>
<p>For example, a child laughs when they see their father with a fake clown nose. Why? Because for a split second they felt embarrassed: that nose is not a “live” nose. When they understand it was just dad’s joke, they calm down and laugh. They may also laugh when their older brother makes a silly face, and the process is the same: amazement, reassurance, laughter.</p>
<h2>Grasping logic allows children to understand jokes</h2>
<p>From age 5 or 6 and up, children learn to handle abstract concepts, meaning they can grasp and “get” jokes. This happens when they overcome the earlier <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_2228">stage of egocentrism</a>, which hinders their understanding of others’ reasoning.</p>
<p>At this stage, laughter arises with the same criteria as that of adults, that is, to disapprove what they find cold and false, not only in other people, but also in processes of reasoning. This mental process forms the basis of a good punchline: incongruence, astonishment and resolution.</p>
<p>These three stages of laughter development – imitation and approval, amazement, disapproval – are good indicators of child’s mental growth and development.</p>
<h2>Parents’ laughter can help babies develop</h2>
<p>The laughter of parents, as well as babies, is important for development, but why do parents instinctively laugh at their babies? We can easily understand that a mother or father joyfully smiles at their baby, but laughter is more complex.</p>
<p>When looking at their child, a parent cannot help but have a moment of perplexity: babies are strange by nature because they resemble adults, but do not speak or behave like one. This momentary amazement lasts a fraction of a second before being immediately overcome: it is just their beloved baby!</p>
<p>This should encourage all parents to engage in laughter with their babies, to not feel self conscious or scared, and to be their “laughter companions”. Such interactions can improve babies’ behaviour and wellbeing – <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18955287/">laughter is a proven ally to our immune system</a> – and help them to develop a natural, healthy relationship with this complex human response.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Valerio Bellieni no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>
Laughter is one of the healthiest things a child can do, but it means very different things at different stages of brain development.
Carlo Valerio Bellieni, Professor of Pediatrics, Università di Siena
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224457
2024-02-29T13:39:32Z
2024-02-29T13:39:32Z
Climate comedy works − here’s why, and how it can help lighten up a politically heavy year in 2024
<p>In a catchy <a href="https://youtu.be/UxLvTF_9jv4?feature=shared">YouTube video</a>, British comedian Jo Brand <a href="https://theconversation.com/jo-brand-translated-my-science-im-certain-that-comedy-can-connect-people-to-climate-change-223745">translates a scientist’s long-winded description</a> of the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis this way: “We are paying a bunch of rich dudes 1 trillion dollars a year to f--- up our future,” she says. “Even the dinosaurs didn’t subsidize their own extinction. <a href="https://twitter.com/SRTurtleIsland/status/1727843781880209794">Who’s the stupid species now</a>?”</p>
<p>Although there is nothing funny about the subject, the way she says it is funny.</p>
<p>She speaks truth to power. She relieves the heaviness of the rhetoric. And she’s dropping f- and s-bombs with a British accent. At the start of the video, Brand comments, “If people like me have to get involved, you know we’re in deep s---”.</p>
<p>We all need some refreshing levity nowadays – especially this year.</p>
<p>Around the world, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-climate-change-on-the-ballot-paper-in-2024/id1538415261?i=1000643262165">voters will be choosing</a> national leaders <a href="https://time.com/6550920/world-elections-2024/">in countries representing nearly half the human population</a>. In many cities, states and counties, those decisions will directly affect how the world deals with climate change. Outcomes, including from another U.S. presidential race with Donald Trump vowing to promote fossil fuels and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/06/trump-climate-change-fossil-fuels-second-term">undermine climate policies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-election-how-trump-and-his-followers-use-offensive-humour-to-make-prejudice-acceptable-221364">democracy itself</a>, will reverberate across the planet. That’s heavy.</p>
<p>At the same time, the planet just came off its warmest year on record in 2023, and ocean temperatures are still abnormally high. Heavier yet, the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/2023-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record-by-far">10 hottest years since record-keeping began</a> have all occurred in the past decade.</p>
<p>Not only does the world need to cool down, it also needs to lighten up. As <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/chancellor/cu-boulder-where-you-are-stand-climate-change-using-power-humor-start-conversation">professors who study climate comedy</a>, we can tell you that the need for levity is one reason climate comedy works.</p>
<h2>Lightening up to engage with tough stuff</h2>
<p>For many generations, comedy has been an effective pathway to not only lighten things up but to propose unlikely solutions.</p>
<p>In ancient Greece, comic playwright Aristophanes took on the crisis of his times – the Peloponnesian War – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27549461">with a comedy</a> in which women from both sides of the conflict enact a sex strike until their men agree to a peace treaty. As you can imagine, sexual innuendo abounds.</p>
<p>Brand, the British comedian, teamed up with <a href="https://theconversation.com/jo-brand-translated-my-science-im-certain-that-comedy-can-connect-people-to-climate-change-223745">climate scientist Mark Maslin</a> to find novel ways to communicate effectively about the climate crisis. In a video, they <a href="https://youtu.be/SA87n9jrWU0?si=iZEilVCj8oEsAcy1">effectively communicate together</a> about climate change causes and consequences. Humorously drawing out their contrasting communication styles, they find the funny as Brand pops up with observations like, “If you liked climate crisis, you’re going to love climate complete f---ing collapse.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">British comedian Jo Brand and scientist Mark Maslin play off each other to educate the public about climate change.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Their mix of clever timing, absurdity, scatology and full commitment to each of their roles as scientist and comedian <a href="https://youtu.be/9ZGjEHxoDiQ?si=rBbq6Ob1byWT9i2L">gave their climate comedy traction</a>, with over 3 million views.</p>
<p>In South Africa, the group <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PoliticallyAweh">Politically Aweh has been producing creative content</a> about climate change and other connected issues in the run-up to their general election this year.</p>
<p>In one <a href="https://youtu.be/N3n1HgwW8jg?si=FHDuGU8pAzMGgRCK">YouTube video</a>, host Zipho Majova creatively compares our collective avoidance of dealing with climate change with avoiding our mothers’ texts. She then says, “You can’t ignore messages from mom forever. And by mom, I mean mother Earth!” The skilled editing of news media clips and popular TV shows woven into Zipho’s commentary makes this climate comedy take an effective one.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Political Aweh takes on ignorance of climate change.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In the U.S., creative collectives such as <a href="https://www.climatetownproductions.com/">Climate Town</a> in New York, <a href="https://yellowdotstudios.com/">Yellow Dot Studios</a> in Los Angeles, the <a href="https://cmsimpact.org/">Center for Media and Social Impact</a> in Washington, D.C., and our <a href="https://insidethegreenhouse.org/">Inside the Greenhouse</a> project in Boulder, Colorado, are working to alleviate climate anxiety and activate people to discuss climate change and do something about it.</p>
<p>With elements of exaggeration, innuendo, witty recognition of truths, suspense and ultimate honesty, climate comedy from groups like these and on late-night shows <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8zAbFKpW0">like John Oliver’s</a> “Last Week Tonight” resonates.</p>
<h2>Why climate comedy works</h2>
<p>Comedy has the ability to transcend science-speak and open up conversations with new audiences while helping “keep it real” and identifying solutions.</p>
<p>It can also provide emotional relief as it lowers people’s defenses and allows them to find promise and possibility for envisioning positive change.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Comedians discuss climate change using comedy.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Through our research, we have found that comedy can help college students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623513">work through negative emotions</a> associated with climate change. In one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSKgpVnv6xM">Earth Day show</a>, a fashionista student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, craving a loophole for satisfying her clothing addiction, discovers thrifting, and comically quips, “Nothing says ‘I love Planet Earth’ more than wearing someone else’s clothes.”</p>
<p>Creative movies like “<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-look-up-hollywoods-primer-on-climate-denial-illustrates-5-myths-that-fuel-rejection-of-science-174266">Don’t Look Up!</a>” and TV shows like <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81500842">“Unstable,” starring Rob Lowe</a>, comedically address themes such as climate change and science denial by making fun of some behaviors while bringing serious problems into everyday life. Lowe’s biotech billionaire character’s efforts to capture carbon from the atmosphere in cement got people talking about carbon capture and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/concrete-traps-co2-soaked-air-climate-friendly-test-2023-02-03/">similar projects in real life</a>.</p>
<p>Introducing ridiculous ideas into an otherwise logical world like comedians <a href="https://www.chucknicecomic.com/">Chuck Nice</a> – co-host of “StarTalk” with Neil deGrasse Tyson – and <a href="https://www.kashapatel.com/">Kasha Patel</a> each do can also get people laughing. So can imitation and playfulness with social inversions, which you’ll see from comedians <a href="https://www.nicoleconlan.com/">Nicole Conlan</a>, who writes for “The Daily Show,” and <a href="https://www.rolliewilliamscomedy.com/climate-town">Rollie Williams</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Rollie Williams explains how your money is funding Big Oil behind your back.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Although some of the solutions put forth by comedians may seem ridiculous, history can tell us that such antics can draw attention and lead to change.</p>
<p>The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. and the Hip Hop Caucus have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0k9R4DWtuU&t=225s">teamed up with comedians</a> for years to engage audiences on climate change. Their new documentary with comedian Wanda Sykes mixes in comedy while documenting the rising risks of sea-level rise <a href="https://hiphopcaucus.org/hip-hop-caucus-short-film-underwater-projects-selected-for-social-justice-now-film-festival-and-dc-environmental-film-festival/">in Norfolk, Virginia</a>.</p>
<p>Comedy can run the risk of merely distracting people from the serious climate challenges before us or trivializing the problems. However, the transformative and subversive power of comedy as a vehicle for social, political, economic and cultural change is proving to be strong.</p>
<p>When unleashed into our collective consciousness, jokes can be healing contagion as they elicit laughter and open the mind. In that moment, rigidity is relaxed, the single solution is bifurcated, hypocrisy is exposed and delight intoxicates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxwell Boykoff receives funding from National Science Foundation, the National Parks Service Climate Change Response Program and the Argosy Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Osnes receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Argosy Foundation. </span></em></p>
Jokes can be a healing contagion as they expose hypocrisy, spark laughter and open minds.
Maxwell Boykoff, Professor of Environmental Studies and Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder
Beth Osnes, Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206191
2023-09-20T20:06:20Z
2023-09-20T20:06:20Z
The joke’s on us – how big tech is replicating our laughter online
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546609/original/file-20230906-19-89j4qb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=700%2C5%2C3293%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christian Bowen/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human laughter as we know it likely <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolutionary-origins-of-laughter-are-rooted-more-in-survival-than-enjoyment-57750">developed between ten and 16 million years</a> ago. For context, <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/stone-tools#:%7E:text=The%20earliest%20stone%20toolmaking%20developed,cores%2C%20and%20sharp%20stone%20flakes.">the stone tools</a> our distant human ancestors made in the Early Stone Age date back around 2.6 million years. These are vast time spans, but it was perhaps good that our Palaeolithic ancestors had a sense of humour ready to deal with tech fails such as a blunt hammerstone. </p>
<p>Why does this matter? Well, let’s fast forward to today and our contemporary issues with technology, such as how to deal with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWlRWnAZH8&ab_channel=Mrwhosetheboss">things we’ve made when they fail us</a>. Anger is a common response (see the video below) – but tech companies would much rather harness the soothing power of laughter.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Man Destroys Computer In a Cubicle Rage, 29 million views, posted 16 years ago.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Social animals that we are, humans have built <a href="https://online.uwa.edu/news/benefits-of-smiling-and-laughter/#:%7E:text=Laughter%20stimulates%20organs.,the%20physical%20effects%20of%20aging.">important societal functions</a> around laughter in a thousand different ways. </p>
<p>Laughter can repair a conversation gone awry. It can signal that we support someone in a group or think we belong to a community. It can be a flirtation device or simply suggest benevolence when engaging with others. Some people use laughter to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/04/10/using-laughter-to-build-trust-at-work/?sh=225c18e643c9">manufacture instant feelings of trust</a>. Others laugh at a <a href="https://bigthink.com/thinking/philosophy-laughing-at-funerals/">funerals</a>.</p>
<p>The short-term effects of laughter <a href="https://amavic.com.au/news---resources/stethoscope/the-value-of-laughter-in-medicine">are medically proven</a>. It can send endorphins to the brain and <a href="https://neurosciencenews.com/humor-therapy-depression-24507/">reduce depression and anxiety symptoms</a>. Laughter can even <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-10-more-bearable-after-laughing-with-friends-3368">raise one’s pain threshold</a>by as much as 10%. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-10-more-bearable-after-laughing-with-friends-3368">Pain 10% more bearable after laughing with friends</a>
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<p>However, one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughter-can-communicate-a-lot-more-than-good-humor-people-use-it-to-smooth-social-interactions-193279">social functions of laughter</a> that interests tech giants and online app developers is its ability to soothe and to smooth. In an era in which we are increasingly reliant on digital devices and a rapidly growing online service industry, humour can be a <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456">potent form of stress relief</a>.</p>
<p>Clearly, big industry players would prefer we hold on to our devices rather than angrily quitting or hitting them whenever an error 404 message appears. Or an update seems stuck at 10% completion. Laughter helps us to deal with these frustrating experiences.</p>
<p>If our <a href="https://blog.hubstaff.com/virtual-assistant-software/">virtual assistants</a>, <a href="https://www.analyticsinsight.net/cybernetics-spells-the-new-dawn-for-robotics/#:%7E:text=Cybernetics%20as%20a%20concept%20is,general%20and%20robotics%20in%20particular.">cybernetic robots</a>, and <a href="https://www.xrtoday.com/mixed-reality/metaverse-avatar-creation-how-to-create-a-metaverse-avatar/">digital avatars</a> can emote a sense of humour that pleases us, the logic is that this will help us tolerate the irksome aspects of technology. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apple-wants-to-know-if-youre-happy-or-sad-as-part-of-its-latest-software-update-who-will-this-benefit-210789">Apple wants to know if you’re happy or sad as part of its latest software update. Who will this benefit?</a>
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<h2>Datafied humour</h2>
<p>Trying to reproduce laughter digitally comes with its own set of challenges. Tech companies start by understanding what we find funny – through analysing what we produce and interact with online. Think of the last thing that made you laugh. Chances are it was a pun. However, chances are also it wasn’t even a joke based on words.</p>
<p>This is where data and our reaction to it comes into play. One study found there is an <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvezb/laughing-crying-emoji-divisive-gen-z-mums%20%E2%80%9C%E2%80%9D">85% chance</a> we’ll use the laughing-crying face emoji to react to something we find even remotely funny online. We deploy this versatile “<a href="https://www.protocol.com/laugh-cry-most-used-emoji">face with tears of joy</a>” to signal appreciation, share laughter, and reward our friends’ wit in chat groups. LOL anyone?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546552/original/file-20230906-20-3su8ka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lol anyone?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Rawpixel</span></span>
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<p>Yet each time we post a digital smiley, it creates a machine-readable tag. Think of it as a process of adding invisible writing to whatever it is we’re adding the emoji to – this is metadata or “data about data”. </p>
<p>We produce billions of those tell-tale tags each day. They allow algorithms to develop their own sense of human humour and perfect their funny-content-and-user matchmaking. The algorithms learn from our “likes”, (basically <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90780140/the-inside-story-of-how-facebook-designed-the-like-button-and-made-social-media-into-a-popularity-contest">the business model of Meta</a>, the company formerly known as Facebook). </p>
<p>It’s all about figuring out that personal taste profile – something that used to happen explicitly via surveys, but now can <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/datamining.asp">transpire invisibly</a> without us even being asked. </p>
<p>There are many of these algorithms, working in many different ways, but we have only limited information about them. As with Netflix’s famed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8OK1HBEgn0&t=46s&ab_channel=WeAreNetflix">recommendation engine</a>, exactly how an algorithm functions, more precisely its source code, is often a well-kept trade secret of the company that employs it to detect, analyse and recommend humorous content. </p>
<p>Here’s what we do know though. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/feed-me-4-ways-to-take-control-of-social-media-algorithms-and-get-the-content-you-actually-want-204374">Feed me: 4 ways to take control of social media algorithms and get the content you actually want</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Witscript, TikTok and Instagram</h2>
<p>The purpose of these algorithms is to match us to something we personally find funny and keep us <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/22/kids-are-glued-to-their-screens-but-parents-are-in-no-position-to-criticize">“glued” to our devices</a>. But the kinds of datafied humour producing a virtual laugh adhesive can vary widely. </p>
<p>The current most commercially viable example of applying a humour AI to digital applications is the chatbot. Chatbots draw on vast amounts of language data sets, which are processed through machine learning and used to formulate text based on a user-given prompt or dialogue.</p>
<p>Encoding verbal humour this way into a chatbot’s algorithmic DNA has produced <a href="https://witscript.com/">Witscript</a>, a self-proclaimed “joke generator powered by artificial intelligence […] and the wit of a four-time Emmy-winning comedy writer”, <a href="https://www.emmys.com/bios/joe-toplyn">Joe Toplyn</a>.</p>
<p>Language-based joke generators like Witscript turn on the same generative AI principles as ChatGPT. Witscript’s originator <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02008">claims</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>human evaluators judged Witscript’s responses to input sentences to be jokes more than 40% of the time. This is evidence that Witscript represents an important next step toward giving a chatbot a human-like sense of humor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, TikTok is equipped with one of the best <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-0716-2197-4_1">recommending engines</a> in the business. The app’s average user typically spends a whopping <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user-statistics/#:%7E:text=TikTok%20users%20spend%20a%20significant,2.3%20years%20on%20the%20app.">1.5 hours per day</a> on the platform, which draws them in through an assemblage of algorithms creating TikTok’s For You page experience. It is mostly filled with viral videos, memes and other <a href="https://the-media-leader.com/tiktok-is-mainly-for-comedy-and-humor-says-gen-z/">trending short-form comedy content</a>. </p>
<p>By tracking not only our active, but also our <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/unique-power-tiktok-s-algorithm">passive behaviour</a>
when we consume digital content, (for example how many times we loop a video, how quickly we scroll past certain content and whether we are drawn to a particular category of effects and sounds), the app infers how funny we find something. This then triggers a process of sending this content to other user profiles similar to ours. Their reactions set off another wave of digital shares – the basics of viral humour.</p>
<p>That TikTok’s automated humour pipeline just <em>feels</em> right to its mostly Gen Z users is underlined by the fact that 54 % of US teens <a href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/new-report-on-teen-social-media-use-underlines-the-rise-of-tiktok-and-the/629377/">said last year</a> it would be hard to give up their connection to social media. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-if-tiktok-and-other-apps-are-collecting-your-data-what-are-the-actual-consequences-187277">Even if TikTok and other apps are collecting your data, what are the actual consequences?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Instagram is another app that wants you to feel good about what it lets you do with its application features. Its react messages give us an animated flurry of smiles when our finger taps the phone screen to release a laugh cascade. </p>
<p>Live videos enable users to unleash a swirling mass of Quick Stream Reactions while watching, one option being big-toothed smiles. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529377/original/file-20230531-15-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot from a YouTube tutorial video on Instagram animated reactions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1j9rUuqzjY&ab_channel=MasterAbhay">Author provided/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This way of making tech feel less techy is eerily reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160926-where-does-canned-laughter-come-from-and-where-did-it-go">canned laughs</a> that floated out of the TV set and into our living rooms with every laugh-tracked sitcom made in the 1980s. </p>
<p>There is no end to the ingenuity with which we try to make each other, and ourselves, comfortingly laugh in real life. Why should our online world and our <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30203/datafication#:%7E:text=This%20buzzword%20describes%20an%20organizational,is%20said%20to%20be%20datafied.">datafied</a> selves that inhabit it not work that way too? And why stop at artificial apps, if we can have artificial people?</p>
<h2>The avatars: ERICA, Jess, and Wendy</h2>
<p>Laughter is one of the most ubiquitous and pleasurable things humans do. Just ask the international team of roboticists who built a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbqRmqdEFQ&ab_channel=HTTech">synthetic humanoid named ERICA</a>.
<a href="https://robotsguide.com/robots/erica/">ERICA</a> was designed to detect when you’re laughing. She would then decide whether to laugh in return and choose to reciprocate with either a chuckle or a giggle.</p>
<p>(If this sounds familiar, the sci-fi series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqKiZhEFFw&ab_channel=WarnerBros.UK%26Ireland">Westworld</a> depicts lifelike android “hosts” who populate a theme park and interact convincingly real with humans). </p>
<p>When we talked to Divesh Lala, one of ERICA’s creators, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN2enf2ptBA&t=1s&ab_channel=AHSNConference">he told us</a> the goal for this project (completed in 2022) was to add more humanness to robots. Or at least the semblance. </p>
<p>But laughter is a very complex human emotion to replicate – 16 million years, remember? So, the challenge to emulate a nonverbal human process in real-world situations was formidable. </p>
<p>ERICA may be <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/robot-laugh/">10-20 years away</a> from laughing spontaneously and realistically at her humans, says Koji Inoue, assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Informatics and lead author on <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.933261/full">a paper describing the ERICA project</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robotics-science-fiction-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-artificial-woman-86092">Robotics, science fiction and the search for the perfect artificial woman</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But let’s look at the data that her AI framework was trained on. In this case, the Japanese research team used, or datafied, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/robot-laugh/">80 speed-dating dialogues</a> from a matchmaking session with Kyoto University students.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKbqRmqdEFQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-double-edged-sword-of-making-robots-more-human/id1636813577?i=1000577237029">double-edged sword</a> here is, of course, that not all future users who interact with ERICA will laugh as if they were on a date. Yet, understanding this difference in setting, tone, intention, context, and social purpose, is what they would expect of a machine designed to look and sound like a laughing human.</p>
<p>This “fooling act” is the intention of the Japanese government’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/japan/2020/11/20/japans-moonshot-research-program-is-taking-on-the-biggest-challenges/">Moonshot Research and Development </a> program which aims to “tackle important social issues, including Japan’s shrinking and ageing societies, global climate change, and extreme natural disasters”. It provided funding to the ERICA team with the aim of making this emotional service android laugh convincingly in thousands of different, unique situations.</p>
<p>But an AI sense of humour is tricky to get right – as other avatar examples prove. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546583/original/file-20230906-27-gl8rol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of Jess on Facebook Messenger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The inability of Jetstar Jess – the airline’s virtual interactive interface – to crack jokes in the self-help chat desk <a href="https://www.passengerselfservice.com/2018/02/jetstars-chatbot-jess-is-now-on-facebook-messenger/">was all too obvious</a> when she launched in 2013. Some chatters were more intent on <a href="https://www.escape.com.au/news/the-bizarre-questions-people-ask-jetstars-virtual-assistant/news-story/b24e68bfa3ad88d628adca10e3610e24">trying to get a cheeky smile</a> out of the avatar. She can now be found in Facebook messenger. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the 3D-live-action-rendered <a href="https://wendy.westpac.com.au/">Westpac Wendy</a>, who says on the bank’s website that “Westpac have employed me as a Digital Coach because they want to use new technology to help young Aussies”, made her online debut a decade after Jess. She seems slightly better, with an improved ability to emote a more believable sense of humour. </p>
<p>Westpac’s AI technology allows the realistic rendering of Wendy’s face to smile in perfect unison with a computer-generated voice that tells PG-rated jokes when so asked. For instance, “I read a book on anti-gravity, I couldn’t put it down.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546559/original/file-20230906-23-8q4djc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshot of Westpac Wendy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Westpac</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Wendy delivers her wit, her avatar face expresses a digitised version of a true <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/definition/duchenne-smile/">Duchenne smile</a>. This complex, concerted mobilisation of facial muscles around our mouth and our eyes reads as a genuine smile, compared to the social smile we give to others as common courtesy (<a href="https://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/babys-first-social-smile#:%7E:text=But%20starting%20between%206%20and,So%20be%20on%20the%20lookout.">developed as infants between six and eight weeks</a>).</p>
<p>The race for replication is certainly on, with new Wendy avatars and many other humour-enabled androids appearing each year at tech expos. The AI scientists’ vision is of a <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/280599/20220915/laughing-ai-scientists-teaching-robot-laugh-jokes-right-time.htm">future with artificial people</a> who smile reassuringly back at us. </p>
<p>Here again, our use of online laughter is the key. These avatars are designed to feel as normal as programmers and web designers can possibly make them – but will they ever be as natural as the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-possibility-paradigm/201106/youre-not-laughing-enough-and-thats-no-joke">mirth of a four-year-old</a>, who laughs on average 300 times a day?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Laughter is one of the most ubiquitous and pleasurable things humans do, which is why companies online want to know what we find funny.
Benjamin Nickl, Lecturer in International Comparative Culture, Literature, and Translation Studies, University of Sydney
Christopher John Muller, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Media, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193279
2023-07-25T12:23:48Z
2023-07-25T12:23:48Z
Laughter can communicate a lot more than good humor – people use it to smooth social interactions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539054/original/file-20230724-14014-5js0is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=964%2C554%2C7074%2C4796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A well-deployed laugh can help grease a social interaction, even if nothing is funny.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/three-young-people-sit-around-a-table-and-giggle-as-royalty-free-image/1391836113">Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Laughter is an everyday reminder that we humans are animals. In fact, when recorded laughter is slowed down, listeners <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.03.003">can’t tell whether the sound is from a person or an animal</a>.</p>
<p>We throw our heads back and bare our teeth in a monkeylike grin. Sometimes we double over and lose our ability to speak for a moment, reverting temporarily to hooting apes. And just as hoots and howls help strengthen bonds in a troop of primates or a pack of wolves, laughter <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.07.002">helps us connect with others</a>. </p>
<p>Laughter is <a href="https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.3.2.10944">evolutionarily ancient</a>. Known as a “play signal,” mammalian laughter accompanies playful interactions to signal harmless intentions and keep the play going. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0lV838pvdU">Chimps</a> laugh. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-84UJpYFRM">Rats</a> laugh. <a href="https://www.petalk.org/petalk.org/LaughingDog.pdf">Dogs</a> laugh. Perhaps even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1578/AM.31.2.2005.187">dolphins</a> laugh.</p>
<p>And laughter is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JONB.0000023654.73558.72">essential feature</a> of human social interactions. We laugh when we’re amused, of course. But we also laugh out of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.122.3.250">embarrassment</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1993.tb00478.x">politeness</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.39.1.39">nervousness</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000156">derision</a>.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pdDe_8wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">psychology researcher who studies</a> how people use laughter to connect, and sometimes disconnect, with others. For humans, laughter has expanded from its original function as a play signal to serve a variety of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12383">social functions</a>.</p>
<h2>Laughter smooths social interactions</h2>
<p>Amused laughter is a response to <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-deconstructs-humor-what-makes-some-things-funny-64414">what scholars of humor call</a> a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000041">benign violation</a>” – a situation that could represent a threat but that the laughing person has concluded is safe. (Psychologists love to ruin good things like comedy by overexplaining them.) </p>
<p>Laughter is a way to communicate that an interaction is playful, harmless and unserious. It’s often not a reliable sign that a person is having a good time, even though people sometimes laugh when they are enjoying themselves. An awkward exchange, a misunderstanding, a mocking joke – all these potentially uncomfortable moments are smoothed over by laughter. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I were curious about whether the tendency to laugh is a trait that is consistent for each person regardless of context or whether it depends on whom they’re interacting with. In one study, we had people talk to 10 strangers in a series of one-on-one conversations. Then we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0187">counted how many times they laughed</a>.</p>
<p>To our surprise, we found that how often a person laughs – at least when talking to strangers – is fairly consistent. Some people are laughers, and others are not. Whom they were talking to didn’t have a strong effect. At least in our sample, there weren’t hilarious partners who made everyone they talked to laugh.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man smiling sitting beside a woman with an uncomfortable expression" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539055/original/file-20230724-17-fu7dml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laughter can be a response to an uncomfortable interaction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/awkward-conversation-among-coworkers-man-thinks-hes-royalty-free-image/980443052">corners74/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that the people who tended to laugh more enjoyed the conversations less. If you intrinsically enjoy talking to strangers and feel comfortable doing so, you may not feel the need to laugh a lot and smooth out the interaction – you trust it is going well. However, people felt they had more in common with these big-time laughers.</p>
<p>So in conversations between strangers, laughing a lot is not a sign of enjoyment, but it will make your partners feel similar to you. They will be likelier to agree that the two of you have something in common, which is a key ingredient in social connection. I suspect people borrow and transform the play signal of laughter to influence situations that, on their face, have nothing to do with play. </p>
<h2>Laughter sends a message</h2>
<p>We humans have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.01.002">remarkable control over our voices</a>. Not only can we speak, but we can also alter the meaning of our words by modifying our vocal pitch, vowel placement, breathiness or nasality. A breathy “hello” becomes a flirtatious advance, a growly “hello” becomes a threat, and an upturned, high-pitched “hello” becomes a fearful question. </p>
<p>This got me thinking: Maybe people change the sound of their laughter depending on what they want to communicate.</p>
<p>After all, while some forms of laughter are considered uncontrollable – the kind that leaves you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(99)80023-3">physically weak</a> and running out of oxygen – <a href="https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2011/OnlineProceedings/RegularSession/Tanaka/Tanaka.pdf">most everyday laughter</a> is at least somewhat under your control. </p>
<p>It turns out that there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.04.005">already</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.2019.8683566">a lot</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.002">of studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JONB.0000023654.73558.72">looking at</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524993113">different</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/TAFFC.2017.2737000">forms</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1391244">of laughter</a>. Although their perspectives and methods differ, researchers agree that laughter takes many acoustic forms and occurs in many different situations.</p>
<p>The most popular approach for categorizing the many forms of laughter is to sort them by the internal state of the person laughing. Is the laughter “genuine,” reflecting a true positive state? Or is it the result of embarrassment, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-it-feel-good-to-see-someone-fail-107349">schadenfreude</a> or mirth?</p>
<p>I wasn’t satisfied with those approaches. Laughter is a communicative behavior. To me it seems we should therefore categorize it according to how it influences the people listening, not based on how the person felt while laughing. The word “cat” transmits the same information to a listener regardless of whether the speaker loves or loathes felines. And the effect of a giggle on a listener is the same regardless of how the giggler feels, assuming the giggle sounds the same.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three men talking and laughing in an office setting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539056/original/file-20230724-29-atdae0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are different flavors of laughter, and context matters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/co-workers-laughing-together-at-meeting-royalty-free-image/645973081">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pleasurable, reassuring or threatening</h2>
<p>With the communicative nature of laughter in mind, my colleagues and I proposed that laughter can be boiled down to three basic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12383">social functions</a> – all under the cloak of playfulness.</p>
<p>First, there’s reward laughter. This type is most clearly linked to laughter’s evolved role as a play signal. It is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00346">pleasurable</a> to hear and produce, thus making a playful interaction even more enjoyable. </p>
<p>Then there’s affiliation laughter. It conveys the same message of harmlessness without delivering a burst of pleasure. People can use it to reassure, appease and soothe. This is the most common laughter in everyday conversations – people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1993.tb00478.x">punctuate their speech</a> with it to ensure that their intentions aren’t misconstrued. </p>
<p>Finally, there’s dominance laughter. This type turns the nonserious message on its head. By laughing at someone, you are conveying that they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.01.012">not worth taking seriously</a>. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183811">identified</a> acoustic properties of laughter that make it sound more rewarding, friendly or dominant. I have also found that people change how their laughter sounds during conversations that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-020-00022-w">emphasize those three social tasks</a>. The changes are subtle because the context – the situation, the people’s relationship, the conversation topic – does a lot to clarify a laugh’s meaning. </p>
<p>There is no such thing as a fake laugh. All laughter serves genuine social functions, helping you navigate complex social interactions. And because you look and sound so silly while doing it, laughter ensures no one takes themselves too seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrienne Wood receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>
Laughter is so fundamental that animals like chimps, rats and dogs share the ability with humans. But in people it serves more serious social functions than just letting others know you’re having fun.
Adrienne Wood, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199367
2023-03-13T20:42:34Z
2023-03-13T20:42:34Z
Why do we laugh when someone falls down? Here’s what science says
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508491/original/file-20230206-15-srbzae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C11%2C7904%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We do not laugh at the other's suffering or distress; we react to the other's surprise, incongruity and bewildered expression, having deciphered that he or she is not in distress and has not really hurt themselves.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who among us has never laughed out loud when a friend stumbles on the pavement, bumps their head while standing up, or misses a step on the stairs? </p>
<p>I’m the first to admit to being guilty of this behaviour. So I would like to take this opportunity to apologize (once again) to my colleague Janie for bursting out laughing when I saw her collapse onto the floor in slow motion, in little jolts, as her legs went numb.</p>
<p>Clumsiness, loss of balance, falls — it’s the stuff of Charlie Chaplin’s adventures, burlesque performances with banana peels, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_zEzzq54Rm0iy7lmmZbCIg"><em>America’s Funniest Home Videos</em></a> children falling and people “getting stuck!” We laugh heartily, often uncontrollably, while watching these scenes. </p>
<p>But shouldn’t we actually feel empathy for the person involved, who is, after all, in a vulnerable, potentially humiliating situation? Rest assured, our laughter is not provoked by lack of empathy or sadism.</p>
<p>As a clinical psychologist who is an expert in the field of emotion regulation, I would like to shed light on the different aspects of these situations which have the potential to trigger our usually well-meaning laughter.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man slips down a snowy staircase" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508435/original/file-20230206-15-1sdsvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We laugh heartily when we are assured that the person who fell did not get hurt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unpredictability and incongruity</h2>
<p>The first of these ingredients is surprise. More specifically, it is seeing a person surprised by a situation in everyday life, when it seemed like they had everything under control only a few seconds earlier. The unexpected situation surprises us and creates a departure from the predictable, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(83)90002-0">from what we expected to see</a>.</p>
<p>This incongruous situation highlights our errors of prediction: we predicted that the sequence of X would be Y, but then the events unfolded in an unexpected way via B. We made a mistake in our prediction of what would happen. It is no longer coherent. Laughing at the situation is a way of resolving the incongruity by formulating a new, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.11.1789">more coherent, comic interpretation of what we witnessed</a>.</p>
<h2>Facial expression</h2>
<p>Faced with this surprising and incongruous situation, our brain searches for information that will allow us to interpret what is happening and to react accordingly. What does the face of the person who stumbles communicate to us? What we decode will determine our reaction.</p>
<p>A study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.06.029">explored this avenue of research</a> with participants who were asked to view 210 images representing three types of faces: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>faces expressing a puzzled look; </p></li>
<li><p>faces expressing pain or anger; and </p></li>
<li><p>people whose bodies were placed in awkward positions, without the face being visible (e.g. the face hidden by skis; or the head shown in profile with the face hidden by the person’s arm). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Twenty extra landscape images were added to the set of photos in order to confuse participants about the purpose of the study. Participants were asked to press a button each time a landscape image appeared and their brain activity was recorded during the task. Participants were also asked to indicate how funny they thought each image was.</p>
<p>At the end of the study, participants rated the images with puzzled faces as funnier than images in which the faces expressed pain or anger, and funnier than images in which bodies were shown in ridiculous positions but no facial expression was seen. The brain data also supported facial expression as an ingredient in how funny we found these bizarre situations to be. </p>
<p>So, when we perceive perplexity in the facial expression of the victim of clumsiness (a look of bewilderment, surprise or astonishment), this information creates a context that triggers our laughter. On the other hand, if we can read suffering or anger in the facial expression, we will be touched by the distress of the victim of the fall and be empathetic to their distress, which will prevent us from laughing. Our neural circuits appear to have the ability to recognize and appreciate the funny elements of unfortunate situations and analyze the context as non-threatening. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PT4fATKBkRI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>What if it were me…</h2>
<p>Witnessing another person’s unfortunate situation causes us to imagine ourselves in that same situation and ask, “What if it were me…?” </p>
<p>We identify with what they are going through and what they must be feeling. This exercise in empathy can quickly activate issues of discomfort, powerlessness, humiliation and shame within us. Laughter in that case allows us to externalize our relief at not being in the shoes of that unfortunate person. </p>
<p>Let’s forgive ourselves for laughing at comical situations involving other people’s clumsiness! We aren’t laughing at the other person’s suffering or distress; we are reacting to their surprise, to the incongruity of the situation and to their bewildered expression, having deciphered that they are not actually in distress and have not really hurt themselves. </p>
<p>And on that note, I look forward to making you laugh when I myself stumble on a crack in the pavement!</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yhKZCy41g5w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199367/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
A clinical psychologist explains what has the potential to trigger our usually well-meaning laughter.
Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, Psychologue, conférencière et professeure associée, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190193
2022-09-22T17:05:18Z
2022-09-22T17:05:18Z
Why do we laugh? New study considers possible evolutionary reasons behind this very human behaviour
<blockquote>
<p>A woman in labour is having a terrible time and suddenly shouts out: “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!” </p>
<p>“Don’t worry,” says the doctor. “These are just contractions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Until now, several <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868320961909">theories</a> have sought to explain what makes something funny enough to make us laugh. These include transgression (something forbidden), puncturing a sense of arrogance or superiority (mockery), and incongruity – the presence of two incompatible meanings in the same situation. </p>
<p>I decided to review all the available literature on laughter and humour published in English over the last ten years to find out if any other conclusions could be drawn. After looking through more than one hundred papers, my <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732118X22000472">study</a> produced one new possible explanation: laughter is a tool nature may have provided us with to help us survive.</p>
<p>I looked at research papers on theories of humour that provided significant information on three areas: the physical features of laughter, the brain centres related to producing laughter, and the health benefits of laughter. This amounted to more than 150 papers that provided evidence for important features of the conditions that make humans laugh.</p>
<p>By organising all the theories into specific areas, I was able to condense the process of laughter into three main steps: bewilderment, resolution and a potential all-clear signal, as I will explain. </p>
<p>This raises the possibility that laughter may have been preserved by <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-natural-selection.html">natural selection</a> throughout the past millennia to help humans survive. It could also explain why we are drawn to people who make us laugh.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HDiRRfKKQ08?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The evolution of laughter</h2>
<p>The incongruity theory is good at explaining humour-driven laughter, but it is not enough. In this case, laughing is not about an all-pervasive sense of things being out of step or incompatible. It’s about finding ourselves in a specific situation that subverts our expectations of normality. </p>
<p>For example, if we see a tiger strolling along a city street, it may appear incongruous, but it is not comic – on the contrary, it would be terrifying. But if the tiger rolls itself along like a ball then it becomes comical. </p>
<p>Animated anti-hero Homer Simpson makes us laugh when he falls from the roof of his house and bounces like a ball, or when he attempts to “strangle” his son Bart, eyes boggling and tongue flapping as if he were made of rubber. These are examples of the human experience shifting into an exaggerated, cartoon version of the world where anything – especially the ridiculous – can happen.</p>
<p>But to be funny, the event must also be perceived as harmless. We laugh because we acknowledge that the tiger or Homer never effectively hurt others, nor are hurt themselves, because essentially their worlds are not real.</p>
<p>So we can strip back laughter to a three-step process. First, it needs a situation that seems odd and induces a sense of incongruity (bewilderment or panic). Second, the worry or stress the incongruous situation has provoked must be worked out and overcome (resolution). Third, the actual release of laughter acts as an all-clear siren to alert bystanders (relief) that they are safe.</p>
<p>Laughter could well be a signal people have used for millennia to show others that a <a href="https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/fight-or-flight-response/">fight or flight</a> response is not required and that the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987798900615">perceived threat has passed</a>. That’s why laughing is often contagious: it unites us, makes us more sociable, signals the end of fear or worry. Laughter is life affirming.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6n9ESFJTnHs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We can translate this directly to the 1936 film <a href="https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/6-Filming-Modern-Times">Modern Times</a>, where Charlie Chaplin’s comic tramp character obsessively fixes bolts in a factory like a robot instead of a man. It makes us laugh because we unconsciously want to show others that the disturbing spectacle of a man reduced to a robot is a fiction. He is a human being, not a machine. There is no cause for alarm.</p>
<h2>How humour can be effective</h2>
<p>Similarly, the joke at the beginning of this article starts with a scene from normal life, then turns into something a little strange and baffling (the woman behaving incongruously), but which we ultimately realise is not serious and actually very comical (the double meaning of the doctor’s response induces relief), triggering laughter.</p>
<p>As I showed in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0732118X15300167">previous study</a> about the human behaviour of weeping, laughter has a strong importance for the physiology of our body. Like weeping – and chewing, breathing or walking – laughter is a rhythmic behaviour which is a releasing mechanism for the body. </p>
<p>The brain centres that regulate laughter are those which control emotions, fears and anxiety. The release of laughter breaks the stress or tension of a situation and floods the body with relief. </p>
<p>Humour is often used in a hospital setting to help patients in their healing, as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35180260/">clown therapy studies</a> have shown. Humour can also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11211708/">improve blood pressure and immune defences</a>, and help <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34642668/">overcome anxiety and depression</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28679569/">Research</a> examined in my review has also shown that humour is important in teaching, and is used to emphasise concepts and thoughts. Humour relating to course material sustains attention and produces a more relaxed and productive learning environment. In a teaching setting, humour also reduces anxiety, enhances participation and increases motivation.</p>
<h2>Love and laughter</h2>
<p>Reviewing this data on laughter also permits a hypothesis about why people fall in love with someone because “they make me laugh”. It is not just a matter of being funny. It could be something more complex. If someone else’s laughter provokes ours, then that person is signalling that we can relax, we are safe – and this creates trust.</p>
<p>If our laughter is triggered by their jokes, it has the effect of making us overcome fears caused by a strange or unfamiliar situation. And if someone’s ability to be funny inspires us to override our fears, we are more drawn to them. That could explain why we adore those who make us laugh.</p>
<p>In contemporary times, of course, we don’t think twice about laughing. We just enjoy it as an uplifting experience and for the sense of well-being it brings. From an evolutionary point of view, this very human behaviour has perhaps fulfilled an important function in terms of danger awareness and self-preservation. Even now, if we have a brush with danger, afterwards we often react with laughter due to a feeling of sheer relief.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Valerio Bellieni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Could laughter be a survival mechanism?
Carlo Valerio Bellieni, Professor of Pediatrics, Università di Siena
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185012
2022-07-26T11:59:25Z
2022-07-26T11:59:25Z
Feeling connected enhances mental and physical health – here are 4 research-backed ways to find moments of connection with loved ones and strangers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475479/original/file-20220721-1419-s9bw48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5370%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Connecting can mean sharing a hearty laugh.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-happy-young-females-standing-outdoors-royalty-free-image/1193052039">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A woman and her fiancé joke and laugh together while playing video games after a long day.</p>
<p>A college freshman interrupts verbal harassment aimed at a neighbor, who expresses gratitude as they walk home together.</p>
<p>A man receives a phone call to confirm an appointment, and stumbles into a deep and personal conversation about racism in America with the stranger on the other end of the line.</p>
<p>Each of these scenarios was recalled by a research participant as a moment of meaningful human connection. One’s sense of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497">belonging</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000129">emotional safety</a> with family, friends and communities is built through actual interactions. As these examples suggest, these connections can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Often small and fleeting and sometimes powerfully memorable, moments of connection occur with loved ones and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000281">strangers</a>, in person and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2056305120942888">online</a>.</p>
<p>I spent the past several years exploring moments of connection as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=50JpQTIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">graduate student in psychology</a>, with a particular eye toward how people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F02654075211040221">experienced meaningful connection during the pandemic</a>. It’s not just a little bonus to forge these connections; they have real benefits.</p>
<p>Feeling well connected to others contributes to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615570616">mental health</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072420-122921">meaning in life</a>, and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-052020-110732">physical well-being</a>. When loneliness or isolation becomes chronic, human <a href="https://theconversation.com/socially-isolated-people-have-differently-wired-brains-and-poorer-cognition-new-research-185150">brains</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0963721421999630">bodies</a> suffer, straining a person’s long-term well-being at least as significantly as major health risks such as obesity and air pollution.</p>
<p>Researchers know what kinds of behavior enhance feelings of social connection. Here are four ways to connect.</p>
<h2>1. Heart-to-hearts</h2>
<p>For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when asked about meaningful connections are heart-to-heart conversations. These are key moments of <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1988-97881-020">emotional intimacy</a>. One person opens up about something personal, often emotional and vulnerable, and in return another person communicates understanding, acceptance and care – what researchers call <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398694.013.0018">responsiveness</a>.</p>
<p>For example, I could open up to you about my current experience of becoming a new father, sharing complex and precious sentiments that I would not disclose to just anyone. If I perceive in that moment that you really “get” what I reveal to you, that you accept my feelings as valid, whether or not you can relate to them, and that I matter to you, then I’ll probably feel a sense of closeness and trust.</p>
<p>In emotionally intimate moments, personal sharing is often reciprocal, though a sense of connection can arise <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1238">whether you are the one opening up or offering responsiveness</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man holds ladder while woman works on ceiling fixture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475476/original/file-20220721-14484-uiri9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lending a hand can be one way to build a connection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-renovating-home-with-father-royalty-free-image/1268388388">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Giving and receiving help</h2>
<p>A key way that people bond is by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195342819.013.0009">giving and receiving support</a>. There are two kinds of social support that often figure in moments of connection. Instrumental support is tangibly helping with the practicalities of a solution. For example, if you bring me groceries when I’m under the weather, we would be bonding through instrumental support.</p>
<p>Emotional support is nurturing another’s feelings. If you dropped by to give me a hug when I’m stressed out, this would be emotional support.</p>
<p>Either way, your actions are responsive: You understand my situation and by taking action you show that you care.</p>
<p>While it’s perhaps no surprise that you might feel connected when someone offers you responsive kindness, it works in the other direction too. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0963721416686212">Supporting others</a> builds that feeling of connection, especially if you sincerely want to help and feel your aid is useful.</p>
<p>To be effective, though, you need to be responding to another person’s needs rather than your own idea of what they need. Sometimes this means offering emotional support to help another person calm down so they can tackle their own problem, despite your own desire to jump in and solve the issue for them.</p>
<h2>3. Positive vibes</h2>
<p>Vulnerability and support are no joke, but meaningful interactions need not be somber. Research shows that people gain a sense of connection by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.02.002">experiencing positive emotions together</a>. And this sense of connection is not only in your mind. When two people share this kind of good vibe, their bodies coordinate too. They synchronize, with simultaneous gestures and facial expressions, and even biomarkers such as heart rate and hormones shifting in similar patterns.</p>
<p>Human beings rely on these positive, synchronous moments as a basic connecting force beginning in infancy, and people continue to seek out synchronous interactions throughout life. Think of enjoyable activities like <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150221">singing</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.02.004">dancing</a> together – they’re embodied forms of connection that actually release endorphins that help you feel bonded. Same goes for <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256229">laughing together</a>, which comes with the bonus that a shared sense of humor suggests a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000266">similar sense of reality</a>, which enhances connection.</p>
<p>When someone tells you about a positive event in their life, a reliable way to enhance bonds is to sincerely and enthusiastically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(10)42004-3">respond to their good news</a>: celebrating, congratulating, saying “I’m so happy for you.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two men embrace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475477/original/file-20220721-10497-9cgmaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Affection and gratitude can be expressed through words or actions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-men-hugging-royalty-free-image/1208881914">Sarah Mason/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Affirming expressions</h2>
<p>Those moments when you let people know how much you appreciate, like or love them can be brief but powerful. Expressing and receiving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370500101071">affection</a> and <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00439.x">gratitude</a> are especially well-researched means of bonding. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2021.1951794">Outright manifestations of affection</a> can come in the form of direct verbal declarations, like saying “I love you,” or physical expressions, like holding hands.</p>
<h2>Imprecision and imperfection</h2>
<p>Attempts at connection can be complicated by two people’s individual perceptions and preferences.</p>
<p>Humans aren’t mind readers. Anyone’s sense of what others think and feel is at best <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12194">moderately accurate</a>. To feel connected, it’s not enough that I genuinely understand you or care for you, for example. If you don’t perceive me as understanding or caring as we interact, you likely won’t walk away feeling connected. This is especially an issue when you’re lonely, because loneliness can lead you to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1088868310377394">view your interactions in a more negative way</a>.</p>
<p>Each person also has different preferences for ways of connecting that more reliably help them to feel bonded. Some people love to talk about their feelings, for example, and may gravitate toward emotional intimacy. Others may open up only with those they deeply trust, but love to connect more widely through humor.</p>
<p>Of course, not all interactions need to be meaningful moments of connection. Even well-bonded infants and caregivers, in that most vital of relationships, are in an observable connected state <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1131074">only 30% of the time</a>.</p>
<p>Moments of connection also need not be extravagant or extraordinary. Simply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_183">turning your attention to others when they want to connect</a> yields great relationship benefits.</p>
<p>Gaining insight into various ways of connection may allow you to practice new ways to engage with others. It may also help you simply pay attention to where these moments already exist in daily life: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000284">Savoring moments when you feel close</a> to others – or even just <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001103">recalling such events</a> – can enhance that sense of connection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Smallen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Psychology researchers know what kinds of behavior enhance feelings of social connection.
Dave Smallen, Community Faculty in Psychology, Metropolitan State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170518
2021-11-02T12:26:47Z
2021-11-02T12:26:47Z
Go ahead, enjoy your memes – they really do help ease pandemic stress
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429639/original/file-20211101-17-lutbi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=843%2C168%2C4271%2C3236&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mini break with a humorous meme can take the momentary edge off during a stressful time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mixed-race-nurse-using-cell-phone-in-hospital-royalty-free-image/606353095">JGI/Tom Grill</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, while trying to feed, entertain and beg-to-sleep an infant whose day care had closed, I needed a break but couldn’t really take one in April of 2020.</p>
<p>Enter memes. Between work, moving the laundry and taking care of my own dogs, I could sneak a peak at Instagram and chuckle at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/05/01/funny-dogs-coronavirus-quarantine-moos-ebof-pkg.cnn">images of very excited pups</a>, psyched that their humans were now home all day, every day. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zuTHbzoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I study media processes and effects</a>, which is the psychology of how media messages can affect you. As the pandemic dragged on, I got more and more interested in how people were using social media – and memes featuring cute and funny pics, in particular – as a way to think and communicate with others about life during a global pandemic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gratified looking kid clenches fist" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429591/original/file-20211101-19-ivtutt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The popular ‘Success Kid’ meme repurposed with a pandemic message.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://imgflip.com/i/4k1taa">imgflip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-memes">Memes are little units of culture</a> that spread from one person to the next. They have existed since long before the birth of the internet, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/18/3/362/4067545?login=true">but digital technology adds new dimensions</a>, given the ease of creating, editing and sharing memes online. Popular internet memes often develop their own names, such as “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/distracted-boyfriend-meme-photographer-interview/">Distracted Boyfriend</a>,” “<a href="https://www.thefader.com/2018/04/03/squat-and-squint-meme-woman">Squinting Woman</a>” and “<a href="https://stacker.com/stories/2650/50-famous-memes-and-what-they-mean">Handshakes</a>.”</p>
<p>I partnered with colleagues <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vj2kbFkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Robin Nabi</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bY-MeC0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Nicholas Eng</a> to investigate the potential effect of mini meme breaks on people’s <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2020/report">pandemic stress and emotions</a>. </p>
<h2>A meme experiment</h2>
<p>The first step in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000371">our research</a> was combing through hundreds of real memes we found in the wild on social media. We asked participants to rate them for how funny and cute they were, as well as how authentic they seemed as popular internet memes.</p>
<p>Using that data, we developed two pools of memes using the same images: One set had captions about COVID-19 and another set had captions unrelated to COVID-19. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1243507031480373248"}"></div></p>
<p>In our main study, we recruited nearly 800 participants to view a series of images using online survey software. One group saw the COVID-19 memes, while a second group saw the memes not about COVID-19. A third group saw image-free plain text that summarized the general idea of the memes, but was not in the least bit funny.</p>
<p>Then, no matter which set of content our participants saw, everyone next answered questions about how they felt in that moment. We asked particularly about how they felt about COVID-19 and their ability to cope with pandemic stress.</p>
<h2>Memes as mood boosters</h2>
<p>People who viewed just three memes rated themselves on a 1-7 scale as calmer, more content and more amused compared with people who didn’t see the memes. For instance, people who saw memes scored, on average, a 4.71 on our positive emotions scale, compared with an average of 3.85 for those who did not see a meme. In short, viewing a few cute or funny memes – regardless of their topic – provided a quick boost of positive emotion for many people. </p>
<iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/memes/comments/i0if7b/me_when_i_order_a_pizza_during_the_pandemic/?ref_source=embed&ref=share&embed=true" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" style="border: none;" height="431" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<p>Moreover, we found that participants who rated themselves higher on the positive emotion scale were also more likely to feel confident in their ability to handle the stress associated with living through a global pandemic. There seems to be value in reframing something that is constantly stressful and scary into a more approachable topic by using humor.</p>
<p>The topic of the memes mattered. People who viewed memes about COVID-19 rated themselves as less stressed about life during a global pandemic. Those who saw COVID-19-related memes also reported thinking more deeply about the memes and their meaning – what media psychologists call “<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/information-processing.html">information processing</a>.” More information processing was related to more confidence in their abilities to handle pandemic-related stress. It’s possible that exerting more effort thinking about the topic could lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.9.1175">mentally rehearsing ways to cope</a> with the related stress, instead of avoiding it entirely. </p>
<p>This work adds to a growing body of research demonstrating that people use media to help them deal with stress. For example, my collaborator Robin Nabi has found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000223">in previous work</a> that using media – whether television, books or social media – is one of the top strategies for managing stress. In her surveys of college students and breast cancer patients, people who choose media for stress management reported it as an effective way to cope. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B-IE5sUFeaf","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Together, these studies suggest that media use is not always <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.613368">the stress-inducing experience</a> or <a href="https://www.wired.com/insights/2015/02/is-social-media-a-waste-of-time/">waste of time</a> that it is sometimes portrayed to be. Instead, it likely depends on the specific type of media message you are consuming, the type of person you are and the situation in which you are consuming it.</p>
<p>The pandemic, with its accompanying restrictions on travel, work and socializing, has been <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2021/02/adults-stress-pandemic">an uncommonly stressful time</a>. Taking a break to view and share bits of cute or funny pop culture commentary in the form of COVID-19-related memes can be a quick and easy way to connect with others and address pandemic stress head on through laughter.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Myrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Social media during the pandemic is not all doom scrolling and despair. Lighter memes have psychological benefits.
Jessica Myrick, Professor of Media Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160905
2021-05-27T15:39:48Z
2021-05-27T15:39:48Z
Laughing through lockdown: why comedy is important in times of crisis
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403130/original/file-20210527-22-qplr1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7393%2C4932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-beautiful-happy-cheerful-asian-chinese-1454274836">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have needed a good laugh over the last 12 months. Searches on Netflix for horror <a href="https://www.digital-i.com/blog/five-facts-about-netflix-viewing-during-the-pandemic/">dipped at the peak of the first lockdown</a>, while stand-up comedy saw a <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-2020-on-netflix">huge jump in viewers</a>.</p>
<p>In the world of social media, accounts poking fun at responses to the virus have also gained enormous followings, with accounts like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/quentin.quarantino/?hl=en">Quentin Quarantino</a> and the Reddit thread <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusMemes/">CoronavirusMemes</a> surging in popularity in the past year.</p>
<p>We’ve spent a significant amount of time joking about Zoom meetings, hand-washing songs, and home haircuts. But what makes us switch so quickly between panicking at death tolls and chuckling at a video sent by a friend?</p>
<p>As a scholar who’s spent much of my career studying laughter and comedy, I often come across surprising functions of humour. I’ve studied Italian comedy and its reception in 16th-century France, the political consequences of laughter in the Wars of Religion, and the historical antecedents to today’s main theories of humour. </p>
<p>Much of my research has revealed fascinating things about how humour appeals to us in times of hardship. But the pandemic has really amplified the roles that comedy can play and brought home our reliance on humour.</p>
<h2>Humour in ancient Rome</h2>
<p>Our need to laugh in the face of disaster is by no means new. In ancient Rome, gladiators would leave humorous graffiti on barrack walls before going to their deaths. The ancient Greeks also sought new ways to <a href="http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/194985/1/194985.pdf">laugh at deadly disease</a>. And during the Black Death pandemic in 1348, the Italian Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron, a collection of often funny tales told by storytellers isolating from the plague.</p>
<p>The need to avoid offence with humour is just as ancient. In 335 BCE, Aristotle advised against laughing at anything painful or destructive. The Roman educator Quintilian also outlined in 95 CE the very fine line between <em>ridere</em> (laughter) and <em>deridere</em> (derision). It’s still generally accepted a common position that humour shouldn’t hurt, and this is particularly true when the object of laughter is already vulnerable.</p>
<p>When the boundary between laughter and derision is respected, comedy can play a key role in helping us to recover from disaster, providing benefits which explain our tendency to seek humour in serious situations, especially in terms of enhancing our sense of physical and mental wellbeing.</p>
<h2>How humour helps during crises</h2>
<p>Laughter serves as a great workout (laughing 100 times burns as many calories as <a href="https://homewoodhealth.com/corporate/blog/humour-therapy">15 minutes on an exercise bike</a>), helping to relax our muscles and promote circulation. Combinations of exercise and laughter — such as the increasingly popular “laughter yoga” — can also provide significant <a href="https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/depression-advisor/laughter-yoga-shows-promise-as-alternative-therapy-in-depression/">benefits to patients with depression</a>. </p>
<p>Laughter also decreases stress hormones and increases endorphins. In tough times, when we have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/music-us-news-ap-top-news-weekend-reads-virus-outbreak-7d86ffc9a7737e8f7b98a0492f850589">thousands of thoughts a day</a>, a bout of giggling provides our brains with respite we desperately need.</p>
<p>In the same way, we seek humour in a crisis because it is difficult to feel <a href="https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/more/news/story/finding-time-to-laugh-why-humour-is-more-important-than-ever-1266">scared and amused</a> at the same time, and most often, the combination of these emotions result in feeling thrill and not terror. </p>
<p>Sigmund Freud explored this in 1905 when revising the so-called <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/#RelThe">“relief theory”</a>, suggesting that laughter feels good because it purges our system of pent-up energy. Even in the 1400s, clerics argued that mirth was vital for keeping up spirits, explaining that people are like <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-56646-3_4">old barrels</a> which explode if they aren’t uncorked from time to time.</p>
<p>As levels of loneliness reached a record high during the winter lockdown (in November, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54973709">one in four UK adults</a> reported feeling lonely), laughter has also been crucial in bringing people together. Not only is it typically a communal activity – some scientists believe that our human ancestors laughed in groups <a href="https://www.livescience.com/9430-study-laughter-contagious.html">before they could speak</a> – it’s even <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2006/061211/full/news061211-7.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=3_nsn6445_deeplink_PID100038822&utm_content=deeplink">more contagious than yawning</a>. </p>
<p>Given that we’re far more likely to laugh at topics we find personally relatable, humour has helped people to identify with one another during lockdowns. This in turn creates a sense of unity and solidarity, alleviating our sense of disconnectedness. Literature scholar and author Gina Barreca maintains that “laughing together is as <a href="https://eu.goupstate.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/03/23/barreca-even-in-this-virus-crisis-laughter-can-be-good-medicine/41789319/">close as you can get without touching”</a>.</p>
<p>Laughter can also be a means of easing our worries. Joking around a fear, especially during a pandemic, can make it <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society-and-culture/we-need-laughter-now-more-than-ever-it-gets-us-through-the-darkest-times-coronavirus-covid-19">more manageable</a>, a phenomenon known by comedians as “finding the funny”. This is linked to “superiority theory”, the idea that we laugh because we feel superior to something or someone else (for example, it’s funny when someone slips on a banana because we ourselves haven’t). </p>
<p>We laugh because we are superior, unthreatened, and in control. In this way, joking about a virus heightens our sense of power over it and relieves anxiety. Joking can also be useful because it enables us to talk about our problems and to express fears we may otherwise find hard to put into words.</p>
<p>Though many of us have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52064153">felt guilty for seeking humour in the pandemic</a>, let’s not add this to our list of worries. Certainly, our situation may not always be a laughing matter. But laughing itself matters, and when used appropriately, it can be one of our most effective coping mechanisms during a crisis, allowing us to find a healthier balance with others, with ourselves, and even with events beyond our control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Rayfield's research into laughter started with a PhD at the University of Oxford which was funded by the AHRC. Her postdoctoral research has been funded by the MHRA.</span></em></p>
It may seem strange to seek humour in the face of disaster, but our need to do so is ancient.
Lucy Rayfield, Lecturer in French, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/145984
2020-11-23T13:19:43Z
2020-11-23T13:19:43Z
Laughing is good for your mind and your body – here’s what the research shows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370594/original/file-20201120-23-q8fagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=594%2C0%2C5397%2C3991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's hard to beat a good laugh with a friend.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cheerful-couple-enjoying-movie-royalty-free-image/1146818927">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amusement and pleasant surprises – and the laughter they can trigger – add texture to the fabric of daily life.</p>
<p>Those giggles and guffaws can seem like just silly throwaways. But laughter, in response to funny events, actually takes a lot of work, because it activates <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/cognitive-neuroscience-humor">many areas of the brain</a>: areas that control motor, emotional, cognitive and social processing. </p>
<p>As I found when writing “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/An-Introduction-to-the-Psychology-of-Humor/Gibson/p/book/9780367029081">An Introduction to the Psychology of Humor</a>,” researchers now appreciate laughter’s power to enhance physical and mental well-being.</p>
<h2>Laughter’s physical power</h2>
<p>People begin laughing in infancy, when it helps develop muscles and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz219">upper body strength</a>. Laughter is not just breathing. It relies on complex combinations of facial muscles, often involving movement of the eyes, head and shoulders.</p>
<p>Laughter – doing it or observing it – activates multiple regions of the brain: the motor cortex, which controls muscles; the frontal lobe, which helps you understand context; and the limbic system, which modulates positive emotions. Turning all these circuits on strengthens neural connections and helps a healthy brain coordinate its activity.</p>
<p>By activating the neural pathways of emotions like joy and mirth, laughter can improve your mood and make your physical and emotional response to stress less intense. For example, laughing may help control brain levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, similar to what <a href="https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2015.45.2.221">antidepressants</a> do. By minimizing your brain’s responses to threats, it limits the release of neurotransmitters and hormones like cortisol that can wear down your <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f7274">cardiovascular, metabolic and immune systems</a> over time. Laughter’s kind of <a href="https://doi.org/10.7150/ijms.6.200">like an antidote to stress</a>, which weakens these systems and increases vulnerability to diseases.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="women laughing together at an outdoor meal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370595/original/file-20201120-19-1ogy9m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting the joke is a good workout for your brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-women-laughing-together-at-dining-table-royalty-free-image/126363989">Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Laughter’s cognitive power</h2>
<p>A good sense of humor and the laughter that follows depend on an ample measure of social intelligence and working memory resources.</p>
<p>Laughter, like humor, typically sparks from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23082946">recognizing the incongruities or absurdities</a> of a situation. You need to mentally resolve the surprising behavior or event – otherwise you won’t laugh; you might just be confused instead. Inferring the intentions of others and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00126">taking their perspective</a> can enhance the intensity of the laughter and amusement you feel.</p>
<p>To “get” a joke or humorous situation, you need to be able to see the lighter side of things. You must believe that other possibilities besides the literal exist – think about being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1997.10.4.439">amused by comic strips with talking animals</a>, like those found in “<a href="https://www.thefarside.com">The Far Side</a>.”</p>
<h2>Laughter’s social power</h2>
<p>Many cognitive and social skills work together to help you monitor when and why laughter occurs during conversations. You don’t even need to hear a laugh to be able to laugh. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enl008">Deaf signers punctuate their signed sentences with laughter</a>, much like emoticons in written text.</p>
<p>Laughter creates bonds and increases intimacy with others. Linguist Don Nilsen points out that chuckles and belly laughs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241403">seldom happen when alone</a>, supporting their strong social role. Beginning early in life, infants’ laughter is an external sign of pleasure that helps strengthen bonds with caregivers.</p>
<p>Later, it’s an external sign of sharing an appreciation of the situation. For example, public speakers and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2017-0040">comedians</a> try to get a laugh to make audiences feel psychologically closer to them, to create intimacy. </p>
<p>By practicing a little laughter each day, you can enhance social skills that may not come naturally to you. When you laugh in response to humor, you share your feelings with others and learn from risks that your response will be accepted/shared/enjoyed by others and not be rejected/ignored/disliked.</p>
<p>In studies, psychologists have found that men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1999.12.4.355">with Type A personality characteristics</a>, including competitiveness and time urgency, tend to laugh more, while women with those traits laugh less. Both sexes laugh more with others than when alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="white-haired woman laughing on a park bench" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370596/original/file-20201120-19-ifmsuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laughter has value across the whole lifespan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/senior-woman-laughing-royalty-free-image/522988376">Steve Prezant/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Laughter’s mental power</h2>
<p>Positive psychology researchers study how people can live meaningful lives and thrive. Laughter produces positive emotions that lead to this kind of flourishing. These feelings – like amusement, happiness, mirth and joy – build <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218">resiliency and increase creative thinking</a>. They increase subjective well-being and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218">life satisfaction</a>. Researchers find that these positive emotions experienced with humor and laughter correlate with <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2014.884519">appreciating the meaning of life</a> and help older adults hold a benign view of difficulties they’ve faced over a lifetime. </p>
<p>Laughter in response to amusement is a healthy coping mechanism. When you laugh, you take yourself or the situation less seriously and may feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9548-7">empowered to problem-solve</a>. For example, psychologists measured the frequency and intensity of 41 people’s laughter over two weeks, along with their ratings of physical and mental stress. They found that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235851">more laughter experienced</a>, the lower the reported stress. Whether the instances of laughter were strong, medium or weak in intensity didn’t matter.</p>
<p>Maybe you want to grab some of these benefits for yourself – can you force laughter to work for you? </p>
<p>A growing number of therapists advocate using humor and laughter to help clients build trust and <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781610484879/Using-Humor-to-Maximize-Living-Connecting-With-Humor-2nd-Edition">improve work environments</a>; a review of five different studies found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2018.04.009">measures of well-being did increase</a> after laughter interventions. Sometimes <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/health-healing-and-the-amuse-system-humor-as-survival-training/oclc/42881511">called homeplay</a> instead of homework, these interventions take the form of daily humor activities – surrounding yourself with funny people, watching a comedy that makes you laugh or writing down three funny things that happened today.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>You can practice laughing even when alone. Intentionally take a perspective that appreciates the funny side of events. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2020.1787944">Laughing yoga</a> is a technique of using breathing muscles to achieve the positive physical responses of natural laughing with forced laughter (ha ha hee hee ho ho).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4p4dZ0afivk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Some tips on how to get started with laughing yoga.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers today certainly aren’t laughing off its value, but a good deal of the research on laughter’s influence on mental and physical health is based on self-report measures. More psychological experimentation around laughter or the contexts in which it occurs will likely support the importance of laughing throughout your day, and maybe even suggest more ways to intentionally harness its benefits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet M. Gibson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Whether in the form of a discreet titter or a full-on roar, laughter comes with many benefits for physical and mental health.
Janet M. Gibson, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Grinnell College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147311
2020-10-01T18:57:55Z
2020-10-01T18:57:55Z
From Mafalda with love: three lessons from the late Quino and his immortal creation
<p>Millions of readers across the world are familiar with the dark-haired, impertinent, soup-hating, diabolically smart and terribly funny little girl named Mafalda. She was imagined by the Argentinian cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejon, known to all as Quino, <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/culture/joaquin-quino-salvador-lavado-the-creator-of-mafalda-dies-at-88.phtml">who passed away September 30 at age 88</a>.</p>
<p>The Mafalda comics ran from 1964 to 1973 and are the most widely known of Quino’s works – they’ve been translated into multiple languages, including braille, and were also turned into an <a href="https://www.quino.com.ar/animacion">animated series</a>. His legacy also includes numerous other black-and-white comic strips, often wordless and composed of single vignettes.</p>
<p>Through his art, Quino engaged in pointed social critique on a wide range of topics – the state of the world, politics, cliches and prejudices, the middle-class family, social relationships, food and art – where visual and verbal humour played a central role.</p>
<h2>Humour as a window into the soul</h2>
<p>I personally owe much of the awakening of my political consciousness and rebelliousness to Quino’s black-and-white comic strips. While the meaning of most was obscure to me at first, progressively I found them disturbingly funny over the years, and ultimately this helped trigger my scholarly interest in the use of two powerful tools in the social sciences, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzcMEwAxSP8">drawing and humour</a>, and in <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-affect-theory-reader">affect theories</a> that seek to understand the deep emotional and embodied dimensions of our lives.</p>
<p>The word <em>affect</em>, from the Latin <em>afectus</em>, is often understood in its verb form “to affect” someone or something (actively or instrumentally) or “to be affected” (passively) by someone or something. In an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334851417_The_Affectivity_Gap_in_Stakeholder_Theory">ongoing project, my colleagues and I</a> have stressed how this narrow definition considerably limits our understanding of <em>affect</em> in its noun form (affect, affectivity) and the even richer problematisations of its verb form. Our findings highlight three detrimental consequences.</p>
<p>First, it privileges a limited anthropological assumption of humans reduced to abstract labels (such as “stakeholders” or “employees”), depersonalised ties based on interest, and roles. Second, it hinders our ability to foster deeper relations, where others are ends in themselves instead of means. Third, overall, this leads to weakened ethical engagement in the world we all share.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mafalda in the subway station" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361160/original/file-20201001-19-anejh7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mafalda in the subway station.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/violinha/3192511233">Violina/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To counter this, humour proves a powerful tool to bring affectivity back in. It triggers emotional and embodied responses such as laughing, which becomes even more powerful when shared with others.</p>
<p>For instance, research has shown that shared humour fosters <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amle.2013.0368">socialisation and integration into a group</a>. In my own work, I’ve analysed how shared moments of humour also have the capacity to create empathy and solidarity, allowing a group threatened by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508414558726">violence and injustice</a> to revolt against them.</p>
<p>Quino’s brilliant use of humour can teach us at least three lessons to help us reconnect with our inner affective lives and with others – a deeply needed capacity in an age of social distancing. First, that humour can trigger critical thinking. Second, that humour can foster ethical relationships to others. And third, that humour can powerfully encourage resistance to oppression.</p>
<p>To reuse one of his album’s titles, it is high time for some <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Quinoterapia-Quinotherapy-QUINO-JOAQUIN-SALVADOR/dp/8426445373">“Quinotherapy”</a>.</p>
<h2>Triggering critical thinking</h2>
<p>Mafalda’s constant insubordination and (often impertinent) questions leave her friends and particularly her middle-class parents speechless.</p>
<p>In his preface to a 10th-anniversary edition, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2020/09/30/le-dessinateur-argentin-quino-papa-de-l-heroine-mafalda-est-mort_6054266_3382.html">Umberto Eco noted</a> that Mafalda, as a young girl, has the privilege of childhood innocence, allowing her to question the world. This in turn triggers deeper questions in adults about how they’ve abandoned their ability to be imaginative and reflexive.</p>
<p>Mafalda makes us question what we take for granted, and in a very touching way expresses her dissatisfaction with what she calls the “disastrous” state of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=175&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361162/original/file-20201001-18-75n1xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mafalda reads the definition of the word democracy: ‘Democracy (from the Greek, <em>demos</em>, people and kratos, <em>authority</em>): government in which the people exercise sovereignty.’ Her reaction is laughter, so little does the world resemble that definition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38256002@N06/3714127590">iii/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By using satire, Quino often leaves us with open, provocative and often desolating questions, where Mafalda wonders why reasoning and common sense are so hard to find. In so doing, she highlights how being “rational” is not only – as we are made to believe – to be self-interested and calculating. Reason is not opposed to emotion and affectivity, and there are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-rational-is-relational">other forms of rationality that foster relationality</a>.</p>
<p>This joins the general aim of <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199275250.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199275250-e-4">critical scholars</a>, who seek to uncover the mechanisms of domination and exploitation that control not only our societies, but more importantly the production of knowledge itself.</p>
<p>It is through such critical thinking that as individuals and as social groups we can imagine alternative ways of living our lives <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0170840618815519">instead of having them being dictated by institutions</a>.</p>
<h2>Fostering ethical relationships to others</h2>
<p>The ability to question the world and society through critical thinking is often present in Quino’s drawings regarding the ways in which we relate to each other : such relationships are often odd, problematic, messy, unbalanced, but in the end that is what makes them undoubtedly human.</p>
<p>More importantly, Quino often points to the deeply human need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508420956321">connect with others, of developing empathy and care</a>, or simply of recognising a familiar face in an anonymous world.</p>
<p>Following phenomenologists such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508414558726">Michel Henry</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0018726717741530">Emmanuel Levinas</a>, this need for connection – or in philosophical terms, this “embodied affectivity” – is what creates a fruitful and ethical bond between humans. In the words of <a href="https://www.seuil.com/ouvrage/soi-meme-comme-un-autre-paul-ric-ur/9782020114585%22">Paul Ricoeur</a>, it is what makes us “aim for a good life, with and for others, in just institutions”.</p>
<p>Maybe this is why Quino’s life-long editor <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielDivi1/status/1311310205750214657">Daniel Divinski tweeted</a> that his passing would be mourned by all the “good people in the country and in the world”.</p>
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<h2>Sparking resistance</h2>
<p>Comics and cartoons have a long tradition in <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137573452">fostering social critique and stirring up activism</a>, and for me it is one of Quino’s most powerful legacies.</p>
<p>When I left home and moved to a far-away university to study philosophy, among the books that came with me was the Mafalda album <a href="https://www.amazon.com/grite-Dont-Scream-Hardback-Spanish/dp/B00FBBPBCK"><em>A mi no me grite!</em> (“Don’t you scream at me!”)</a>, which I discovered as a child on my father’s desk. True to this tradition, in one of his final public appearances, Quino lifted a banner reading “Je suis Charlie” following the 2015 terrorist attack on the offices of the French satirical weekly <em>Charlie Hebdo</em>.</p>
<p>Mafalda and Quino’s other characters question social problems that are still with us today – the feminine condition, nuclear power, political abuse, overpopulation, capitalism, authoritarianism and more. His subtle and poignant humour continues to speak to audiences across the world, and remains a strong call that urges us to resist oppression and to work together to improve our shared condition. Even as Quino rests in peace, he inspires us still.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mar Pérezts is member of OCE Research Center (Organizations: Critical and Ethnographic perspectives) of EM Lyon Business School. </span></em></p>
Through his work, the Argentinian cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejon, known to all as Quino, engaged in pointed social critique on a range of topics that are even more relevant today.
Mar Pérezts, Associate professor, EM Lyon Business School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136755
2020-05-05T08:05:30Z
2020-05-05T08:05:30Z
Is it okay to laugh during a pandemic?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332100/original/file-20200502-42903-11piebz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/covid19-coronavirus-pandemic-happy-asian-doctor-1680738073">Shutterstock/Maridav</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to an <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/25/comedy-plus/">old adage </a>, “comedy is tragedy plus time”. This has been true for many terrible events, when after periods of shock and sadness, humour and laughter are eventually restored. </p>
<p>But the current pandemic seems different. People haven’t stopped joking about it. Memes and funny videos are all over social media, even while an increasing number of people across the world get sick and die. So why is this happening? Why is there no gap between the disaster and the humour created around it?</p>
<p>One thing that makes the current situation unique is that it is not a single event in a specific place and time. It is a rolling and continuous crisis, spreading endlessly across continents with no end in sight. The shock factor is therefore reduced compared to a single terror attack, for example. This enables people to adjust more easily to what is happening – and humour may be one of the best ways to do just that.</p>
<p>Of course, many people will feel uncomfortable laughing in these dire times, especially if they know someone who has been directly affected. But for others, it is not only acceptable to use humour in the face of the pandemic – it may even be a necessity. </p>
<p>Obviously, we do not laugh at the tragedy itself, the victims of the virus or the people who are suffering from it. But we can take aim at the seemingly absurd situation we are all in.</p>
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<p>This is because from a psychological point of view, humour is a great defence mechanism which helps us deal with emotionally challenging situations, especially ones which are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020964314564830?casa_token=f1NhglxlWxcAAAAA%3AICfnkrKcklAFQpkro4GQzHB_5kqinA0Hks00fQZWvn-u8LbWWzZn2Tm1wUvTALth-bngLhVYdRc">overwhelming and unpredictable</a>. Many cancer patients and their doctors, for example, routinely <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10410236.2016.1172291">tell jokes and laugh</a> about the disease, in an attempt to cope and distract themselves from the serious situation.</p>
<h2>Coping strategy</h2>
<p>On top of this, the unique circumstances surrounding the pandemic may make humour more prevalent, not less.</p>
<p>First, many people now have an unusual amount of time on our hands. Being stuck at home with not much to do forces people to find ways to be more creative. And while the situation is serious, in our daily activities we are mostly preoccupied with more mundane tasks, such as what to do all day, how to entertain children, how not to eat too much, and how to stay sane in general.</p>
<p>Second, being a bit scared, tense, and in a state of alert is actually a good thing for humour to develop. These states of <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1968-08268-001">physiological and emotional arousal</a> serve as driving forces in creating and enjoying humour.</p>
<p>Usually, intermediate levels of arousal are best. With too little, you are bored, and with too much, you are too excited to enjoy humour. Right in the middle is perfect. The laughter after hearing a good joke serves as a release of all the physiological and emotional energy that was built up, and that’s what makes us feel good.</p>
<p>Another important element of humour that is prominent during the pandemic is what humour researchers call “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/#IncThe">incongruity</a>”. For something to be funny, there needs to be something odd or surprising in the situation. The current situation reveals plenty of such oddities.</p>
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<p>Here is a joke that illustrates the point: “All this time I thought that the tumble dryer was shrinking my clothes. Turns out it was actually the refrigerator.” </p>
<p>The joke is built on the unusual circumstances we live in, of being stuck at home. The setup is the common knowledge that the heat of a tumble dryer can shrink clothes, but then there is a surprise. It’s not the dryer at fault, but the refrigerator, where we store our food. We resolve this incongruity by realising that we are getting fatter from eating too much when we are at home. This resolution gives as the “Aha!” moment that makes the joke funny. (And yes, analysing a joke does ruin it.)</p>
<p>So, while humour may not get us out of this awful crisis, it can help us deal with it. We cannot change the reality of the disease or the economic impact, but we can try and change how we feel about it. </p>
<p>By creating and sharing humour we can cope better, and ease some of the tension due to the pandemic. That way, we can have at least some control of the situation. And what better way to do that than by having a good laugh?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gil Greengross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One thing that makes the current situation unique is that it is not a single event in a specific place and time. Humour is a coping strategy.
Gil Greengross, Lecturer in Psychology, Aberystwyth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136243
2020-04-23T01:09:35Z
2020-04-23T01:09:35Z
Dads’ time to shine online: how laughter can connect and heal
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329122/original/file-20200420-152585-1xcpjpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C3%2C1272%2C714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">TikTok</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though families have retreated into their homes, it seems that dads the world over are taking centre stage on social media and video sharing platforms – providing an antidote to COVID-19 anxiety. </p>
<p>Quarantined dads have showcased their skills at kitchen cupboard percussion to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=576285826306215">match Phil Collins’ famous drum solo</a>, looked for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJtWdyzZR8">things to fix</a>, pretended to break the rules to <a href="https://twitter.com/GrowingUpItalia/status/1241354307259305985">order coffee</a> at their local cafe, <a href="https://twitter.com/DGlaucomflecken/status/1252038826349850624">performed surgery on soft toys</a> and mastered <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=667336457365006">family TikTok dances</a>. Especially the dances. </p>
<p>Though we might expect a more serious response from fathers to an upended world, humour, laughter and playfulness help foster resilience and provide a coping strategy to better manage and reduce stress. </p>
<p>Cultivating a laughter mindset is an important tool to build connection and gain some mastery over things we can’t control. Not all play or humour results in laughter, but it primes the mind’s internal landscape <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125057/">towards positivity</a>. As <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/the-laughing-guru">Laughter Yoga</a> founder <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015910,00.html">Dr Madan Kataria puts it</a>, “laughter doesn’t necessarily solve a problem but it helps dissolve it”. </p>
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<h2>Dads as role models</h2>
<p>No matter what country we’re from, viewers are all laughing in the same language at TikTok videos. </p>
<p>Learning to laugh at yourself <a href="https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/464">develops personal resilience</a>, and that’s what children are perhaps seeing in their parents for the very first time. Self-enhancing humour – maintaining a humorous outlook in stressful or adverse situations – is <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Is-the-use-of-humor-associated-with-anger-The-of-in-Torres-Mar%C3%ADn-Navarro-Carrillo/ca28be396693d49f70aec0d90e63aeacedaa0aea">linked to positive psychological well-being</a> signs such as happiness, satisfaction with life, and an optimistic outlook. </p>
<p>So, if we can laugh at COVID-19 by making jokes about toilet paper or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfXBa6uyLLY">homeschooling</a> it lessens the sting, making us feel more in control. </p>
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<p>When dads (and mums) draw on humour, laughter and play, it teaches children there’s another way to respond to conflict and crisis. It helps provide a new perspective on challenging situations and, when initiated and modelled by adults, can be particularly <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490400.2013.761905">effective in quelling anxiety</a>. </p>
<p>Parents dancing around the living room, having fun, even being silly invoke a sense of ease. When we’re laughing and smiling the mind is anchored in a moment of positivity. Negativity in the shape of fear, depression or anxiety has no footing.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-ugfNXYcDg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The family that boogies together …</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With dads spending more time at home, the lines between their work life and home life are blurring, making way for <a href="https://www.fatherly.com/play/best-coronavirus-jokes/">daggy dad jokes</a> and fish-out-of-water <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vB2-5SgQ74">dad dance routines</a>. Many families have taken on the challenge of learning a short <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsHzl9cK1ls">Blinding Lights dance sequence</a> set to a 2019 song by The Weeknd. </p>
<p>Familiar faces, such as late night television host <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jimmy-fallon-jennifer-garner-daughter-interview-video-a9415381.html">Jimmy Fallon</a>, are being shown onscreen in their role as fathers, highlighting the humour and absurdity that can come with working from home. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PDAcFokLFJc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Some dads are using isolation as an excuse to show they can still throw down.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Family bonding</h2>
<p>While physical distancing measures apply outside home, social isolation can also be occurring within them, with family members turning their attention to separate screens and potentially harbouring private fears and anxieties. </p>
<p>In family lockdown, how can we protect our children from the global and domestic anguish in the face of coronavirus infection and death? Laughing as a family creates stronger bonds and makes us feel part of the same team. </p>
<p>While experiencing stress with others helps us bond by cuing an oxytocin release in our brains, laughing provides an instant salve for anxious feelings by signalling the release of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449495/">“feel good” neurotransmitters</a>: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. </p>
<p>Laughter doesn’t just lighten your load mentally – it induces a range of physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2249748/">quality-of-life</a> benefits for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19477604">heart health</a>, blood pressure in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28699684">aged care settings</a>, and <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/25/6125">pain tolerance</a>. Laughter has a similar effect on the brain as <a href="https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/08/09/world-authority-laughter-talks-us-through-research">meditation</a>, anchoring our minds to a present moment of joy. </p>
<p>The apparent increase in entertaining dad content online shows families are reframing a stressful situation with a humour mindset. The more we train our humour muscle, the stronger our neural pathways towards positivity and humour. So in the future, we’ll have expanded our resources to respond to a stressful situation with more levity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/43RV7eZgRmI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">I’m blinded by the lights and the heartwarming family togetherness.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ros Ben-Moshe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Dads have taken over TikTok since social isolation began. More than a way to kill time at home, laughter and fun dancing times can build family bonds, reduce stress and cultivate a resilient mindset.
Ros Ben-Moshe, Adjunct lecturer School of Public Health and Psychology, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134070
2020-04-16T10:46:56Z
2020-04-16T10:46:56Z
We need a laugh, even if it is fake – a history of canned laughter
<p>I don’t know about you, but I could do with a laugh at the moment. Any opportunity to watch an entertaining television comedy show could prove the tonic we all need. It might be one of the crucial things to help us see through a very strange period.</p>
<p>However, there is a problem. TV shows and situation comedies are usually broadcast in front of mass audiences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/performing-for-no-one-the-important-work-of-in-studio-audiences-134349">and with this now denied</a>, are the empty chairs and lack of atmosphere going to ruin the experience? “Canned laughter”, a divisive and often misunderstood tool, might just help.</p>
<h2>The Laff box</h2>
<p>The term “canned laughter” is often attributed to American sound engineer <a href="http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/charles_douglass.html#.XoMIAi2ZM0o">Charley Douglass</a> who devised the technique in the late 50s.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326816/original/file-20200409-171675-k3gbv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creator of the ‘Laff Box’, sound engineer Charlie Douglass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Douglass#/media/File:Cdouglass_LT.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Audiences are unpredictable, they often laugh at the wrong time and sometimes not at all. As the writer <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160926-where-does-canned-laughter-come-from-and-where-did-it-go">Jennifer Keishin Armstrong</a> noted, Douglass got around this in pre-recorded shows by editing and adjusting the recorded laughter, and by repositioning it in just the right places. </p>
<p>Douglass was keen to perfect the method, and is also credited for creating the “<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-laff-box/">Laff Box</a>” – a device that allowed a collection of recorded reactions to be falsely inserted into a show. </p>
<p>With each press of the button and burst of recorded laughter, audiences at home felt strangely compelled to laugh along. <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/jul/canned-laughter-works-finds-ucl-led-study-dad-jokes">Sophie Scott</a>, a cognitive neuroscientist, explains that “adding laughter to a joke, increases the humour value, no matter how funny or unfunny the joke is”. Scott and her researchers created an experiment using canned laughter and “dad jokes” to make their point. Famously bad, participants found themselves tittering even at the worse ones. </p>
<p>While Douglass may have pioneered a device to please television executives the world over, however, audiences were slowly becoming aware that the laughter was fake. </p>
<h2>Fake laughs</h2>
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<p>Novelist and scriptwriter <a href="https://www.chortle.co.uk/correspondents/2015/03/09/22001/theres_no_such_thing_as_canned_laughter">Michael J. Buchanan-Dunne</a>, suggests that although canned laughter continued to be used through the 60s and 70s:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Canned laughter did not have enough range to authentically convey such a complex human emotion, therefore when it was used it lacked subtlety, spontaneity, naturalism and quite often logic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For a while though the insertion of fake laughter meant writers and producers were guaranteed a response to the material whether it was good or not. </p>
<p>Buchanan-Dunne says that canned laughter is not used anymore, despite many (TV critics included) thinking that it still is. A 30-minute comedy show with a live audience takes hours to be recorded, and the audience is worked hard for their reaction. If anything ends up sounding false these days it is simply because of audience exhaustion. Many shows are recorded “as-live”, to be slightly edited and honed for broadcast later. This can lead to a slightly unnatural quality in the sound of the laughs that begin or cut off at the right moment, with everyone laughing perfectly unison. The original intention of Douglass, with precise sound manipulation, lives on. </p>
<figure>
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<p>Channel 4 show, <a href="https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/8498/last-leg-audience">The Last Leg</a>, a live comedy show that dares to find laughs from weekly topical events, was one of the first to brave the new territory of playing to an empty audience. It’s difficult getting laughs from the pandemic, but The Last Leg gave it their best shot and made a Laff Box a very visible part of the show. With host Adam Hill in charge of a series of buttons assigned to laughs, clapping, groans, and cricket sounds, for any jokes that fell flat. It felt like business as usual with laughs a plenty – even when jokes were met with the cricket sounds. </p>
<p>The same can not be said for the BBC show <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/03/got-news-returns-new-series-without-studio-audience-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-12506515/">Have I Got News For You</a>, which felt lost. Without the fullness of audience participation, the topical news quiz show comes across as little more than a celebrity video conference. They’ve had little choice but to put the show on in isolation and it doesn’t matter how charismatic the host, it could do with something extra to help it fare better.</p>
<p>If recorded laughter is indeed going to return temporarily to our screens, it’s an unenviable choice facing programme producers whether to use it or not. Whatever the case, present circumstances mean we are going to need entertaining shows, and we’re going to need laughter, real or canned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Watts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
With no in-studio audiences, the Laff Box should be used more by comedy shows.
Charlie Watts, Principal Lecturer, University of Portsmouth
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122218
2019-08-23T09:35:26Z
2019-08-23T09:35:26Z
Why we laugh when we know it’s wrong
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289198/original/file-20190823-170935-df25h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>For the Batek people of the Malaysian peninsula rainforest, laughter can be dangerous. Within the system of taboos of these <a href="https://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=32">egalitarian</a> hunter-gatherers, laughing in certain situations can cause storms, illness or even death. And yet sometimes, Batek people – like anyone else – laugh when they know they shouldn’t. In fact, laughter can be especially pleasurable when it’s forbidden.</p>
<p>What does this paradox tell us about ideas of right and wrong? My <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/amet.12826">recent research</a> with the Batek suggests that examining <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1747021817741800">contagious, uncontrollable</a> laughter can help explain why we do things we say we shouldn’t. Rather than always being “wrong”, laughing when we shouldn’t can be a way of shaping our ethical beliefs by interacting with others, testing out the limits of right and wrong. To understand this, we must look not only at what is funny, but at how people laugh.</p>
<p>In the Batek’s forest, to laugh at anything you might be about to eat would risk diarrhoea and even death in extreme circumstances. Laughing around fruits, flowers, bees, honey, certain insects or in fact anything that has to do with the ecology of the fruit season carries enormous risks. These include caterpillars coming out of your eyes, a gigantic swelling head, or being unable to speak. </p>
<p>This kind of laughter might also affect the fruit season itself, causing some fruits or flowers not to appear. Laughing too much, too loudly or at certain creatures – in particular leeches and other invertebrates – might risk angering the thunder-being, causing terrifying storms.</p>
<p>Adhering to these taboos is seen as ethical behaviour, a way that people demonstrate respect for the non-human persons of the forest that provide the Batek with sustenance. But sometimes people can’t control their laughter. So they cannot do the “right” thing every time.</p>
<p>During my fieldwork with the Batek, one night I was staying up late with Naʔ Srimjam, a Batek friend, when a frog began to croak. This frog’s croak sounded a lot like someone breaking wind, causing her to crack up. Naʔ Srimjam tried desperately to get her laughter under control, gasping through her giggles that her laughter was taboo. As soon as she had stopped laughing, the frog let out another croak. This cycle happened repeatedly until she was weeping with laughter.</p>
<p>Naʔ Srimjam was fully aware that she was being dangerously taboo, but was revelling in the subversive laughter anyway. She just couldn’t help herself. In this instance, her laughter was <a href="https://provine.umbc.edu/books/laughter-a-scientific-investigation/">uncontrollable</a>, erupting even though it was wrong. And yet no one judged her as wrong or bad for having laughed when she recounted the story the next day.</p>
<h2>Society or individual?</h2>
<p>Scholars have long debated whether our ethics are shaped by society or whether we control them as individuals. But moments of forbidden laughter among the Batek show that both can be true at once.</p>
<p>On the one hand, our ideas about what is funny are shaped by our social contexts. This moment was so funny to Naʔ Srimjam because she knew that, as a Batek person, it was taboo for her to laugh at this frog. This was demonstrated by how she kept pointing out that we were being taboo, even while she was doing the taboo thing.</p>
<p>On the other hand, people will always have their own reactions to things that happen. Social contexts help shape these reactions but aren’t the only thing that determines our behaviour. Laughter can erupt whether or not it is culturally or socially appropriate.</p>
<p>When it comes to the ethics of laughter, people may recognise the rules of what’s appropriate but also take the rules into their own hands. How much freedom people have to choose what is ethical reflects their broader understandings of their relationships with others.</p>
<p>In the Batek’s egalitarian society, where no one person has systematic authority over another, individual autonomy is paramount. This focus on autonomy is why the Batek do not punish one another for inappropriate laughter, even when it is considered wrong and risks dangerous consequences for the group such as the anger of the thunder-being. Instead, people say, it’s up to “them on their own”.</p>
<p>Because of this, laughter is a unique tool for socialisation. There is a constant interplay between doing the right thing, and doing (just the right amount of) the wrong thing. And understanding how this works through laughter helps people establish their personal ethical values in relation to the rest of the group. When it comes to what we find funny, we may either follow the rules or just laugh them off. But either way we are learning about right and wrong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Rudge receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust, The Evans Fund at the University of Cambridge. </span></em></p>
A study of Batek hunter-gatherers from Malaysia shows how laughter can shape our ethical values.
Alice Rudge, Junior Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/106402
2018-11-14T10:33:42Z
2018-11-14T10:33:42Z
How humour can change your relationship
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245348/original/file-20181113-194513-5aek73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Funny haha.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/waist-portrait-funny-old-man-woman-1048790306?src=wkij7S5Ny4ZwjyVKpI-cpA-2-0">Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A sense of humour is an <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/humor-sapiens/201504/good-in-bed-funny-men-give-more-orgasms">attractive trait</a>. There is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407502019004048">abundant</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17380374">cross cultural evidence</a> that shows that being funny <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/humor-sapiens/201110/why-jokes-are-seductive">makes you more desirable</a> as a mate, especially if you are a man. But once the initial flirting is over, and you are in a romantic relationship, how large a role does humour play?</p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2014.27.issue-2/humor-2014-0015/humor-2014-0015.xml">dating couples</a>, use of positive humour (for example, using humour to cheer up your date) can positively contribute to relationship satisfaction. The use of aggressive humour, on the other hand (teasing and making fun of your partner) has the opposite effect. These feelings can fluctuate on a day-to-day basis depending on each partner’s use of humour. </p>
<p>For long-term relationships, such as in marriages, couples generally share a similar sense of humour – although similarities in sense of humour <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2003.16.issue-1/humr.2003.005/humr.2003.005.xml">are not associated</a> with greater marital satisfaction, nor with longer marriages. Perhaps not surprisingly, the research that resulted in this finding also found that couples with fewer children laugh more, compared to couples with a larger number of children.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2011.24.issue-4/humr.2011.025/humr.2011.025.xml">another study</a>, conducted with 3,000 married couples from five countries, both husbands and wives were found to be happier with a humorous partner, but this trait was reported to be more important for the marital satisfaction of the wives than the husbands. Interestingly, both husbands and wives thought that the husband was humourous more often. Regardless, married couples <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-73025-001">overwhelmingly say</a> that humour has a positive impact on their marriages. </p>
<h2>Conflict resolution</h2>
<p>But what happens when things aren’t going so well? Humour is a great ice breaker and a social lubricant, but can it also help resolve conflict in marriages? In <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-04812-009">one study</a>, researchers observed 60 newlywed couples when they discussed a problem in their marriage. They coded how much humour was used in the conversation. The couples also completed a measure of life stress. What researchers found when they followed up 18 months later was quite surprising. In couples that reported high stress, the more the husband used humour, the greater the chance the couple would separate or divorce.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245350/original/file-20181113-194519-1o7vl3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sharing a joke.</span>
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<p>By contrast, in <a href="https://public.psych.iastate.edu/ccutrona/psych592a/articles/Predicting%20marital%20happiness%20from%20newlywed%20interactions.pdf">a similar study</a> with 130 married couples, a wife’s use of humour predicted greater marital stability over six years, but only if the humour led to a decrease in their husband’s heart rate. In other words, if the humour calms the husbands, then it might be beneficial to their marriages.</p>
<p>These two studies show the disparate function of humour for men and women. For men, humour might serve as a way to distract from dealing with problems in the relationship, perhaps in an attempt to reduce their own anxiety. Women, on the other hand, may use humour to create a more relaxed atmosphere that can facilitate reconciliation.</p>
<h2>Laughing at you, not with you</h2>
<p>In recent years, there has been much <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2009.22.issue-1-2/humr.2009.002/humr.2009.002.xml">research</a> on the topics of <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/humr.2008.21.issue-1/humor.2008.002/humor.2008.002.xml">gelotophobia</a> (the fear of being laughed at), <a href="https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:98075">gelotophilia</a> (the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others). One <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656618302551">study</a> with a sample of 154 heterosexual young couples, who had been together an average of six years, examined whether any of these dispositions had a bearing on relationship satisfaction. You might expect that a person who likes being laughed at would be a good match with a partner that likes laughing at others, and this is indeed what the researchers found, though the correlation was not very strong. Overall, partners in romantic relationships tended to have similar preferences – they both liked being laughed at or to laugh at others at similar levels.</p>
<p>Looking at relationship satisfaction, people who scored high on gelotophobia reported the lowest satisfaction in their relationships, and felt less physically attractive, and less sexually satisfied, compared to low gelotophobians. This makes sense, as being in an intimate relationship requires opening up and being more vulnerable, something that may feel uncomfortable for a person fearing being judged and laughed at. </p>
<p>An interesting finding was that for men, having a gelotophobic partner reduced their own sexual satisfaction in relationships, probably because their partner’s insecurities make them less appealing. In contrast, women who loved being laughed at (gelotophilians) were more attracted to and enjoyed higher sexual satisfaction with their partner. No such effect was found with men. Also interesting was the finding that joy of laughing at others did not correlate with relationship satisfaction.</p>
<h2>Humour and sex</h2>
<p>Looking deeper into the issue of sexual satisfaction, women appear to have the edge. Women who have humorous partners, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/humor-sapiens/201504/good-in-bed-funny-men-give-more-orgasms">enjoy more and stronger orgasms</a>, compared to women who have less funny partners. Women with funnier partners also initiated sex more often and had more sex in general (indeed, for very good reasons). Such effects have not been found in women with higher humour production (the ability to come up with funny ideas on the spot) perhaps because it requires less effort to satisfy the sexual desire of men.</p>
<p>This result may highlight sex differences in light of sexual selection, where higher reproduction costs for women (being pregnant, breastfeeding, shorter reproductive window), make them choosier than men. In contrast, men with good senses of humour may signal their intelligence, creativity, warmth, and how friendly they are – traits that are important in any relationship, especially romantic ones, and are more valuable for women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gil Greengross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The way you and your partner use humour can shape your relationship, and even break it up.
Gil Greengross, Lecturer in Psychology, Aberystwyth University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98950
2018-07-05T20:04:26Z
2018-07-05T20:04:26Z
Must love jokes: why we look for a partner who laughs (and makes us laugh)
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225638/original/file-20180702-116123-1477skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are many reasons why those who laugh and can make others laugh are attractive mates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether we’re looking for love or lust, we look for someone with a good sense of humour. Studies of courtship on <a href="http://thescienceexplorer.com/brain-and-body/humor-gets-girl">Tinder</a> and <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f105/24516fb90e04aa09eded3fc4d71f9df515d1.pdf">Facebook</a> show that a sense of humour is the most valued quality in a potential mate. </p>
<p>A philosophy of humour as a virtue sheds light on why it’s so important. A virtue is a valuable trait – something that elicits <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/exemplarist-moral-theory-9780190655846?cc=au&lang=en&">admiration</a>, pride or love. Traditional examples include prudence, honesty, chastity and wisdom. Is a sense of humour comparable to these time-honoured virtues? </p>
<p>Of course, whether you’re looking for casual dates or seeking a life partner will influence what you want in a mate. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223989809599166">research</a> on relationships suggests humour doesn’t just land you that first date or first kiss: it’s also associated with keeping a relationship together. </p>
<p>When we eulogise someone’s life, having a sense of humour still stands out. My own research on <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10790-017-9602-0">obituaries</a> shows that, when reflecting on the life of a loved one, we tend to treasure their capacity to laugh and make others laugh. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-gets-into-dating-but-theres-little-scientific-evidence-online-personality-matching-works-95935">Facebook gets into dating, but there's little scientific evidence online personality matching works</a>
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<p>Why are we so serious about not being too serious? One reason is that laughter is enjoyable, and laughing with someone is even more enjoyable. Part of the value of a sense of humour derives from its ability to counter negative emotions with positive ones. We want to be with people who can make us laugh, especially if they can help us laugh at the things and situations that cause us stress, anxiety or despair. But there are lots of ways to enjoy life. Why do people value humour more than, say, being a good cook or owning a beach house?</p>
<p>When we think about having a sense of humour, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is stand-up comedy, like the routines of <a href="https://aparnacomedy.com/">Aparna Nancherla</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/EddieIzzard">Eddie Izzard</a>. These people are in the business of producing humour, of making people laugh. </p>
<p>But of course, someone needs to be there to consume humour as well, to do the laughing. And in the typical case, humour is also about someone or something: the object of humour. This producer-consumer-object <a href="https://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=se.008.0000a">triangle</a> is the matrix in which a sense of humour finds its home.</p>
<p>Though the research on Tinder and Facebook doesn’t draw these distinctions, I think they’re essential to understanding why a sense of humour is so highly valued. To have a good sense of humour, you have to be skilled at occupying each of the corners of the triangle. Someone who can’t make us laugh is deficient in humour. And there’s nothing less attractive than a person who laughs at their own jokes while everyone else sits in stony silence.</p>
<p>Likewise, someone who isn’t able to laugh at the absurdities of life is a humourless boor. Of course, different people find different things laughable. It depends on what you value, what you expect and what you hold sacred. </p>
<p>This explains why we <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49089/">feel so in tune</a> with someone who both laughs when we do and doesn’t laugh when we don’t. The sort of person who finds Holocaust jokes funny and complains about <a href="https://www.etsy.com/market/feminist_killjoy">feminist killjoys</a> may not be your type. They certainly aren’t mine. Testing the boundaries of someone’s sense of humour is a shortcut to discovering whether you share their values. People prize a sense of humour in a potential mate because this is one of the best clues to compatibility.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-desire-partners-who-have-had-relationship-experience-78463">Why we desire partners who have had relationship experience</a>
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<p>The third corner of the triangle is probably the hardest to occupy. In general, it isn’t very fun to be the butt of the joke. But an inability to admit your own faults and laugh at yourself is a sign that you have an <a href="https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/05/02/today-lois-lane-tells-clark-kent-the-importance-of-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-action-comics-special-spoiler/">over-inflated ego or take yourself too seriously</a>. Someone who can’t take a joke is bad at being the object of humour. They’re unwilling to admit their own foibles and flaws, and therefore unable to correct them. Who would want to be with a jerk like that?</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t want to suggest that the best romantic partners are constantly laughing at themselves, even when the humour is mean-spirited, cruel or just lame. <a href="http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/It_was_just_a_joke">“It was just a joke. Get a sense of humour!”</a> is a common rhetorical ploy in the domination of women and other subordinated groups.</p>
<p>My point is that someone who’s unable to laugh at themselves when a little self-contempt is appropriate is likely to be either an arrogant self-deceiver or a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2026228.pdf">Puritanical saint</a>. Neither makes a good mate. And so it makes perfect sense that, when we look for a partner, we’d rather <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlEvh-DZ-kE">laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Alfano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Why are we so serious about not being too serious? The philosophy of humour has the answer.
Mark Alfano, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95867
2018-06-19T05:38:28Z
2018-06-19T05:38:28Z
We’re laughing in an echo chamber: it’s time to rethink satire
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223727/original/file-20180619-126543-2he6i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John Oliver presents Last Week Tonight. Is he merely preaching to converted?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from Youtube</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017 the BBC asked a timely question: are we living in a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39217855">golden age of satire?</a> The evidence suggests we might be. From the revitalisation of America’s late night comedy scene to Australian shows such as Shaun Micallef’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/shaun-micallefs-mad-as-hell/">Mad as Hell</a> and Tom Ballard’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/tonightly-with-tom-ballard/">Tonightly</a>, our appetite for satire appears stronger than ever. </p>
<p>Australian satirists, such as <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/chaser-annual-2018">The Chaser</a> and those producing the comedic newspaper <a href="http://www.betootaadvocate.com/">The Beetoota Advocate</a>, are buoyed by material ranging from humdrum policy issues like tax cuts to the rich comic potential of <a href="http://www.betootaadvocate.com/headlines/lleyton-and-bec-worried-about-vikki-and-barnaby-taking-over-as-new-tabloid-power-couple/">Barnaby Joyce’s private life.</a> American satire, so often gravitating towards issues of violence and race, provides a sobering comparison. </p>
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<p>While enthusiasts of satire may celebrate, this groundswell is not necessarily a good thing. Satire and laughter can be therapeutic ways to orient ourselves in troubled, and increasingly polarised, times. But they are not guaranteed to prompt social or political change. That’s because humour is more likely to speak <em>to</em> ideological groups than across them.</p>
<p>Since the transmission of humour relies on shared sets of knowledge, values and assumptions, bread-and-butter satiric devices like irony can <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789027718211">fall flat</a> when used beyond particular social groups. In many ways, this seems obvious. A John Oliver <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umqvYhb3wf4">monologue</a> critiquing US hostilities to refugees, for example, will only be considered funny by an audience sympathetic to their plight.</p>
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<p>But when satiric miscommunication takes place, it can have chilling consequences. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2tv1t3.6?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Research</a> by humour scholar Peter Jelavich provides a troubling example of a time when humour failed to cut through. In Weimar Germany, Jewish entertainers such as Max Reinhardt took to cabaret stages with comic routines that exaggerated anti-Semitic stereotypes, highlighting how ridiculous they were. But it seems that these performances had the opposite effect on some non-Jewish audiences.</p>
<p>As hostilities towards Jews grew, the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith warned of the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2tv1t3.6?seq=15#page_scan_tab_contents">dangers of these satires</a>. They noted that during one cabaret,</p>
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<p>many Christian members of the audience seemed to enjoy the fact that caricatures of Jewish nature, Jewish morals, and Jewish behaviour depicted in the racist yellow press were now spotlighted ‘True to life’ in front of their very eyes.</p>
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<p>The irony of the performance was failing to translate between the two groups. Where Jewish performers aimed to mock stereotypes, non-Jewish audiences saw an affirmation of their own anti-Semitic prejudices.</p>
<p>Weimar Germany is an extreme and disturbing case study in the transmission of humour. But it illuminates a point still relevant today: sometimes satirical humour can segregrate further those with different backgrounds and beliefs, rather than <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134937554/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203359259-10">opening a dialogue between them</a>. </p>
<p>Today, when our values and attitudes are more polarised than ever, satire can simply strengthen existing social groupings, even aggravating misunderstandings between them. </p>
<p>“They hate your guts,” Donald Trump told supporters at a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-michigan-rally-today-during-correspondents-dinner-2018-04-28-live-stream-updates/">rally in Michigan</a>, the day after Michelle Wolf’s searing monologue at the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/taibi-michelle-wolf-slays-useless-white-house-correspondents-dinner-w519682">2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner</a>. The ease with which satire can be twisted into propaganda entrenching political divides should give us pause. Combined with social media – which allow us to cherry-pick the exact ideologies we’re exposed to – much of today’s satire may be too busy preaching to the choir to proselytise to those outside the echo chamber.</p>
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<h2>The free speech defence</h2>
<p>In the ancient world, the satirist was envisioned as a <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/A+Companion+to+Satire%3A+Ancient+and+Modern-p-9781405119559">whistle-blower</a>, bent on exposing and reforming defective institutional mores. Humour was not considered the primary aim of satire, but the means to a reformative end: discourse and change.</p>
<p>The Roman satirist Horace defended his use of humour by arguing that “ridicule often decides matters of importance more effectually and in a better manner than severity”. This was a rationale upheld by Renaissance satirists. Defending himself against charges of frivolity, Renaissance scholar Erasmus insisted that his satire was intended “to advise, not to rebuke, to do good, not injury, to work for, not against, the interests of men”. For all the good intentions of Erasmus and his ilk, whether satire is an effective means of generating change remains to be proven.</p>
<p>Today, satire is most often defended under the banner of free speech. In 2016, when scandal erupted over the late Bill Leak’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-20/bill-leak-singled-out-for-racial-discrimination-investigation/7952590">dubious take</a> on Indigenous incarceration rates, the conversation was immediately subsumed by the broader debate over the parameters of free speech. In particular, it fuelled the debate around <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18c.html">Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act</a>, which regulates speech that is offensive, humiliating, and insulting.</p>
<p>American comedian Kathy Griffin similarly found herself in hot water last year when she posed for a promotional shoot with an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/05/30/kathy-griffin-apologizes-for-severed-donald-trump-head-photo-after-backlash/?utm_term=.f217f831c1d2">image</a> of Donald Trump’s decapitated head. Both incidents attracted outrage and impassioned defences – albeit from opposite sides of the political spectrum.</p>
<p>Given the noble intentions claimed by the early satirists, we should hold satire to higher standards than those of legality and social acceptability. When satire becomes a footnote in broader debates about free speech and censorship, it’s easy to lose sight of its initial civic role: promoting social reform. </p>
<p>Rather than debating its legality, we would do well to consider whether satire, for all its ideological zeal, is useful in creating dialogue and change. Satire is great at provoking introspection in unified social groups, but less effective at speaking across them. In a time when open and inclusive communication is crucial, this kind of discourse may be doing more harm than good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katrina Spadaro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We may be living in a golden age of satire, but comedy has always struggled to communicate across political divides. Much of today’s satire may be preaching to the choir.
Katrina Spadaro, PhD candidate, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/93896
2018-03-27T11:28:50Z
2018-03-27T11:28:50Z
How ‘giggle doctors’ help sick children
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211932/original/file-20180326-148729-6g0kn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Phil McCarthy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hospitals are not fun for any of us. But imagine being trapped in a hospital bed as a young child, perhaps with a serious condition that requires multiple extended visits. Staff on children’s wards do their best to entertain their patients but their first priority, of course, is always medical. </p>
<p>This is where “giggle doctors” come in. These professional entertainers are trained and paid to go round hospitals to cheer up children with music and laughter. As a researcher interested in the benefits of laughter, I am fascinated by the work giggle doctors do and how it might make a difference to sick and disabled children. But as a scientist I am also challenged as to how we might measure these effects.</p>
<p>Every year there are around <a href="http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB22378">1m hospital admissions</a> of children under 15, many of them serious and extended. With their tiny team of just 25 giggle doctors, Theodora Children’s Charity is able to visit <a href="https://uk.theodora.org/our-history">33,000</a> of these children each year. Each visit has the potential to make a difference. As one parent told the charity, thanks to a giggle doctor, her daughter “actually looks forward to coming to hospital for chemotherapy”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211933/original/file-20180326-148723-15iocy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr Fab entertains a boy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Theodora Children's Charity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a typical visit a giggle doctor may see 25 children, spending about ten minutes with each one. In a year one giggle doctor will visit over 1,000 children. They are not medical professionals but the charity provides them with training in how to interact with poorly and disabled children and how to work best with doctors and nurses. </p>
<p>They currently visit 21 hospitals, three hospices and two specialist care centres throughout England and <a href="https://uk.theodora.org/what-we-do">feedback shows</a> that hospitals believe that they improve children’s experience of hospital. But so far there has not been any systematic research to assess how they help children. The charity do keep good records of their teams work but they have not got systematic data. Part of the reason is that the benefits are intangible.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kDd3d6cCttw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Giggle doctors are actors, entertainers, musicians and magicians. Laughter is important, but there is more to it than that. Every other interaction with an adult in a hospital is transactional. Giggle doctors do not using humour to distract from some unpleasant procedure; they are an escape and a respite. The emphasis is on connection and attention. </p>
<p>Clare Parry Jones, known to children as Dr Ding Dong, has been a giggle doctor for 18 years. Interviewed by the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05v5hgg">BBC</a> she said: “I have learned to celebrate the time I have with each child … It’s a gift to be able to go in able to spend time with people and not care about anything else except for them.”</p>
<h2>What’s the science say?</h2>
<p>I’m not a giggle doctor, but a child psychologist. I know children with serious medical conditions do not stop being children, and as a laughter researcher I know that the secret of any good performance is to know your audience and be able to connect with them. Which is why Dr Ding Dong’s repertoire includes lots of <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-16-humour-me-82845">jokes about poo</a>.</p>
<p>But scientific research on the health benefits of laughter has been surprisingly thin on the ground. There is evidence of laughter’s physiological benefits. Robin Dunbar and colleagues <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21920973">showed in 2011</a> that laughter can increase our pain threshold and recent research has show that this is because laughter stimulates the release of the <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2017/05/23/JNEUROSCI.0688-16.2017">endogenous opioids</a>, the body’s own painkillers. Other research with adults suggests laughter can <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002914910010507">improve vascular function</a> and increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2015.45.2.221">serotonin levels</a>.</p>
<p>The closest fit in the research literature are two small pilot studies. Margaret Stuber, a child psychiatrist based at UCLA, has worked with US charity programme <a href="http://www.rxlaughter.org">Rx Laughter™</a>, which aims to promote comedy in a therapeutic setting. In 2007 they asked children to watch funny videos before, during or after putting their hand in very cold water. The amount of laughter didn’t change their pain tolerance, but children did keep their hand in the water longer while <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686629/">distracted by the video</a>. Only 18 children were tested however and Stuber herself describes it as a pilot study. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211934/original/file-20180326-148742-10qcmq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr Dotty entertains a girl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Theodora Children's Charity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, in 2011, a group at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Canada, saw how 13 children with disabilities <a href="http://hollandbloorview.ca/programsandservices/therapeuticrecreationandlifeskills/therapeuticclownprogram">responded to two therapeutic clowns</a> as compared to a control of watching television. The study measured physiological and emotional responses, but the results were a bit of a mess. Children’s moods certainly improved but the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3137396/">physiological data</a> showed no clear patterns and again the sample size was tiny.</p>
<p>None of this research directly addresses the effectiveness of the giggle doctors or gets at the holistic benefits their visits seem to bring. But the many thousands of visits they make offer a tremendous opportunity for research. It’s not clear, however, how we might conduct a gold-standard randomised control trial on the work of the giggle doctors. Do we send in control performers who are trained not to be funny? Finding funding is also challenging for studies that are seemingly a frivolous luxury.</p>
<p>But should laughter be considered a frivolous luxury? Feedback from parents suggests the visits reduced stress and anxiety, and measuring the impact of such programmes will be important for their expansion. Although perhaps the real benefits are more intangible: found in those magic moments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caspar Addyman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
These professional entertainers are trained and paid to go round hospitals cheer up children with music and laughter.
Caspar Addyman, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82714
2017-08-23T09:30:09Z
2017-08-23T09:30:09Z
Actually, we are amused – how the Victorians helped to shape Britain’s unique sense of humour
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183029/original/file-20170822-30552-el8d22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">George Vasey, The Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling (1875).</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>You can hear more about the history of Victorian humour in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-16-humour-me-82845">latest episode of our podcast</a>.</em></p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="2235" data-image="" data-title="Anthill 16: Humour me" data-size="27792359" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="CC BY-ND" data-license-url="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">
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</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
Anthill 16: Humour me.
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a><span class="download"><span>26.5 MB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/876/anthill-16-humour-me-edit-2.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<p>Laughter: it’s said to be the best medicine and the cheapest form of therapy. Studies have shown it can help to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lowdown-on-laughter-from-boosting-immunity-to-releasing-tension-56568">boost immunity</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lowdown-on-laughter-from-boosting-immunity-to-releasing-tension-56568">relieve tension</a> and even <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-best-medicine_uk_57702a73e4b0232d331e3262">reduce symptoms</a> of anxiety and depression – it seems there’s a lot to be said for having a good old laugh.</p>
<p>The idea of laughter being good for our health has deep roots. It was certainly in wide circulation during the Victorian era, meaning that despite popular stereotypes of this straitlaced century – in which the people and their Queen were terminally “not amused” – laughter was thought of as an essential component of good mental and physical health. </p>
<p>The introduction to the <a href="https://archive.org/details/railwaybookoffun00bris">Railway Book of Fun</a> (because who doesn’t need more fun on a train), which was published in 1875, proclaimed that cheerfulness was a “christian duty” and advised readers to “use all proper means to maintain mental hilarity” if they valued “health and comfort”. It even argued – rather optimistically – that a good sense of humour could help ward off infectious diseases.</p>
<p>Not all Victorians were so keen to loosen their stiff upper lips though. In 1875, a man named George Vasey declared war on laughter. In his book <a href="https://archive.org/details/philosophyoflaug00vase">The Philosophy Of Laughter And Smiling</a> he argued that only “the depraved, the dissipated, and the criminal” were “addicted to uproarious mirth.”</p>
<p>Over the course of 166 pages, he attempted to scientifically prove that laughing was an idiotic, vulgar, and ugly habit enjoyed by empty-headed fools. Laughter distorted the face and, Vasey warned, “often ended fatally” by blocking the passage of air to the lungs. Sensible people, he concluded, “never laugh under any possible circumstances”.</p>
<h2>Laugh and grow fat</h2>
<p>Vasey certainly wasn’t the only Victorian to argue for a new culture of seriousness, but the truth is that these anti-mirth campaigners were swimming against the tide. As Vasey himself admitted, the “immense majority” of his contemporaries held “the habit of laughing in high estimation” and regarded it as “an absolute necessary of life”.</p>
<p>The proverb “laugh and grow fat” <a href="https://archive.org/details/broadgrinsorcure00unse">circulated widely</a> in the 18th and 19th centuries and was usually intended as a recommendation. This link between fatness and health might seem odd to us today. But as one 19th century journalist explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[This was not to suggest] that a mere state of obesity was especially desirable, but rather a wish to rebuke the evil effects upon the physical systems engendered in the persons of those whose lives are made up of fretfulness, of melancholy, and of sour-faced bigotry. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For advocates of this philosophy, a good sense of humour could even lead to a slap-up meal. Jokes were an important part of Victorian “table-talk” and accomplished raconteurs were sought-after guests at dinner parties. One Victorian writer explained how a skilled and original humorist could “extract venison out of jests, and champagne out of puns”.</p>
<p>For less accomplished comedians, scores of joke books and ready-made “<a href="https://archive.org/details/bookofhumourwitw00londiala">manuals of table-talk</a>” were on sale at Victorian bookstalls.</p>
<h2>Fond of fun</h2>
<p>Just like today, the possession of a good sense of humour was considered an attractive quality by Victorian men and women when seeking a romantic partner. Back then, “<a href="https://twitter.com/DigiVictorian/timelines/876770348926160896">matrimonial advertisements</a>” – the equivalent of a modern day Tinder profile – routinely described their authors as “jolly” and “fond of fun”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=135&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=135&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=170&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=170&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/183011/original/file-20170822-22283-1vu8uep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=170&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Matrimonial advert from ‘Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday’ (1888).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some Victorian men even <a href="https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125007799568#page/n167/mode/2up/search/trusting+sex">pretended to have written jokes for Punch magazine</a> in the hope of “ingratiating [themselves] with the fair and trusting sex”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"899990998897631234"}"></div></p>
<p>A small community of Victorian humorists also managed to earn a living by writing jokes. As one of these professional gag writers put it, he spent his day “turning out jokes as other men would turn out chair-legs”. </p>
<p>The most prolific jesters in the UK and US were reportedly capable of <a href="https://archive.org/stream/ouramericanhumor00mass#page/432/mode/2up">writing 100 new jokes in a day</a> before selling them to the editors of comic magazines like Punch and Fun. These papers circulated widely, and as Vasey begrudgingly explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[The publications] realised princely incomes by their successful efforts in stimulating the pectoral muscles and shaking the diaphragms of their numerous readers.</p>
</blockquote>
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<h2>Private jokes</h2>
<p>While most Victorian joke books limited themselves to respectable humour, racier jokes were, it seems, told in private. The story goes that at one of Punch magazine’s legendary weekly dinner gatherings, political debate about the merits of the then prime minister’s reform bill was abruptly redirected when the journalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Brooks">Shirley Brooks</a> interjected with a joke: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q. If you put your head between your legs, what planet do you see? </p>
<p>A. Uranus</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The British novelist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray">William Thackeray</a> was reportedly consumed with laughter and then proceeded to crack a joke about his own problems with urethral stricture – so much for the link between laughter and good health.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"899594713178746880"}"></div></p>
<p>In short, most Victorians loved to laugh. Despite the best efforts of George Vasey and other champions of seriousness, a vibrant culture of comedy existed in 19th century Britain. And yet, much of this humour has never been studied by historians. Which is why, for the last few years, I’ve been working on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-victorians-gave-us-the-christmas-cracker-but-are-also-to-blame-for-the-terrible-jokes-inside-70745">project with the British Library</a> that aims to celebrate this under-appreciated aspect of Victorian life. </p>
<p>We are building an online archive of long-forgotten 19th century jokes. It’s still under construction, but we’ve already begun sharing some of the “best” gags on <a href="https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VictorianHumour">Facebook</a>. </p>
<p>Here are some of my favourites:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"751098767852630016"}"></div></p>
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<p>Perhaps George Vasey had a point after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Have you heard the one about the Victorian sense of humour?
Bob Nicholson, Senior Lecturer in History, Edge Hill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82845
2017-08-23T09:10:45Z
2017-08-23T09:10:45Z
Anthill 16: Humour me
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182955/original/file-20170822-30529-12w2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>August is known as silly season in the news trade – it’s the time of year that you get stories about animals doing stupid things <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9LzAU3fcr4">on the evening news</a> (as opposed to just in internet memes). </p>
<p>So we thought we’d embrace this and try to tickle you pink in this August episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">The Anthill podcast</a>. As well as a few bad jokes, we investigate how our humour develops as we grow up. And we also look at the more serious side of being funny. </p>
<p>First up, we delve into a bit of the history of humour. It seems a lot of our modern day sense of humour actually takes inspiration from those <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-victorians-gave-us-the-christmas-cracker-but-are-also-to-blame-for-the-terrible-jokes-inside-70745">stiff and starchy Victorians</a> of the 19th century. The Victorians, it turns out, loved nothing more than a good old chuckle, as our editors Holly Squire and Paul Keaveny found out when they spoke to Bob Nicholson, a historian at Edge Hill University. </p>
<p>Turning to something a little more base, our science editor Miriam Frankel looked into <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-children-find-poo-so-hilarious-and-how-adults-should-tackle-it-72258">why children find poo so hilarious</a> and how it fits in with their wider humour development. She asked Paige Davis, a psychologist at the University of Huddersfield and Justin Williams, child psychiatrist at the University of Aberdeen, whether her three-year-old son will ever grow out of laughing at fecal related jokes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182960/original/file-20170822-14267-1hvuiym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Did someone say poo?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It turns out that one of the reasons toddlers find poo so funny is that it helps them deal with the serious issue of potty training, which they are going through at the time. But it’s not just kids that use humour to help them talk about important issues. Satire and irony are age old tools used by those who want to criticise powerful people. </p>
<p>Our producer Gemma Ware spoke to Kate Fox, who is doing a PhD in stand-up comedy at the University of Leeds, about how humour can be used to make a serious point, and to Cate Watson, an education researcher at the University of Stirling, on academia’s complicated relationship with humour and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-education-in-irony-why-academics-need-to-be-funny-55261">why academics need to be funny</a>. One of the founders of the academic stand-up comedy night <a href="http://www.brightclub.org/">Bright Club</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_x?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Steve Cross</a>, who is also a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow, also comes on the podcast to explain the ingredients of some of the best gigs. </p>
<p>We hope you get some giggles out of the show. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Anthill theme music is by <a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/search/How+to+Steal+a+Million+Dollars/">Alex Grey for Melody Loops</a>.
Thanks to <a href="http://impatientproductionsuk.com/">Impatient Productions</a> for permission to use a segment of Kate Fox’s BBC Radio 4 show, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vxt0v">The Price of Happiness</a>. And thanks to the University of Dundee and Ioan Fazey for permission to use a segment of Fazey’s Bright Club Dundee gig. You can listen <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqBd_tJCL9c&feature=youtu.be">to the full show here</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The vaudeville era music used in the Victorian joke segment is courtesy of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-InazTKIA">Pianosyncrazy</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Click here to listen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">more episodes of The Anthill</a>, on themes including <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-14-music-on-the-mind-79379">Music on the Mind</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-10-the-future-73404">The Future</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-9-when-scientists-experiment-on-themselves-71852">Self-experimentation</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this episode of the podcast, we take in the history of Victorian humour, why kids find poo so hilarious and whether academics should try and be funny.
Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition
Annabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UK
Gemma Ware, Head of Audio
Miriam Frankel, Senior Science Editor
Holly Squire, Special Projects Editor, The Conversation UK
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76463
2017-04-27T13:49:21Z
2017-04-27T13:49:21Z
The science of laughter – and why it also has a dark side
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166621/original/file-20170425-23807-cbs7f3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists are only starting to uncover the mysteries of laughter.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-laughing-elderly-people-outdoor-youre-504879760?src=BHinOCxTmzrUfyTWiVTbxg-1-21">DenisFilm/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you hear someone laugh behind you, you probably picture them on the phone or with a friend – smiling and experiencing a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Chances are just the sound of the laughter could make you smile or even laugh along. But imagine that the person laughing is just walking around alone in the street, or sitting behind you at a funeral. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem so inviting. </p>
<p>The truth is that laughter isn’t always positive or healthy. According to science, it can be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27439375">classified into different types</a>, ranging from genuine and spontaneous to simulated (fake), stimulated (for example by tickling), induced (by drugs) or even pathological. But the actual neural basis of laughter is still not very well known – and what we do know about it largely comes from pathological clinical cases.</p>
<p>Laughter and the appreciation of humour are vital components of adaptive social, emotional and cognitive function. Surprisingly, they are not uniquely human. Primates and apes also enjoy a good chuckle. This may have evolved <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolutionary-origins-of-laughter-are-rooted-more-in-survival-than-enjoyment-57750">because it helps them survive</a>. Laughter is, after all, a communal activity which promotes bonding, diffuses potential conflict and eases stress and anxiety. But it loses its momentum quickly when indulged in alone (solitary laughter can have ominous connotations).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hhlHx5ivGGk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Laughter does have the power to override other emotions momentarily – we cannot sob morosely or simmer with anger while simultaneously laughing. This is because our facial muscles and vocal architecture have been hijacked by sunnier emotions. And it is all controlled by specialised brain circuits and chemical messengers (neurotransmitters).</p>
<p>We know there are several <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.07.001">brain pathways that contribute to laughter</a> – each for different components of it. For example, brain regions usually involved in decision-making and controlling our behaviour have to be inhibited to facilitate spontaneous and unbridled laughter. Laughter also relies on emotional circuitry connecting areas responsible for experiencing emotion with those required for expressing emotion.</p>
<h2>What illness can teach us</h2>
<p>While we have garnered detailed knowledge of brain features crucial for facial expressions, swallowing, tongue and throat movements, far less is known about how positive emotions actually get transformed into laughter. Luckily, a number of illnesses and conditions have helped shed some light on its underlying neural functions.</p>
<p>One particularly well documented syndrome, thought to be first identified by Charles Darwin, involves an unsettling exhibition of uncontrolled emotion. It is clinically characterised by frequent, involuntary and uncontrollable outbursts of laughing and crying. This is a distressing disorder of emotional expression at odds with the person’s underlying feelings. The condition is known as <a href="https://www.pbainfo.org/about-pba">pseudobulbar affect syndrome</a> and may be expressed in several different neurological conditions. </p>
<p>Briefly summarised, the condition arises from a disconnect between the frontal <a href="https://courses.washington.edu/conj/bess/motor/descendingpathways.html">“descending pathways”</a> in the brainstem – which control emotional drives – and the circuits and pathways that govern facial and emotional expression. Some disorders <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cns-spectrums/article/dextromethorphan-quinidineresponsive-pseudobulbar-affect-pba-psychopharmacological-model-for-wide-ranging-disorders-of-emotional-expression/405FE13AB680859DDBCF3E15E00E29B0">specifically associated with the condition</a> include traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. </p>
<p>Indeed, a study last year found that an increasingly twisted sense of humour and laughing at inappropriate times could be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/10/darker-sense-of-humour-could-be-sign-of-dementia-says-study">an early indication of dementia</a>. Pseudobulbar affect syndrome is also one of the most common reported side effects of stroke in terms of emotional change. And given the high incidence of stroke each year, the condition is likely to be <a href="https://www.stroke.org.uk/sites/default/files/stroke_statistics_2015.pdf">highly prevalent in the general population</a>. </p>
<p>There are a number of other specific conditions that may also be associated with abnormal brain wiring. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27323470">Gelotophobia</a> is an intense fear of being laughed at. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23556483">Gelotophilia</a>, on the other hand, is the enjoyment of being laughed at. The related condition <a href="http://ladyclever.com/health-fitness/katagelasticism-getting-your-jollies-from-others-follies/">katagelasticism</a>, meanwhile, is the joy of laughing at others. </p>
<p>Gelotophobia, in particular, can develop into an extreme, joy-sapping anxiety that ranges from social ineptness to severe depression. It may induce vigilant environmental monitoring for any signs of ridicule. This abnormal fear of being mocked may arise from negative early life experiences of being teased, mocked or laughed at. Imaging data show that gelotophobia is associated with <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01637/full">poor connectivity between frontal and medial temporal brain areas</a>, networks responsible for monitoring and processing emotional stimuli.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167017/original/file-20170427-15093-1ikjhw2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Language areas of the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also know that frontal brain circuits enable us to interpret the literal meaning of language in a social and emotional context. This helps us appreciate subtle humour like sarcasm. Interestingly, this ability is often <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/neu-193288.pdf">lost after frontal brain injury</a>, or in conditions associated with frontal dysfunction, for example autism.</p>
<h2>Healthy laughter</h2>
<p>Despite the dark side of laughter, there is no denying that laughter generally induces warm fuzzy feelings. We know that laughing <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v14/n12/abs/nrn3566.html">enhances cardiovascular function, fortifying our immune and endocrine systems</a>.</p>
<p>We also know that positive, “benevolent humour” – “laughing with” rather than “laughing at” others – is especially rewarding. Indeed the way our brains process other peoples’ laughter seems to indicate that laughing with someone has more emotional depth and is more pleasurable than laughing at them.</p>
<p>Indeed, our brains seem particularly <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep42967">affected by emotionally rewarding and authentic happy signals</a>. This might help explain why laughter therapy has been shown to have potent effects. These include muscle workout, improved respiration, decreased stress and anxiety and improved mood and resilience. Laughter therapy has even been shown to <a href="https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4040/jkan.2015.45.2.221&vmode=PUBREADER">function similarly to antidepressants</a> by raising serotonin levels in the brain, a crucial neurotransmitter vital for feelings of wellbeing and calmness. </p>
<p>So regardless of the style of the humour, as long at there is no underlying illness, laughter is likely to be the best medicine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76463/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne A Barker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Laughing at inappropriate moments could be an early sign of dementia, while injury to the front part of the brain could make you lose your sense of sarcasm.
Lynne A Barker, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64414
2016-11-02T01:47:41Z
2016-11-02T01:47:41Z
Science deconstructs humor: What makes some things funny?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144119/original/image-20161101-27102-1ibofb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why does that one video crack you up?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=376697146">Laughing image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Think of the most hilarious video you’ve ever seen on the internet. Why is it so funny? </p>
<p>As a researcher who <a href="http://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/tuscLab/people/graduate.htm">investigates some of the potential side effects of humor</a>, I spend a fair bit of time verifying the funniness of the jokes, photos and videos we present to participants in our studies. Quantifying the perception of humor is paramount in ensuring our findings are valid and reliable. We often rely on pretesting – that is, trying out jokes and other potential stimuli on different samples of people – to give us a sense of whether they might work in our studies.</p>
<p>To make predictions on how our funny materials will be perceived by study subjects, we also turn to a growing body of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/">humor theories</a> that speculate on why and when certain situations are considered funny. From ancient Greece to today, many thinkers from around the world have yearned to understand what makes us laugh. Whether their reasons for studying humor were strategic (like some of Plato’s thoughts on using humor to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2003.020">manipulate people’s political views</a>) or simply inquisitive, their insights have been crucial to the development of humor research today. </p>
<p>Take the following video as an example of a funny stimulus one might use in humor research: </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YZEbBZ2IrXE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Man vs. Moose in Sweden.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To summarize: A man and his female companion are enjoying a pleasant day observing a moose in one of Sweden’s forests. The woman makes a sudden movement, causing the moose to charge the couple. The man stands his ground, causing the moose to stop in his tracks. After a few feints with a large stick and several caveman-ish grunts by the man, the defeated moose retreats while the man proclaims his victory (with more grunting).</p>
<p>The clip has been viewed on YouTube almost three million times, and the comments make it clear that many folks who watch it are LOLing. But why is this funny? </p>
<h2>Superiority theory: Dumb moose</h2>
<p>It is the oldest of all humor theories: Philosophers such as <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/">Aristotle and Plato</a> alluded to the idea behind the superiority theory thousands of years ago. It suggests that all humor is derived from the misfortunes of others – and therefore, our own relative superiority. Thomas Hobbes also alluded to this theory in his book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thomas-hobbes-leviathan-9780198723967?q=Leviathan&lang=en&cc=us">“Leviathan</a>,” suggesting that humor results in any situation where there’s a sudden realization of how much better we are than our direct competition. </p>
<p>Taking this theory into consideration, it seems like the retreating moose is the butt of the joke in this scenario. <a href="http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Game-of-Humor-978-0-7658-0659-8.html">Charles Gruner</a>, the late expert on superiority theory, suggest that all humor is derived from competition. In this case, the moose lost that competition.</p>
<h2>Relief theory: Nobody died</h2>
<p>The relief theory of humor stems from Sigmund Freud’s assertion that laughter lets us relieve tension and release “<a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/1664527.pdf">psychic energy</a>.” In other words, Freud and <a href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6201/1/6201_3555.PDF">other relief theorists</a> believe that some buildup of tension is inherent to all humorous scenarios and the perception of humor is directly related to the release of that tension.</p>
<p>Freud used this idea to explain our fascination with taboo topics and why we might find it humorous to acknowledge them. For example, my own line of research deals with humor in interracial interactions and how it can be used to facilitate these commonly tense situations. Many comedians have tackled this topic as well, focusing on how language is used in interracial settings and using it as an example of how <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_mRaIHb-M">relief can be funny</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dw_mRaIHb-M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A comedy clip focused on interracial interactions gets some of its humor from the relief when a tense situation is resolved.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, this theory has served as the rationale behind many studies documenting the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1086/498281">psychological</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.4.687">physiological</a> benefits of laughter. In both cases, the relief of tension (physiological tension, in the case of laughing) can lead to positive health outcomes overall, including decreased stress, anxiety and even <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nek015">physical pain</a>. </p>
<p>In the case of our moose video: Once the moose charges, the tension builds as the man and the animal face off for an extended period of time. The tension is released when the moose gives up his ground, lowers his ears and eventually scurries away. The video would probably be far less humorous if the tension had been resolved with violence – for instance, the moose trampling the man, or alternatively ending up with a stick in its eye.</p>
<h2>Incongruity theory: It’s unexpected</h2>
<p>The incongruity theory of humor suggests that we find <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/humor/#SH2c">fundamentally incompatible concepts or unexpected resolutions</a> funny. Basically, we find humor in the incongruity between our expectations and reality.</p>
<p>Resolving incongruity can contribute to the perception of humor as well. This concept is known as as the “<a href="http://doc.utwente.nl/63066/1/0000009e.pdf">incongruity-resolution</a>” theory, and primarily refers to written jokes. When identifying what makes a humorous situation funny, this theory can be applied broadly; it can account for the laughs found in many different juxtaposed concepts.</p>
<p>Take the following <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4h629u/what_joke_is_hilarious_but_takes_a_few_seconds_to/">one-liners</a> as examples:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I have an Epi-Pen. My friend gave it to me as he was dying. It seemed very important to him that I have it.”</p>
<p>“Remains to be seen if glass coffins become popular.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The humor in both of these examples relies on incongruous interpretations: In the first, a person has clearly misinterpreted his friend’s dying wish. In the second, the phrase “remains to be seen” is a play on words that takes on two very different meanings depending on how you read the joke. </p>
<p>In the case of our moose video, the incongruity results from the false expectation that the interaction between man and moose would result in some sort of violence. When we see our expectations foiled, it results in the perception of humor. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144121/original/image-20161101-14771-1ih10vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The safety of being in the audience at a comedy show frees you to let loose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-Standup-Comedy/7b784b25adf04524b8f3a15edd7ab724/1/0">Mark Schiefelbein/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Benign violations theory: It’s bad, but harmless</h2>
<p>Incongruity is also a fundamental part of the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376073">benign violations theory of humor (BVT)</a>, one of the most recently developed explanations. Derived from the linguist <a href="http://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1998.11.2.161">Thomas Veatch’s “violation theory,”</a> which describes various ways for incongruity to be funny, BVT attempts to create one global theory to unify all previous theories of humor and account for issues with each.</p>
<p>Broadly, benign violations theory asserts that all humor derives from three necessary conditions: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>The presence of some sort of norm violation, be it a moral norm violation (robbing a retirement home), social norm violation (breaking up with a long-term boyfriend via text message) or physical norm violation (purposefully sneezing directly on a child). </p></li>
<li><p>A “benign” or “safe” context in which the violation takes place (this can take many forms). </p></li>
<li><p>The interpretation of the first two points simultaneously. In other words, one must view, read or otherwise interpret a violation as relatively harmless.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thus far, researchers studying BVT have demonstrated a few different scenarios in which the perception of a benign violation could take place – for example, when there is weak commitment to the norm being violated. </p>
<p>Take the example of a church raffling off a Hummer SUV. They found <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376073">this scenario is much less funny to churchgoers</a> (with their strong commitment to the norm that the church is sacred and embodies values of humility and stewardship) than it is to non-churchgoers (with relatively weak norm commitment about the church). While both groups found the concept of the church’s choice of fundraiser disgusting, only the non-churchgoers simultaneously appraised the situation as also amusing. Hence, a benign violation is born. </p>
<p>In the case of our moose video, the violation is clear; there’s a moose about to charge two people, and we’re not sure what exactly is about to go down. The benign part of the situation could be credited to a number of different sources, but it’s likely due to the fact that we’re psychologically (and physically, and temporally) distant from the individuals in the video. They’re far away in Sweden, and we’re comfortably watching their dilemma on a screen. </p>
<h2>Homing in on funny</h2>
<p>At one point or another, we’ve all wondered why some phrase or occurrence has caused us to erupt with laughter. In many ways, this type of inquiry is what drove me to research the limits and consequences of humor in the first place. People are unique and often find different things amusing. In order to examine the effects of humor, it is our job as researchers to try to select and craft the stimuli we present to affect the widest range of people. The outcomes of good science stem from both the validity and reliability of our stimuli, which is why it’s important to think critically about the reasons why we’re laughing.</p>
<p>The application of this still-growing body of humor research and theory is seen everywhere, influencing everything from <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/42384505/Humor_Media_and_The_Public_Discourse_A_C20160208-14055-en2rll.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1478031047&Signature=MT%2BDR%2BwUz83RRzV1xU%2F%2FIO3Hqko%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DHumor_Media_and_The_Public_Discourse_A_C.pdf">political speeches</a> to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2012.749082">advertising campaigns</a>. And while “laughter is the best medicine” may be an overstatement (penicillin is probably better, for one), psychologists and medical professionals have started to lend credence to the idea that <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-serious-about-funny-psychologists-see-humor-as-a-character-strength-61552">humor and laughter might have some positive effects</a> for health and happiness. These applications underscore the importance of developing the best understanding of humor we can.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Borgella does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One viral video might leave you in stitches; another leaves you cold. Psychology researchers have worked out several theories of humor to explain why.
Alex Borgella, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology, Tufts University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63096
2016-08-16T03:09:20Z
2016-08-16T03:09:20Z
Are U.S. politics beyond a joke?
<p>“I really do respect the press,” President Barack Obama joked at the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/27/remarks-president-white-house-correspondents-association-dinner">White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner</a> in 2013, shortly after his second successful election campaign. “I recognize that the press and I have different jobs to do. My job is to be president; your job is to keep me humble. Frankly, I think I’m doing my job better.”</p>
<p>Obama’s comedic skill has, itself, been a key ingredient of his political success. Yet neither of the current presidential candidates appears to have much interest in following in his footsteps. “Wit and humor have been drained from our politics,” <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/1/hillary-clintons-lying-advantage/">the Washington Times lamented</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>The emptying of humor in the current U.S. election campaign is striking, reflecting both the personal limitations of the current candidates and the exceptional gravity of the moment. Whether or not we are witnessing the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/2016/05/17/c4e32c58-1c47-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html">rise of American fascism</a>, the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/the-great-republican-revolt/419118/">end of the Republican Party</a> or the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/01/the-sun-may-be-setting-on-the-age-of-western-wealth-and-freedom/">disintegration of freedom in the Western world</a>, there is clearly a crisis in U.S. democratic culture. </p>
<p>In this dark political climate, displays of humor – for centuries, a mainstay of leadership – have become increasingly out of place. </p>
<h2>A serious turn</h2>
<p>Hillary Clinton, it is true, has attempted the occasional humorous barb. Donald Trump, she <a href="http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/06/02/clinton-says-trumps-foreign-policy-exper?videoId=368755239">observed wryly this June</a>, “says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia.” </p>
<p>But – <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/arts/television/review-hillary-clinton-on-saturday-night-live.html">Saturday Night Live appearances</a> notwithstanding – she has hardly been distinguished by her comic touch. Confronted with <a href="http://qz.com/624346/america-loves-women-like-hillary-clinton-as-long-as-theyre-not-asking-for-a-promotion/">deeply embedded prejudices against women in politics</a> (<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-female-comedians-disappear-after-dark-47818">and in comedy</a>), it’s understandable that female candidates may find it shrewd to display gravitas. Nonetheless, Clinton’s ventures into humor seem manufactured. </p>
<p>Equally, Trump’s particular brand of populism is scarcely to be confused with comedy. While he has sometimes been treated as <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/the-serious-problem-with-treating-donald-trump-seriously">a buffoon</a>, and Trevor Noah has hailed his <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a47550/trevor-noah-trump-second-amendment/">stand-up’s sense of timing</a>, Trump’s appeal to voters rests less on humor than on the performance of anger. </p>
<p>The “serious turn” in U.S. presidential politics marks a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/27/the-single-best-joke-told-by-every-president-from-obama-to-washington/">break from the past</a> – from Reagan’s cinematic smile, Obama’s skilled performances at White House Correspondents’ Dinners and American political norms that, according to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/emo0000133">one study</a>, value smiling much more than the Chinese. </p>
<p>In Europe, on the other hand, politics seems to have retained some levity, even in the wake of the meltdown unleashed by Brexit. Though questions about new British Prime Minister Theresa May’s sense of humor “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/27/theresa-may-profile-beyond-the-public-image">tend to elicit a diplomatic pause</a>,” laughter and smiles appear more prominent in British parliamentary life. More than one observer described David Cameron’s <a href="https://neutralfooting.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/pmqs-watch-humour-at-camerons-last-pmqs/">final Prime Minister’s Question Time</a> as a stand-up comedy routine. </p>
<p>In a dig at the beleaguered Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, hugely popular among party members but targeted by many of his own parliamentary colleagues, Cameron observed: “He’s reminding me of the black knight in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’! He’s been kicked so many times but he keeps saying ‘Keep going, it’s only a flesh wound!’” </p>
<p>For his part, Corbyn brought laughter from both sides of the aisle by thanking Cameron’s mother for her advice on “ties and suits and songs.” (Cameron had previously suggested that his mother would have told him to “put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.”)</p>
<h2>Centuries of smiles</h2>
<p>It’s not just in the homeland of Monty Python that humor continues to reign. In Spain, in the run-up to the June elections, the electoral slogan of the new progressive party Podemos was <a href="https://lasonrisadeunpais.es/ahora-desempata-la-gente-la-sonrisa-pais/">“La Sonrisa de un País”</a> (“the Smile of a Country”). </p>
<p>The phrase was designed not only to capture a sense of optimism and possibility, but also to move beyond the image of the Old Left in Spain as dour, humorless revolutionaries. </p>
<p>Podemos (“We Can”) recognizes that the image of the “Angry Leftist” persists, evoking longstanding historic fears of the Spanish Civil War. And like Barack Obama (whose own campaign slogan was “Yes We Can”), the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, has mastered the telegenic smile. </p>
<p>Indeed, a glance at European history reminds us of just how long humor has been an integral component of leadership. In the 13th century, many rulers subscribed to a leadership ideal of the “rex facetus” – a “laughing king,” using humor as a political tool. Even the pious, crusading king Louis IX cultivated a reputation for hearty royal guffawing. </p>
<p>This strategy was not just a means of keeping one’s courtiers and subjects happy, although some rulers, like Spanish king <a href="http://simondoubleday.com/writings/wise-king-christian-prince-muslim-spain-birth-renaissance/">Alfonso the Wise</a>, were indeed committed to the pursuit of happiness and joy. It was also a way of exerting influence, enhancing the charisma of the ruler and undercutting the claims or standing of enemies. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134005/original/image-20160812-16372-1o8ebuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alfonso the Wise was simultaneously devout and comically crude.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Alfonso_X_de_Castilla_02.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Remarkably, King Alfonso – best known today for commissioning and composing hundreds of songs about the Virgin Mary – was also involved in the production of obscenely comic songs of slander, in which he accused his noblemen of buttery cowardice and his courtesans of sexual transgression. </p>
<p>In contrast, neither wisdom nor saintliness nor good humane jokes are much in evidence in the current U.S. electoral campaign. Even professional comedians like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-rnc-fox-news-late-night-ailes/492596/">Jon Stewart</a> and <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/01/hbo-john-oliver-trump-khan/">John Oliver</a> have been sucked into the seriousness, drawing on their social capital to deliver righteous tirades. On June 15, at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner, comedian Hasan Mihaj unexpectedly turned the tables, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hasan-minhaj-guns-orlando_us_57645070e4b0fbbc8bea67e5">lacerating Congress</a> for its inaction on gun control. </p>
<p>“Let us not talk falsely now,” says the joker to the thief in Bob Dylan’s <a href="http://bobdylan.com/songs/all-along-watchtower/">“All Along the Watchtower”</a>; “the hour is getting late.” The presidential debates, beginning at <a href="http://www.hofstra.edu/debate/">Hofstra University</a> on September 26, will take place in a context of frightening urgency. This is not politics as usual: American politics is beyond a joke. </p>
<p>And if the principal parties have lost their sense of humor, it’s because – for now – the party’s over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>For his book on Alfonso the Wise, which contained a passage on the use of humor in the 13th century, Simon Doubleday received funding from the Spanish government (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura, y Deporte). He is a member of the Labour Party and Momentum.</span></em></p>
From Alfonso the Wise’s bawdy songs of slander to Ronald Reagan’s sunny smile, politics and humor have gone hand-in-hand for centuries. But no one seems to be laughing anymore.
Simon Doubleday, Professor of History, Hofstra University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63851
2016-08-12T14:17:24Z
2016-08-12T14:17:24Z
Cricket’s famous ‘legover’ moment and why getting the giggles is so contagious
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133936/original/image-20160812-16375-66tvzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C14%2C956%2C605&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harper Collins</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is 25 years since cricket commentators Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew famously got the uncontrollable giggles on live radio, while reporting on that day’s Test Match between England and the West Indies. The pair were commentating on the wicket of England’s Ian Botham, when he stumbled on to his stumps and, as Agnew put it: “Didn’t get his leg over”. </p>
<p>The resulting infectious two minutes of laughter has since been voted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/aug/20/sport.andrewculf">the greatest moment of sporting commentary ever</a>. It’s worth listening to again – see if you can help giggling along with them. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IzEBLrz3S1o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I research the neurobiology of human vocal communication, and recently I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at laughter, which is easily the most common non-verbal emotional expression which one comes across (though in some cultures laughter is rather impolite and can be less frequently encountered when out and about). There are four key features of the science of laughter that this the Botham clip illustrates.</p>
<h2>They don’t want to laugh – but they still do</h2>
<p>The BBC has rather <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/live-output/guidance-full">strict rules</a> about sports broadcasters expressing too much emotion when reporting – you are not supposed to let your voice “break” (start to lose control). Why, then, do two professional sports broadcasters let this happen? The short answer is it’s an involuntary vocal emotional expression. </p>
<p>Involuntary emotional expressions are controlled by an older evolutionary pathway than the neural pathways involved in the production of speech. This pathway controls vocal behaviour in all mammals (unlike the voluntary pathways that we use behaviours like speech and song). In ways that we still don’t fully understand, involuntary vocalisations like laughter (or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SewscDFv6Ug">screaming in terror</a>) can prevent us from speaking at all – in the clip, it’s clear that they’re not just laughing through their speech, their speech keeps getting stopped in its tracks, frequently midway through a word. </p>
<p>This is why, when you start to seriously get the giggles, it can be basically impossible to prevent them from taking over – as Jim Naughtie found when he blundered when introducing Jeremy Hunt, although he recovered masterfully.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JpNravrwZc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Happens to the best of us.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to the helpless giggles it has been suggested that there is a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16519138">second kind of laughter</a>. We laugh very frequently in conversation, and neuroscientist Robert Provine has shown that this conversational laughter is really tightly coordinated with <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26131571">that of the people we are talking to</a>. This conversational laughter differs from helpless laughter – <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10919-015-0222-8">it sounds different</a> and it stops and starts really quickly, unlike helpless laughter, which can take a longish while to start. It may also be under rather <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255480/">different neural control</a>. </p>
<h2>What happens to their voices?</h2>
<p>When we speak, we use the muscles in our rib cage (the intercostal muscles between the ribs and the diaphragm) to produce a very finely controlled flow of air through the vocal folds in the larynx. We then shape the sounds made at the larynx using our articulators (the tongue, lips, soft palate, jaw). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133944/original/image-20160812-16327-1115kor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The physiognomy of laughter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sophie Scott</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lots of different factors affect how we sound when we speak, including our emotional state – if someone is smiling when they speak, for example, it changes the voice and listeners are sensitive to this “audible smile”. </p>
<p>When we start laughing, the muscles in the rib cage start to produce large contractions – which simply make a noise by squeezing the air out of the body. Each “ha” in a laugh reflects one big contraction. When the contractions run together this leads to a longer spasm, which sounds like a high-pitched wheeze. The forces generated by the muscles of the rib cage are much greater than those used during normal speech, and this means that laughter can be very high pitched (my laugh is pitched far higher than I could ever sing, for example).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UxLRv0FEndM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>This also means that is people try to speak through laughter, the pitch of their voices can be highly uncontrolled, and can shoot right upwards. All of these changes can be heard in the legover clip – Johnston starts with an audible smile, starts to laugh, stops being able to speak, produces high-pitched wheezes and, when he manages to speak, does so with a really high-pitched voice.</p>
<h2>Why are they laughing?</h2>
<p>You can hear in their voices a slight embarrassment at having to discuss exactly what Botham’s inner thigh is doing, at the top of the clip. I can empathise. In this context, Agnew makes a little joke about “legovers” – but, very quickly, he and Johnston are not laughing because this is a very funny joke, they are laughing simply because they are both there, and they are laughing. </p>
<p>Provine <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03330380">also showed</a> that laughter is highly contagious – one can often catch a laugh from someone else simply because they are laughing, not because of why they are laughing. And laughter primes laughter – this is why comedy shows use warm-up acts, as people will laugh more if they are already laughing. </p>
<p>In the legover clip they are pretty soon only laughing because they are both laughing – and they just keep on setting each other off (which is why Johnston pleads: “Aggers, do stop it!”). This behavioural contagion rather than the hilarity of the legover comment) is probably why this clip still makes me laugh, and I have been listening to it, analysing it and playing it to people for over ten years.</p>
<h2>Why is it delightful to listen to?</h2>
<p>Provine has argued that although we think of laughter as being caused by jokes, it is actually a social behaviour that we do when we are with other people. Laughter is less to do with humour and more to do with making and maintain social bonds. We are <a href="http://psychology.umbc.edu/files/2013/10/Laughing-Smiling-and-Talking-Relation-to-Sleeping-and-social-context-in-humans-Robert-R.Provine.pdf">30 times more likely to laugh when we are with someone else</a> than when we are on our own. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133942/original/image-20160812-16324-rco6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laughter: works better in company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CREATISTA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it’s likely that had Agnew been on his own, and made the legover joke, that he woudn’t have been overcome with giggles in the same way. Indeed, he would probably not have laughed in the same way had he been doing a broadcast with someone that he did not know – laughter is much less behaviourally contagious from someone who is unfamiliar to us. </p>
<p>From the first audible smile that we can hear in Johnston’s voice, we’re aware that these are two men who not only know each other, but sound like they probably like each other. Work by <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pere.12095/abstract">Laura Kurtz and Sara Algoe</a> showed a correlation between the amount of laughter that couples share, with other indices of the strength of the relationship – from emotional support through to emotional closeness. </p>
<p>Of course the direction of this relationship remains unknown – do we laugh more with those we love because we love them, or does it make us love them? It would also be interesting to speculate whether this might be extended to other close relationships, like friendship. It is certainly hard to imaging that Johnston and Agnew would be laughing like this if they detested each other. Laughter has been described by Victor Borge as “the shortest distance between two people”, and I suspect that, ultimately, this is what we are hearing, even at the distance of 25 years: the sound of genuine, joyous, shared emotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Scott has received funding from the Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p>
The most famous moment in sports commentary tells us a lot about getting the giggles.
Sophie Scott, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.