A big mystery: Why do we laugh?
Contrary to folk wisdom, most laughter is not about humor
By Robert Provine, Ph.D.
members of the human species understand it. Unlike
English or French or
Swahili, we don’t have to learn to speak it. We’re born with the capacity to laugh.
One of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously. You don’t decide to do
it. While we can consciously inhibit it, we don’t consciously produce laughter.
That’s why it’s very hard to laugh on command
or to fake laughter. (Don’t take my word for it: Ask a friend to laugh on
the spot.)
Laughter provides powerful, uncensored insights into our
unconscious. It simply bubbles up from within us in certain situations.
Very little is known
about the specific brain mechanisms responsible for laughter. But we do
know that laughter is triggered by many sensations and thoughts, and that it
activates many parts of the body.
When we laugh, we alter our facial expressions and make
sounds. During exuberant laughter, the muscles of the arms, legs and trunk are
involved. Laughter also requires modification in our pattern of breathing.
We also know that laughter
is a message that we send to other people. We know this because we rarely
laugh when we are alone (we laugh to ourselves even less than we talk to
ourselves).
Laughter is social and
contagious. We laugh at the sound of laughter itself. That’s why
the Tickle Me Elmo doll is such a success — it makes us laugh and smile.
The first laughter appears
at about 3.5 to 4 months of age, long before we’re able to speak. Laughter, like crying, is a way for a
preverbal infant to interact with the mother and other caregivers.
Contrary to folk wisdom, most
laughter is not about humor; it is about
relationships between people. To find out when and why people laugh, I and
several undergraduate research assistants went to local malls and city
sidewalks and recorded what happened just before people laughed. Over a 10-year
period, we studied over 2,000 cases of naturally occurring laughter.
We found that most
laughter does not follow jokes. People laugh after a variety of statements
such as “Hey John, where ya been?” “Here comes Mary,” “How did you do on the
test?” and “Do you have a rubber band?”. These certainly aren’t jokes.
We don’t decide to laugh at these moments. Our brain
makes the decision for us. These curious “ha ha ha’s” are bits of social glue
that bond relationships.
Curiously, laughter
seldom interrupts the sentence structure of speech. It punctuates speech.
We only laugh during pauses when we would cough or breathe.
An evolutionary perspective
We
believe laughter evolved from the panting
behavior of our ancient primate ancestors. Today, if we tickle chimps or
gorillas, they don’t laugh “ha ha ha” but exhibit a panting sound. That’s the
sound of ape laughter. And it’s the root of human laughter.
Apes laugh in conditions in
which human laughter is produced, like tickle, rough and tumble play, and
chasing games. Other animals produce vocalizations during play, but
they are so different that it’s difficult to equate them with laughter. Rats,
for example, produce high-pitch vocalizations during play and when tickled. But
it’s very different in sound from human laughter.
When we laugh, we’re often
communicating playful intent. So laughter has a bonding function within
individuals in a group.
It’s often positive, but it can be negative too. There’s
a difference between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” People who laugh at
others may be trying to force them to conform or casting them out of the group.
No one has actually counted how much people of different
ages laugh, but young children probably laugh the most. At ages 5 and 6, we tend to see the most exuberant laughs. Adults
laugh less than children, probably because they play less. And laughter is
associated with play.
We have learned a lot about when and why we laugh, much
of it counter-intuitive. Work now underway will tell us more about the brain
mechanisms of laughter, how laughter has evolved and why we’re so susceptible
to tickling — one of the most enigmatic of human behaviors.
Robert Provine, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and
neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is completing
a book entitled “Laughter” that is scheduled to be published this fall by
Little, Brown and Company.
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