About Laughter

Humour and laughter have been closely related for centuries. The word ‘humor’, is Latin in origin and means ‘body fluid’. The Ancient Greeks widely believed that the balance of fluids in the body controlled our emotions and health. In light of the modern research in to the effects of laughter - the positive chemicals produced (and negative chemicals closed off) when laughing, it is fascinating to discover how accurate their understanding was.

There is a common misconception which you will find throughout the internet that children laugh on average more than 300 times a day and that by adulthood this drops to less than 20. This is usually to support the argument that adults become too serious and somehow lose their sense of joy and playfulness and therefore don’t laugh as much. Although there may be some truth in this statement, Dr Rod A. Martin, Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, and a leading scientist in the field humour and laughter and their link to psychological health said, “I have not been able to find the scientific research that these numbers supposedly came from.”

Many animals recognise and understand smiles and laughter but it was widely believed that very few are able to do it. There are many animals which display sounds that are like laughter (such as the hyena) but with little evidence to support the fact that it is anything more. However, a study in 2021 by Sasha L. Winkler & Gregory A. Bryant, PhD students at the UCLA's anthropological department have now identified at least 65 creatures (including humans) which they believe do indeed laugh.

The first signs of laughter occur at around the age of 3-4 months and is used as a signal to the primary care providers to communicate that they want something or require attention. As we get older, it is used to provide emotional context to conversation, signal group acceptance in social interactions and to express amusement.

Laughter can seem contagious in much the same way as we view yawning. The mere sound of laughter may appear to trigger gelotoleptic episodes in those close by, but does that necessarily mean its contagious?

Laughter is a natural involuntary response to certain internal or external stimuli. Most commonly, it is a brief, vocalised expression of joy, often accompanied by facial expressions, changes in breathing and body movement. The sound of laughter can signal to others that something pleasant is happening. It can be a response to absurdity, amusement, incongruity, tickling, joy and relief. Laughter isn’t exclusively linked to comedic actions. It can be an expression in less positive circumstances, for example, taunting, nervousness, surprise, panic, pain and schadenfreude.

Laughter is thought to be a social behaviour that developed early in human evolution and it is important to note that it continues to evolve with us. Since evolution is focused on the survival of a species, the physical act of laughing (and the effect it has on us) would have made early humankind vulnerable. Extreme laughter can render us with a temporarily loss of muscle strength (known as gelotolepsy), tearful, red faced, light-headed, achy, unsteady and with a temporarily interrupted respiratory system. This would make us susceptible to predators at a time when there were far more physical dangers. Such behavioural traits (those that are a danger to a species) do not usually survive, as any benefit they serve is outweighed by the negative. However, as we have evolved, so too has laughter - and with many advantages that have safeguarded its (and our) survival.

Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Hobbes, Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, Anthony Ludovici, Arthur Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant are among a number of eminent neurologists, philosophers and psychologists who have studied laughter and formed theories to explain what humour is. All have varied ideas of what humour is (and the purpose and effects of laughter). Among the most traditional theories are: Relief Theory - identified by Prof. Sigmund Freud, it relates to the dark humour developed from tense situations, where laughter is the emotional release to signify safety and to expel the excess energy stored in tense and stressful situations. Examples of this might be the nervous laugh or elation following a stressful activity like a bungee or parachute jump, or a hair-raising fairground ride. Incongruity Theory - explored and developed by philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant (who was "a real pissant and was very rarely stable”) and Aristotle (who was also “a bugger for the bottle”) based on the idea that humour can be derived from the unexpected - when what we think is going to happen takes an unusual or contradictory turn, replacing logic and familiarity. It is the momentary pause - ‘when the penny drops’ - between what our brain was expecting to happen (and the realisation of the unexpected resolution that occurred) that can trigger the physical response of laughter. An example of this is the joke…

Many have explained the importance of laughter in understanding and dealing with painful or sensitive situations. It is fine line that many comics toe when entertaining audiences; recognising that laughter can be found (and has importance) in relation to sensitive subjects whilst ensuring they are not encouraging laughter directly at the victim or act.