Considering how universal laughter is and how much of it we do, there is, relatively, not a lot of research on laughter. One of the main researchers is Robert Provine from University of Maryland. Here is a summary of some of the research he has done… some of these findings may surprise you:
- Laughter is universal: All humans in all cultures laugh
- Laughter is unconscious: You can’t actually laugh on command — it will be fake laughter if you try to.
- Laughter is for social communication: We rarely laugh when we are alone. We laugh 30 times more often when we are with others.
- Laughter is contagious: We will smile and then start laughing as we hear others laugh.
- Laughter appears early in babies: at about 4 months old
- Laughter is not about humor: Provine studied over 2,000 cases of naturally occurring laughter and most of it did not happen as a result of “humor” such as telling jokes. Most laughter followed statements such as “Hey John, where ya been?” or “Here comes Mary”, or “How did you do on the test?” Laughter after these types of statements bond people together socially. Only 20% of laughter is from jokes.
- We rarely laugh in the middle of a sentence. It is usually at the end.
- Other primate and mammals laugh. There are videos of rats laughing while being tickled.
- Speaking of tickling, laughing seems to have “evolved” from tickling.
- Most laughing occurs by the person who is speaking, not the person who is listening. The person who is speaking laughs twice as much.
- Women laugh more than twice as much as men.
- Laughter denotes social status. The higher up on the hierarchy you are in a group, the less you will laugh.
