why are we laughing New study suggests it could be a survival strategy

A woman in labor is having a terrible time and suddenly screams, “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!”

“Don’t worry,” says the doctor. “These are just contractions.”

Several theories have tried to explain what makes something funny enough to make us laugh. These include transgression (something forbidden), piercing a sense of arrogance or superiority (ridicule), and incongruity—the presence of two incompatible meanings in the same situation.

I decided to review all the available literature on laughter and humor published in English over the past 10 years to see if other conclusions could be drawn.

After reviewing more than 100 articles, my study uncovered a new possible explanation: Laughter is a tool that nature may have provided us with to help us survive.

I looked at research papers on humor theories that provided important information on three areas: the physical characteristics of laughter, the brain centers associated with laughter production, and the health benefits of laughter.

These were more than 150 papers demonstrating important characteristics of the conditions that make people laugh.

By categorizing all of the theories into specific areas, I was able to condense the process of laughter into three main steps: confusion, determination, and an eventual all-clear, as I will explain.

This raises the possibility that laughter was conserved through natural selection over the past millennia to help humans survive. It could also explain why we are attracted to people who make us laugh.

The Evolution of Laughter

The incongruity theory is good at explaining humorous laughter, but it falls short.

In this case, laughter isn’t about a pervasive sense that things are out of sync or incompatible. It’s about finding ourselves in a certain situation that subverts our expectations of normality.

For example, if we see a tiger strolling down a city street it may seem incongruous, but it’s not funny – on the contrary, it would be terrifying. But when the tiger rolls around like a ball, it gets weird.

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The animated anti-hero Homer Simpson makes us laugh when he falls off the roof of his house and bounces like a ball, or when he tries to “strangle” his son Bart with his eyes and tongue like he’s made of rubber.

These are examples of the human experience morphing into an over-the-top cartoon version of the world where anything — especially the ridiculous — can happen.

But to be funny, the event must also be perceived as harmless. We laugh because we acknowledge that the Tiger or Homer never effectively hurts others or gets hurt themselves because their worlds are essentially not real.

So we can trace laughter to a three-step process. First, it needs a situation that seems strange and creates a sense of incongruity (confusion or panic).

Second, the worry or stress caused by the inappropriate situation needs to be processed and overcome (resolution). Third, actually letting go of laughter acts like an all-clear siren to warn bystanders (relief) that they are safe.

Laughter may well be a signal humans have used for millennia to show others that a fight or flight response is not required and that the perceived threat has passed.

That’s why laughter is often contagious: it connects us, makes us more sociable, signals the end of fear or worry. Laughter is life affirming.

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We can transfer this directly to the 1936 film Modern Times, in which Charlie Chaplin’s cartoon tramp character obsessively repairs screws in a factory like a robot instead of a human.

It makes us laugh because we subconsciously want to show others that the disturbing spectacle of a man reduced to a robot is a fiction. He’s a human, not a machine. There is no reason to worry.

How humor can work

Similarly, the joke at the beginning of this article starts with a scene from real life and then morphs into something strange and startling (the woman is behaving inappropriately) but which we ultimately realize isn’t serious and is actually very funny (the ambiguity of the doctor’s reaction elicits relief) which elicits laughter.

As I showed in a previous study of human behavior when crying, laughter has a powerful impact on our body’s physiology.

Like crying – and chewing, breathing or walking – laughter is a rhythmic behavior that is a trigger mechanism for the body.

The brain centers that regulate laughter are the ones that control emotions, fears, and fears. Letting go of laughter releases the stress or tension of a situation and floods the body with relief.

Humor is often used in hospitals to help patients heal, as clown therapy studies have shown.

Humor can also improve blood pressure and immunity, and help overcome anxiety and depression.

The research examined in my review also showed that humor is important in the classroom and is used to emphasize concepts and thoughts.

Humor related to course material encourages attention and creates a more relaxed and productive learning environment. In the classroom environment, humor also reduces anxiety, encourages participation, and increases motivation.

love and laughter

Reviewing this data on laughter also allows for a hypothesis as to why people fall in love with someone because “they make me laugh”. It’s not just about being funny. It could be a bit more complex.

When someone else’s laugh provokes ours, that person is signaling that we can relax, we’re safe—and that builds trust.

When our laughter is triggered by their jokes, it causes us to overcome fears caused by a strange or unfamiliar situation. And when a person’s ability to be funny inspires us to overcome our fears, we become more attracted to them. That might explain why we worship those who make us laugh.

In this day and age, of course, we don’t think much about laughter. We simply enjoy it for the uplifting experience and for the sense of well-being it brings.

From an evolutionary perspective, this very human behavior may have served an important function in terms of danger awareness and self-preservation.

Even now, when we are confronted with danger, we often react afterwards with laughter out of sheer relief.

Carlo Valerio Bellieni, Professor of Pediatrics, Università di Siena.

This article was republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.