Laughter as an exapted displacement activity: the implications for humor theory (original) (raw)
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Cognitive and Emotional Contents of Laughter
International Journal of Synthetic Emotions, 2014
Laughter, one of the most intriguing reactions of individuals, is an important emotional component of intelligence's adaptive processes. Laughter spontaneously appears as an instinctive “gut” reaction; but it is also a cognitive phenomenon (humour), it is social, it has positive-negative valence, and it may wrap itself onto other emotional contents. Laughter becomes one of the most interesting instances to discuss the common information processing that underlies emotions and intelligence. In this article a new core hypothesis on the neurodynamics of laughter and its behavioural repercussions is discussed. The “sentic forms” hypothesis developed by Manfred Clynes for sensory-motor tactile communication is generalized neurodynamically in order to understand the problem-solving characteristics of laughter and the unusual sound features that it presents in our species. Laughter, far from being a curious evolutionary relic or a trivial innate behaviour, should be considered as a high...
The Bonds of Laughter: A Multidisciplinary Inquiry into the Information Processes of Human Laughter
2010
A new core hypothesis on laughter is presented. It has been built by putting together ideas from several disciplines: neurodynamics, evolutionary neurobiology, paleoanthropology, social networks, and communication studies. The hypothesis contributes to ascertain the evolutionary origins of human laughter in connection with its cognitive emotional signaling functions. The new behavioral and neurodynamic tenets introduced about this unusual sound feature of our species justify the ubiquitous presence it has in social interactions and along the life cycle of the individual. Laughter, far from being a curious evolutionary relic or a rather trivial innate behavior, should be considered as a highly efficient tool for inter-individual problem solving and for maintenance of social bonds.
The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach
Quarterly Review of Biology, 2005
He who approaches laughter upon science bent will find it no laughing matter. (McComas 1923:45) abstract A number of recent hypotheses have attempted to explain the ultimate evolutionary origins of laughter and humor. However, most of these have lacked breadth in their evolutionary frameworks while neglecting the empirical existence of two distinct types of laughter-Duchenne and non-Duchenne-and the implications of this distinction for the evolution of laughter as a signal. Most of these hypotheses have also been proposed in relative isolation of each other and remain disjointed from the relevant empirical literature. Here we attempt to remedy these shortcomings through a synthesis of previous laughter and humor research followed by (i) a reevaluation of this research in light of theory and data from several relevant disciplines, and (ii) the proposal of a synthetic evolutionary framework Volume 80 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY that takes into account phylogeny and history as well as proximate mechanisms and adaptive significance. We consider laughter to have been a preadaptation that was gradually elaborated and co-opted through both biological and cultural evolution. We hypothesize that Duchenne laughter became fully ritualized in early hominids between 4 and 2 mya as a medium for playful emotional contagion. This mechanism would have coupled the emotions of small hominid groups and promoted resource-building social play during the fleeting periods of safety and satiation that characterized early bipedal life. We further postulate that a generalized class of nonserious social incongruity would have been a reliable indicator of such safe times and thereby came to be a potent distal elicitor of laughter and playful emotion. This class of stimuli had its origins in primate social play and was the foundation for formal human humor. Within this framework, Duchenne laughter and protohumor were well established in the hominid biobehavioral repertoire when more cognitively sophisticated traits evolved in the hominid line between 2 mya and the present. The prior existence of laughter and humor allowed them to be coopted for numerous novel functions, and it is from this process that non-Duchenne laughter and the "dark side" of laughter emerged. This perspective organizes the diversified forms and functions that characterize laughter and humor today and clarifies when and how laughter and humor evolved during the course of human evolution.
Humor Theories and the Physiological Benefits of Laughter
Holistic Nursing Practice, 2009
There are 3 main theories used to explain the functions of humor: (1) the relief theory, (2) the incongruity theory, and (3) the superiority theory. While these theories focus on the specific role that humor plays for people in situations such as dealing with misfortune, making sense of rule violations, and bonding with others, we propose that underlying each of these theories are the physiological benefits of laughter. We draw on findings from empirical studies on laughter to demonstrate that these physiological benefits occur regardless of the theory that is used to explain the humor function. Findings from these studies have important implications for nurse practitioners working in hospice settings, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, and hospitals.
Differentiation of Emotions in Laughter at the Behavioral Level
Emotion, 2009
Although laughter is important in human social interaction, its role as a communicative signal is poorly understood. Because laughter is expressed in various emotional contexts, the question arises as to whether different emotions are communicated. In the present study, participants had to appraise 4 types of laughter sounds (joy, tickling, taunting, schadenfreude) either by classifying them according to the underlying emotion or by rating them according to different emotional dimensions. The authors found that emotions in laughter (a) can be classified into different emotional categories, and (b) can have distinctive profiles on W. Wundt's (1905) emotional dimensions. This shows that laughter is a multifaceted social behavior that can adopt various emotional connotations. The findings support the postulated function of laughter in establishing group structure, whereby laughter is used either to include or to exclude individuals from group coherence.
The Neurological Research on Laughter: Social Context, Joys, and Taunts
Israeli Journal for Humor Research, 2018
One theory about comedy is that the stand-up comedian is always engaged in a quest for " respectability. " As the center of attention, the comedian has a unique opportunity to share specific truths with authority, but at the same time, the comedian engages in self-deprecation and being an occasional butt of their own joke. In Elmer Blistein's classic book Comedy in Action (1964), he relates a story about Danny Kaye. When Kaye's five-year-old daughter saw him perform in a nightclub, he noticed her crying and asked her what was wrong. She replied, " I don't like people to laugh at my Daddy " (Blistein 1964: 17). Kaye's daughter was struggling with the difference between " laughing at " and " laughing with. " The comedian constantly negotiates being the butt of the joke who is the object of laughter, and being the expert who is in control of the performance and laughing with the audience. In either case, neurobiological analysis of laughter shows striking differences in types of laughter and the active locations of the brain in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. One research team has documented a " laughter neural network " showing that joyous and taunting laughter each produced different connectivity patterns in parts of the brain involved in sound association, thinking and visual imagery. The fact that laughter occurs in a social context where roles and statuses between individuals are interpreted and reinterpreted is very important. Complex social laughter is used in a conscious and goal-directed manner to influence and modify the attitudes and behaviors of those around us. " Polite laughter " as a way to acknowledge things that members of a group all find funny can reinforce social communication and cooperation. Researchers have documented this behavior among great apes and chimpanzees. Phenomenologically, the frequency and pitch of laughter produced in different social settings can vary widely in accordance with the emotional state of the laugher, with the difference in pitch between joyous laughter and taunting " schadenfreude " laughter at another's misfortune showing distinct differences. The social context of laughter and its neurobiological basis is central to the distinction between laughing at someone and laughing with someone.
Neural correlates of laughter and humour
Brain, 2003
Although laughter and humour have been constituents of humanity for thousands if not millions of years, their systematic study has begun only recently. Investigations into their neurological correlates remain fragmentary and the following review is a ®rst attempt to collate and evaluate these studies, most of which have been published over the last two decades. By employing the classical methods of neurology, brain regions associated with symptomatic (pathological) laughter have been determined and catalogued under other diagnostic signs and symptoms of such conditions as epilepsy, strokes and circumspect brain lesions. These observations have been complemented by newer studies using modern non-invasive imaging methods. To summarize the results of many studies, the expression of laughter seems to depend on two partially independent neuronal pathways. The ®rst of these, an`involuntary' or`emotionally driven' system, involves the amygdala, thalamic/hypo-and subthalamic areas and the dorsal/ tegmental brainstem. The second,`voluntary' system originates in the premotor/frontal opercular areas and leads through the motor cortex and pyramidal tract to the ventral brainstem. These systems and the laughter response appear to be coordinated by a laughter-coordinating centre in the dorsal upper pons. Analyses of the cerebral correlates of humour have been impeded by a lack of consensus among psychologists on exactly what humour is, and of what essential components it consists. Within the past two decades, however, suf®cient agreement has been reached that theory-based hypotheses could be formulated and tested with various non-invasive methods. For the perception of humour (and depending on the type of humour involved, its mode of transmission, etc.) the right frontal cortex, the medial ventral prefrontal cortex, the right and left posterior (middle and inferior) temporal regions and possibly the cerebellum seem to be involved to varying degrees. An attempt has been made to be as thorough as possible in documenting the foundations upon which these burgeoning areas of research have been based up to the present time.
This article addresses both well-researched and relatively unexplored questions pertaining to humor and laughter. The following are some of the questions that are considered here: What is humor? What is the role of laughter in humor? What are the ontogenetic and phylogenetic origins of laughter? How does humor work, cognitively? What is the functional significance of humor? What are the varieties of laughter and how are they perceived?What kinds of disorders of laughter have been documented and what do they suggest about the neural circuitry underlying laughter and humor?
Rapid Anxiety Reduction (RAR): A unified theory of humor
arXiv: Neurons and Cognition, 2019
I propose a potentially novel theory of humor as the feeling of Rapid Anxiety Reduction (RAR). According to RAR, humor can be expressed in a simple formula: -d(A)/dt. RAR has strong correspondences with False Alarm Theory, Benign Violation Theory, and Cognitive Debugging Theory, all of which represent either special cases or partial descriptions at alternative levels of analysis. Some evidence for RAR includes physiological similarities between hyperventilation and laughter and the fact that smiles often indicate negative affect in non-human primates (e.g. fear grimaces where teeth are exposed as a kind of inhibited threat display, as suggested by Michael Graziano). If humor reliably indicates conditions of a) anxiety induction, b) anxiety reduction, and c) the time-course relating these things--so productively constraining inference spaces regarding latent mental states--then we know a great deal about the values and capacities of the persons experiencing humor. By providing this c...