IFC S2E2 - Laughter: an Evolutionary Psychology Perspective
Laughter as an Evolutionary Adaptation
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Laughter is a social behavior which typically signifies a shared joy among individuals. It is an evolutionary adaptation common among many social primate species and it is believed to be associated with social bonding among individuals, similar to grooming behavior.
Laughter is characterized by its rhythmic structure as bursts of sounds occurring at regular intervals.
Unlike other primate species who tend to produce laughter on both the inhale and exhale of a breath, humans produce laughter solely through the interruption of a single exhale (i.e. ha-ha-ha).
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This distinct characteristic of human laughter is thought to be a more recent evolutionary development as it relates to the way we produce sounds when we communicate (i.e. we communicate by modifying an exhale). With chimpanzees and other primates producing laughter on both the inhale and exhale, laughter for them is more closely associated with exerted breathing (i.e. panting).
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As such, evolutionary researchers believe that laughter may have evolved in primates through play behavior. Primates play by chasing one another, a behavior that tends to lead to exertion and heavy breathing (again - panting). This type of breathing may be accentuated by the individual in order to convey joy to the other and signify that they are having fun.
Humans on the other hand, tend to laugh as a form of communication.
Social Brain Hypothesis
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According to the social brain hypothesis of laughter the human brain is believed to have grown rapidly along with population increase. As the group became larger, it naturally became more complex socially. This social complexity can be quite challenging at times for the individual especially in terms of bonding with larger groups. As such, communication developed in humans as a way of bonding with larger groups in short amounts of time. For instance, grooming behavior and one on one play which lead to social bonding in many primate species, takes a lot of time and becomes increasingly harder to do as group size increases. Communication solves this evolutionary problem.
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Laughter is an extension of communication. In large groups, laughter signals to others that they are a part of the group – that they are involved and/or participating in what is going on.
The interesting and somewhat confusing thing about laughter is that the mechanism to be able to laugh is an innate quality that we are born with rather than a learned behavior. It is actually built into our genetic code to be able to laugh which makes it even more challenging to understand. However, one explanation for this is that laughter acts as a release mechanism.
During conversation there tends to be a buildup of energy in the brain for the individual. This cortical excitation, that tends to take place in the part of the brain responsible for vocalization, needs to be relieved in some way. As such, if the individual does not have anything to say or a means to say it, the stored energy is released in the form of laughter.
Fun fact about @leaky20
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I have been told on many occasions by many different people that my laugh is more like a cackle ahh-ha-ha-ha. I think that this really fits my whole bird persona. lol
Thanks For Reading
References:
Marijuan, P. C. & Navarro, J. (2010). The bonds of laughter: a multidisciplinary inquiry into the information processes of human laughter. Quantitative Biology - Neurons and Cognition.
Van de Braak, H. (2013). Evolutionary Psychology. Harlow, Essex: Pearson
Solid look at the topic of laughter from a biological and at times neurological perspective. Thanks for putting this write up together. I voted for your piece in IFC Round 2.
Glad you liked it : )
Thanks for this interesting post. I can't imagine a day without plenty of laughter. It is quite addictive. Resteemed.
I agree. A day without laughter would not be enjoyable. Thanks for the support. I appreciate it :)
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Hmmm.. That's really interesting! Maybe that's one reason comedians are so loved, or.. Hated depending on who they piss off with their comedy, heh.
I never really thought of it that way though it makes a ton of sense the more I think about it.. That's another good reason for me to work on my comedy skills since I love communication so much and I love learning new ways to communicate. :)
I'm a bit skeptical of this part as it seems like some form of understanding needs to take place in order to get a joke or the humor in a situation, however... It does seem like babies laugh at weird things so that may make some sense in regards to babies, though.. Even they may be learning and that "Ah ha" moment may result in laughter. I know I often find myself laughing when I learn something new and interesting or fascinating or surprising. :)
Lol, reminds me of my brother who has a similar "crow" type of laugh.
Thanks for sharing a lil humor about yourself! I think that's a humble thing to do, also I enjoyed reading your entry and I learned a few new useful things which is awesome!
PS. You forgot to put your entry in the comments section of the original thread post which is part of the rules. So please try to do that sometime soon before we do the official vote. Though we haven't even finished voting on the first round yet so you probably have at least a couple days!
Right!! I forgot about posting the link. Sorry. I read the entry 2 post when you first posted it and forgot that step since then. I'll do it after this comment.
Regarding your skepticism that laughter is not a learned behavior. Thanks for pointing this out because it made me realize that I wasnt clear in what I meant. I agree that "humor" takes a certain level of understanding and it is a learned behavior. We often learn what to percieve as funny. I should have clarified that the mechanism of laughter is innate within us. The mechanism itself is not learned. For instance, we are not taught how to laugh like we are say - ice skating, or reading. We are born with an ability to laugh. Babies at a very young age laugh (as you pointed out) when they are tickled or played with, but their parents do not give them instruction on how to perform a laugh. It's similar as language. Yes we learn how to talk and how to formulate words but but the ability to talk is an innate characteristic that we are born with.
Does that help clarify what I meant? You can still disagree with this and if you do I would like to hear more about that but hopefully my point is more clear. I made a slight edit to the post to clarify this point so thanks again for pointing that out.
:)
No worries! It's how we learn.
Yes, I think that clarifies what you meant a lot and I think I am in agreement. However.. I do still sort of feel like there is a learning process going on even if it is to a degree intrinsic and innate. Just like we learn to walk, but that is also intrinsic and innate I think we also learn to laugh as well. The case of being tickled however has me a lil confused on that since that is more of a stimuli and reaction to being stimulated, however not all people laugh when tickled.. Some people don't and they don't like being tickled so I would say that varies as well and when one is first tickled whether it is loving or strange might determine how one reacts to tickling in the future.
Also you're welcoming at the end there! It's a very thought provoking subject you've brought up and it's making me think, so thanks for helping me to think a bit deeper and contemplate existence a bit richer! :D
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