Why do people want to laugh? ..

Why do people laugh

The ever-changing science and technology has allowed humans to land on the moon, and the increasingly sophisticated asexual reproduction has also enabled humans to "create" animals. However, for some people Very simple questions, such as "Why do people laugh?" are still unclear to people.

Dr. Ramachandala from the United States has made new explorations in this regard. He pointed out that when you listen to a joke or something funny happens, you may feel that there will be a certain outcome, but often the outcome is something else, so you have to fundamentally re-explain it. It can be seen that people laugh through laughter. Tell people around you that what just happened was a "false alarm."

According to this theory, if someone stepped on a banana peel while walking and fell and suffered a bloody head, you would not laugh when you saw it, but if he got up again after falling, he patted him. When your body is on the road again, you may laugh - in fact, you are telling the people around you through laughter that there is no need to rescue him. It turns out to be a "false alarm".

Dr. Ramachandala further deduced that in ancient times, the primitive people who served as vigilants may have laughed out loud to disarm the "false alarm" (such as the coming of the wolf) that had just been issued.

Dr. Ramachandala discovered this "false alarm" phenomenon when he was treating a woman with a strange encephalopathy in India. When he touched her skin with a needle, she giggled. In this regard, he analyzed that if the needle touches a normal person, the pain signal received by the skin will be sent to the part of the brain responsible for responding to pain, and then this information is transmitted from there to the sensory center of the brain. , and finally make it feel painful. But for this woman, the message only reached the pain center of the brain, not the sensory center, because the connection between the two was abnormally severed. As a result, she felt only a little pain, not severe pain, which her brain could only interpret as a "false alarm," and she giggled.

Psychologists are now discovering that laughter is one of the oldest ways for humans to communicate with others. Before that, laughter was only seen as a manifestation of human humor. Humans laugh to express solidarity with others or to laugh at them, or to use laughter to flirt with others. Each of us mastered this skill long before we learned to speak.

Laughing is not just for fun

So far, scientific research has linked laughter and humor. But scientists recently discovered that another aspect of laughter is even more important. It has nothing to do with humor.

We use laughter, but we always underestimate its role. By laughing, people convey a message. Although laughter can be heard by many people, only specific recipients can understand the message. The message appears to be encrypted because it is directed at the recipient and does not require his conscious understanding.

"It's a really remarkable laugh," says psychologist Ioanna Bachorowski. She played a video from one experiment: a woman started laughing. When she first laughed it was like she was coughing. Then she rhythmically raised the pitch until it was as high as a bird's call. In 20 milliseconds, she raised her pitch to an astonishing 1,000 Hz—10 times higher than the frequency of her normal speaking voice. "This is the kind of smile that makes people feel good," said Ioanna Bachorowski. She pointed to the TV screen again. The next part of the experiment was all about men: "'She's interested in me,' this man Hearing a woman laugh like this is like going crazy."

Human conversation is full of laughter

Joanna Bachorowski is a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA. expert. She is one of six scientists around the world studying human laughter.

From grunts, wheezes, coughs or snores to sounds like bird calls that jump up and down, mixed with speech, they are all laughter. A person who emits a certain kind of laughter will be doomed to fail if he tries to deliberately repeat the sounds. Because his vocal organs are no longer ready to laugh like that.

To investigate the structure of laughter, psychologist Bachorovsky listened to 109 laughter sound samples. She found that rapid bursts of laughter lasted from 0.04 seconds to almost 6 seconds. This is the same for men and women.

Laughter is a social tool. When a person is alone, his throat rarely trembles.

Giggles, suicidal laughter, and high-pitched laughter occur only when you are in the company of other people. People who laugh often interrupt conversations and wait until they have finished laughing before continuing. And the people who laugh rarely notice it themselves. "Obviously, people look for opportunities to laugh," Bachorowski said.

Women are better at laughing than men

When a man laughs deeply, the frequency reaches 43 Hz, while a woman’s sharp laughter can reach as high as 2083 Hz, which can even break glass. . In addition, women's laughter is more beautiful, while men can only laugh like a breathy one most of the time. The reasons for this difference have not yet been studied. Perhaps it's because women have developed a larger and richer sound system.

Bahorovsky conducted another experiment: she asked men, women, and people of different genders to sit together. Each participant in the experiment had to draw a pencil sketch of the others. She found that although men and women laughed the same number of times in all three conditions, the men laughed more when they were together. Women smile more when they are with men.

When a woman talks to a strange man, if she only laughs "hahaha", it means she has no interest. The more a woman laughs out loud, the more interested she is in the man. Her interest is strongest when her smile and the man's words are synchronized.

Women use laughter to convey signals

Why do women master the art of laughter better than men? Bachorovsky's experiments showed that this is because women need to take the lead in the "finding a partner" process more than men. In comparison, men are not as picky as women, so their communication skills, including laughter skills, remain at a relatively crude stage.

Laughter is not only an expression of personal comfort or happiness, it can also evoke certain emotions when people face other people. Women seem to be able to make requests to men through their laughter, and are willing to meet them again next time. This allows a woman to subtly indicate her acceptance or outright rejection of a man without having to express her intentions.

However, in Bachorovsky's view, a woman's smile is not only used to conquer the opposite sex. It also helps a woman escape a man's potential aggression plans. In this case, the monotonous "ha ha ha" laughter achieves a defensive purpose without embarrassing the man.

Different laughter is related to status

When men who have a good relationship are together, they tease each other with snorts of laughter and coughs, which can facilitate conversation between them. Always stay in a positive direction. Bachorovsky believed that hearty laughter can bring a good atmosphere. Perhaps this "laughing alliance" between men prevents feelings of competition and aggression from arising.

Laughter has an impact on other people in all aspects of our lives. The mocking laughter makes the "victim" look like a fool and himself the aggressor. If people in a group laugh at a person, they exclude him from the group. Even though employees' bosses are often boring people, they still respond with a groveling smile - all in an effort to make a good impression on their boss. The bosses use a different kind of smile to make their subordinates feel their dominance. If they don't use a simple "haha" smile but laugh briskly while talking, they will lose the respect of their subordinates.

Understand laughter and understand yourself

When a baby is still young, he will giggle at his parents to remind his parents to think of him often. At four months old, before he has learned his first words, a baby's throat can already produce laughter. This is true even for babies who are deaf or blind. Even thousands of years before humans learned to speak, our ancestors used laughter to communicate with each other.

Can individual snippets in a sequence of laughter convey different meanings, like words? If that's the case, maybe the person laughing might be saying: "You're so possessed!" or "Great! Boss!" Bachorovsky shook his head and said: "I'm pretty sure, laughter It has no meaning in itself.”

Laughter is a complex signal code that involves the person laughing, causing significant feelings in others. Cracking the code of laughter may allow us to understand ourselves again.

The ever-changing science and technology have allowed humans to land on the moon, and the increasingly sophisticated asexual reproduction has also enabled humans to "create" animals. However, for some seemingly simple questions, such as "Why do humans... "Laugh", but people still don't know much about it.

Dr. Ramachandala from the United States has made new explorations in this regard.

He pointed out that when you listen to a joke or something funny happens, you may feel that a certain outcome will occur, but often the outcome is something else, so you have to fundamentally reinterpret it. It can be seen that people use laughter to tell those around them that what just occurred is a "false alarm."

According to this theory, if someone stepped on a banana peel while walking and fell and suffered a bloody head, you would not laugh when you saw it, but if he got up again after falling, he patted him. When your body is on the road again, you may laugh - in fact, you are telling the people around you through laughter that there is no need to rescue him. It turns out to be a "false alarm".

Dr. Ramachandala further deduced that in ancient times, the primitive people who served as vigilants may have laughed out loud to disarm the "false alarm" (such as the coming of the wolf) that had just been issued.

Dr. Ramachandala discovered this "false alarm" phenomenon when he was treating a woman with a strange encephalopathy in India. When he touched her skin with a needle, she giggled. In this regard, he analyzed that if the needle touches a normal person, the pain signal received by the skin will be sent to the part of the brain responsible for responding to pain, and then this information is transmitted from there to the sensory center of the brain. , and finally make it feel painful. But for this woman, the message only reached the pain center of the brain, not the sensory center, because the connection between the two was abnormally severed. As a result, she felt only a little pain, not severe pain, which her brain could only interpret as a "false alarm," and she giggled.