Why jokes can make people feel happy

There are always so many afternoons in a year, when facing the sleepy trainees, as a trainer, I have to rely on jokes to cheer them up. The concept of TTT (Teach to teach) , this is called a "boost".

According to common sense, there are several types of jokes that have the best boosting effect -

Naughty jokes.

Political jokes.

Quotes about scolding the boss.

Short paragraphs that are rich in folk art - allegro, jingles, peaceful lyrics and the like.

Jokes related to their profession.

Jokes about family relationships (husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, parents and children).

Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the first three, and I won’t talk about the fourth and fifth on many occasions, so I usually talk about the sixth, and incorporate some little knowledge of psychology by the way. . For example, when talking about the "anchoring effect", how can I convince my wife to buy a SLR? The story inside will be told to everyone.

The students laughed, and the afternoon course got off to a relatively good start.

This is actually a good explanation of this problem -

Laughing is just an expression caused by a joke. The psychological mechanism that is highly related to jokes is actually the high-arousal positivity induced by jokes. Emotional state - boost. From hearing a joke to laughing, there is actually quite an intermediate process.

In this way, our question has been well deepened: How do jokes induce high-arousal emotional states? In other words, how do jokes have an uplifting effect?

“Humor is wisdom” has its own scientific truth to a certain extent. Both have one thing in common: creativity.

Creativity is the first element of a joke.

What we usually call the level of laughter is the individualized difference in the creative comprehension tendency and comprehension ability of jokes.

Let’s take a look at a joke: The Zen Master said: If you choose a path, stick to it. The road will eventually end, and your efforts will always have results!

I said: Mobius Strip_Baidu Encyclopedia.

Did you laugh? May or may not have laughed.

Do you think my grandma would laugh if I told her this joke? I guarantee you she won't laugh.

There is no question of how funny a person is, only how well he understands the events discussed in the joke. This is why there is such a market for dirty jokes, political jokes, and jokes about bosses.

Because many people have never heard of the M?bius strip, but few people do not understand the affairs of men and women, do not gossip about the political situation, and do not hold grudges against their bosses.

Joke is a language product that requires creativity, and creativity is its most important cost.

In 2009, Kaufman and Beghetto proposed the concept of "creating products". "Creating products" is divided into four categories from high to low.

Great creation. Also called outstanding creations, Einstein's theory of relativity falls into this category.

Small creation. Also called daily creation, creative solutions and sudden insights in daily work. This ability to create is now considered to be somewhat measurable (Amabile, 1982).

Micro-creation. It refers to an individual's personal interpretation of an experience or event during the learning process. For example, when practicing guitar, find the playing method that suits you best and develop personalized techniques and methods. Micro-creation is the psychological cement that allows a person to build from a novice to an expert.

Pro creation. It refers to professional creation by skilled people - such as designing and drawing a new poster, planning a new plan, hand-writing a new joke.

Joke, I think, may appear in any of small creation, micro-creation and temporary creation. But one thing we can be sure of is that jokes are closely related to creative thinking.

The relationship between creative thinking and emotions is mutual awakening.

In 2008, the research team led by Bass finally completed a several-year study involving 66 individual items and more than 7,000 subjects, systematically exploring the relationship between emotion and creativity.

Research has found that the "small creations" we mentioned above and positive emotions are mutually arousing.

Creative events can awaken positive emotions.

And the degree of this arousal is highly related to the quality of the created product. An ordinary creative product can only awaken low-level positive emotions (such as peace and relaxation); while a high-quality creative product can awaken high-level positive emotions (joy and surprise). This explains the difference between smiling slightly and laughing after hearing a joke - there are also differences in the level of jokes.

Individual emotions can also affect creativity. Neutral emotions and low levels of negative emotions (depression and sadness) are not significantly related to creativity. Some high levels of negative emotions (sadness and fear) can even reduce cognitive flexibility (a subdimension of creativity). However, in 2010, Hennessey and Amabbile's research found that sometimes, high-arousal negative emotions can also stimulate creativity - which means that dogs jump over the wall in a hurry.

Okay, to sum up: Jokes have creative connotations, creativity and positive emotions can arouse each other, and positive emotions can induce the expression of laughter in humans. So, I laugh when I hear a joke.

The following is time for after-class thinking questions:

Why do you feel cold when you hear a bad joke? !