What are you laughing at?

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

“Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity...When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.” Gretchen Rubin

When was the last time you laughed? Laughed with someone else? (Not at them, with them?!)

I wrote an article about laughter recently and I was struck by how not only it will have a positive effect on your health but it will also help you connect with others, which in turn will make you feel better physically and psychologically It’s a virtuous circle.

“Laughing will have a positive impact on your health,” says Robin Dunbar, an emeritus professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford. Robin studied both the psychological and physiological effects of laughter on health. “Laughter will not only help your heart health but make you feel good, boost your immune system and mood,” he says. His study on the effects of laughter found that when we belly laugh, the physical exertions of the rib cage trigger the release of protective endorphins, the brain chemicals that help us to manage pain and promote feelings of bliss and help promote heart health. 

But it’s not just the physical act of laughing that has such a profound effect on us but the role of laughter to create connection with others, he explained. “Monkeys and apes form social bonds and ‘friendships’ by grooming each other, which sends signals to the brain that trigger the endorphin system,” he explains. “And laughing produces an endorphin reaction similar to grooming.” 

Evolutionarily, Robin believes that laughter is the human equivalent to physical grooming in primates. “Primates spend 20 per cent of the daytime grooming,” he says. “This imposes an upper limit – a kind of glass ceiling of around 50 in group size and the group tends not to grow beyond that unless you solve the bonding problem in some other way. Laughter solves that problem,” he says.

Robin says watching funny television can be good. His research found that slapstick comedy works better at creating guffaw – but it’s not enough. If you really want to laugh, switch off the television and put down the phone, he says. His research has found that we are happiest and laugh most when we are in face-to-face contact with a conversational partner, whether this was in person or online video conferencing. 

“As you get older, you may want to just sit and watch the telly but you need to get out and about,” he says.“Your social networks can shrink,  inevitably our friends die off or move to Bournemouth to be with their grandchildren so you need to make an effort to socialise more.”

Journal prompt:

What makes you laugh?

How can you laugh more with your friends?

How can you explore the lighter sides of life?

Laughter researchers use this video to induce laughter in the lab. Listening to other people laugh will make you laugh, apparently.