International Laughter Day | "Laughter as a survival mechanism?" by Joana Rato

We all like to laugh, especially if it's with a lot of gusto and for a long time, like the well-known expression "laughing out loud". The big questions that science has raised are why we try to laugh or the processes underlying the production of laughter. Today we know that laughter can make the physical and emotional response to stress less intense. So it may not be unreasonable to think that the act of laughing may be yet another tool that nature has provided us with as a survival aid. It's in the most emotionally tense moments that a good laugh can unblock us and make us act.

Some authors suggest that humor is an element of the cognitive system from which it is discovered that an unconscious assumption was a mistake. They call it in Saxon "just-in-time spreading activation", i.e. an activation that appears at the right moment. Humor happens when this operating system detects an error that other parts have overlooked. The brain's dopaminergic pleasure system rewards this survival-enhancing discovery with a surge of joy. What has been documented about how we process laughter is that there are several brain pathways that contribute to laughter. Brain regions normally involved in decision-making and controlling our behavior have to be inhibited to facilitate spontaneous laughter. Laughter also depends on emotional circuits that connect the areas responsible for assigning meaning and expressing emotions. It is the frontal brain circuits that allow us to interpret the literal meaning of language in a social context and this helps us to appreciate subtle humor such as irony and sarcasm.

Although surrounded by some conservatism, there is now a comprehensive perspective on the phenomenon of laughter. It is through the lens of the evolutionary perspective that we see that we share laughter with other animals. The perception that something has gone wrong is when we encounter a situation that defies expectations of normality and this is immediately interpreted as something curious. First we experience the feeling of incongruity arising from a strange situation. Then, when the worry naturally caused by the atypical situation is overcome, laughter appears as a sign of relief. That's why laughter can be a way of showing others that the perceived threat has been overcome. This is also why laughter is often contagious, as it provides a moment of decompression at the end of the fear that unites us. Like crying, laughter is a release mechanism for the body that we need. Laughter and the appreciation of humor are thus seen as vital components of social, emotional and cognitive adaptive function. It's one more tool at our disposal to live better lives.

Reading suggestion:

Caruana, F., Palagi, E., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2022). Cracking the laugh code: laughter through the lens of biology, psychology and neuroscience. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1863). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0159