Laughter

Laughter is one of the most important innate emotional expressive behaviors of humans, which unfolds its effect not only, but especially in the community with fellow human beings. Laughter is characterized by typical vocal utterances and a jerky exhalation and thus clearly differs from mere smiling (when smiling or smirking, only the facial expression changes). Laughter is

• a reaction of a person to funny or exhilarating situations,
• a relief reaction after dangers have been overcome,
• a method of averting impending social conflicts and consolidating social relationships,
• a defense mechanism against spontaneous anxiety.

The branch of science that deals with laughter is gelotology (from ancient Greek γέλως gélōs, German 'Lachen'). The word laugh (mhd. lachen, ahd. hlahhan, lahhan) originated through onomatopoeia.

Laughter or behavior similar to human laughter is also known to occur in some animal species.

Social Meaning

In human interaction, laughter is understood as an expression of sympathy and mutual agreement and thus has a calming, conflict-limiting effect that is conducive to living together in groups. Unproven, but not improbable, is the assessment of some researchers that laughter is one of the fundamental forms of human communication, which, in the history of mankind, clearly precedes the development of language. Evidence for this is the fact that laughter is triggered and controlled in a brain region that is significantly older than the language centre.

In his 1963 book Das sogenannte Böse (The So-Called Evil), Konrad Lorenz originally interpreted laughter as a threatening gesture that arose from snarling. It showed that someone had a healthy set of teeth, thus demonstrating strength. Within a group, however, it had and has something unifying: To show one's teeth to each other means to be part of a strong community and an equal partner within the group. Laughter is usually joyful. Laughter can also occur in actually malicious situations (sarcastic laughter).

Laughter is loud laughter, usually in company. In a cheerful group, laughter gains a high momentum of its own. From a social psychological point of view, excessive, disinhibited laughter is virtually a victory of the body over the power of the otherwise dominant mind.

Laughter as a reflex

Laughter is usually an involuntary act in which a stimulus transmitted to the brain by the sensory nerves is compensated for by being transmitted to the nerve origins of the muscles that contract during laughter. Accordingly, laughter is a so-called reflex movement, and thus - like other reflex movements - has the peculiarity that it takes place most perfectly when our attention is turned away from our body. Laughter, however, can be restrained to a certain extent by self-control.

But laughter is also caused by certain emotional impressions (such as tickling) and serves, as it were, as a means of compensating for the stimulus caused by those impressions. The reflex movement of laughter can easily degenerate into a kind of spasm, the laughing spasm.