The adaptive value of humor and laughter

doi:10.1016/0162-3095(93)90012-7

Ethology and Sociobiology

Volume 14, Issue 2, March 1993, Pages 141-169

https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(93)90012-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

Most explanations for humor neglect important types of humor, such as tickling and word play; or raise difficult evolutionary theoretical problems, such as group selection, dubious fitness benefits, and excessive complexity of design; or ignore the data on humor and laughter. The present theory was based on the following observations. Tickling entails a mock attack at vulnerable body spots, and may provide youngsters with practice in defending themselves. The child's laughter is pleasant and encourages the tickler to persist. Similarly, juvenile primates including children encourage roughhousing by laughter and other emotional expressions. We also laugh at humorous content that provides striking counter-examples (incongruities), as in word play, or that informs us about fitness-relevant topics such as sexual, aggressive, and social poise scenarios. The present theory is that the pleasure of humor motivates us to seek out poignant, fitness- enhancing input of this sort. Laughter evolved to allow us to continue to recieve amusement. Laughter is a pleasant social signal that prompts the humorist to persist in providing this edifying stimulation. In response to true wit, laughter conveys appreciation and gratitude—an intention to reciprocate for having received a stimulating idea. Thus, humor benefits both humorist and laughter. This theory and others are evaluated in the light of evolutionary principles and relevant data.

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The adaptive value of humor and laughter

Abstract

Ethology and Sociobiology

Personality and Individual Differences

Child Development

Journal of General Psychology

Child Development

Play Fighting

Evolution of the human psyche

Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach

Eye contact, distance, and affiliation

Sociometry

The politics

The development of laughing and smiling in nursery school children

Child Development

The effects of activity-elicited humor and group structure on group cohesion and affective responses

American Journal of Occupational Therapy

Brain's Clinical Neurology

Age differences in children's humor

Journal of Children in Contemporary Society

Issues and concepts in ethology

Human Aggression

The position of humor in human communication

Rare Diseases and Lessons: Their Contributions to Clinical Medicine

Humor: An introduction

American Behavioral Scientist

Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic

Aggressive humor as a stimulus to aggressive responses

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Conflict, Arousal and Curiosity

Conspecific screams and laughter: cardiac and behavioral reactions of infant chimpanzees

Development Psychobiology

Kinesics and Context

Pathological laughter: a review of the literature

Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

Influence of trait anxiety on perception of humor

Perceptual and Motor Skills

An ethological study of some aspects of social behavior of children in nursery school

The social nature of play fighting and play chasing: Mechanisms and strategies underlying cooperation and compromise

Grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood

Neuropsychological insights into humour

Children's imitation of a ridiculed model

Human Communication Research

The Communication of Emotion

Humor as a disabling mechanism

American Behavioral Scientist

Human and laughter in social interaction and some implications for humor research

Is sexual humor sexist?

Journal of Communication

Humor, laughter and social interaction

Social aspects of humorous laughter

Homo ridens: Le rire et la personne

Personnalite

Laughter among colleagues

Psychiatry

The use of humor with children in hospital settings

Journal of Children in Contemporary Society

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals