RE: IFC S2E2 - Laughter: an Evolutionary Psychology Perspective
Right!! I forgot about posting the link. Sorry. I read the entry 2 post when you first posted it and forgot that step since then. I'll do it after this comment.
Regarding your skepticism that laughter is not a learned behavior. Thanks for pointing this out because it made me realize that I wasnt clear in what I meant. I agree that "humor" takes a certain level of understanding and it is a learned behavior. We often learn what to percieve as funny. I should have clarified that the mechanism of laughter is innate within us. The mechanism itself is not learned. For instance, we are not taught how to laugh like we are say - ice skating, or reading. We are born with an ability to laugh. Babies at a very young age laugh (as you pointed out) when they are tickled or played with, but their parents do not give them instruction on how to perform a laugh. It's similar as language. Yes we learn how to talk and how to formulate words but but the ability to talk is an innate characteristic that we are born with.
Does that help clarify what I meant? You can still disagree with this and if you do I would like to hear more about that but hopefully my point is more clear. I made a slight edit to the post to clarify this point so thanks again for pointing that out.
:)
No worries! It's how we learn.
Yes, I think that clarifies what you meant a lot and I think I am in agreement. However.. I do still sort of feel like there is a learning process going on even if it is to a degree intrinsic and innate. Just like we learn to walk, but that is also intrinsic and innate I think we also learn to laugh as well. The case of being tickled however has me a lil confused on that since that is more of a stimuli and reaction to being stimulated, however not all people laugh when tickled.. Some people don't and they don't like being tickled so I would say that varies as well and when one is first tickled whether it is loving or strange might determine how one reacts to tickling in the future.
Also you're welcoming at the end there! It's a very thought provoking subject you've brought up and it's making me think, so thanks for helping me to think a bit deeper and contemplate existence a bit richer! :D