Why do People..Laugh (WDP Series by Unshakeable #7)

Contrary to popular belief, the number one catalyst for laughter isn’t a joke: It’s interacting with another person.

One of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously. You can’t expect it. While we can predict it a few times, we don’t consciously produce laughter. 

Unfortunately, while I was searching the web there weren’t many references about what causes the brain to laugh. But we do know that laughter is triggered by many sensations and thoughts, and that many parts of the body are involved during laughter.

While laughing, we change our facial expressions and make sounds. During exuberant laughter, various muscles of our body are involved.

A good laugh can improve our immune system, increase our circulation so our blood vessels work better, raise the endorphin levels and activate a flow of dopamine, the “feel-good” hormone.Laughter drops our anxiety levels and help us relax.

In addition, it helps us facilitate our capacity to learn new things. Especially for young children. That’s why laughter is such an important part of their play. It actually helps them learn new things as they participate in playful activities.

It is believed that young children are likely to laugh the most. At ages 5 and 6, we tend to see the most exuberant laughs. Adults don’t laugh as much as children, probably since playing time isn’t the same. And laughter is associated with play.

A human starts to laugh for the first time approximately at the age of 3,5 or 4 months old.

Interestingly enough, researchers have found that the ideal number of words in a joke is 103. People tend to laugh 15 to 20 times a day.

Plus, if somebody laughs for 15 minutes straight, then your body may have born the same number of calories as if you were riding a bicycle for 10 minutes.

Fake laughter has the same result with real one. A 2002 study in Psychological Reports revealed that forcing yourself to laugh (or even smile) can improve your mental state. The human brain is not able to distinguish spontaneous laughter from self-induced; Therefore, the health-related advantages are alleged to be similar.

Professor Provine, was the first scientist to come to the conclusion that we’re 30 times more likely to laugh when we are with someone else than when we are on our own.

Scientists strongly believe that laughter evolved from the panting behavior of our ancient primate ancestors. Nowadays, if we tickle chimps or gorillas, they don’t laugh the same way as we humans do but exhibit a panting sound. That’s the sound of ape laughter. And it’s the origin of human laughter.

Sometimes, we laugh just to express relief or to ease or nerves in stressful moments.

Humor helps us cope with stressful situations. It sorts of recharges our brains to face the task at hand.

So simply put, we laugh hardest at what we know best and at what stresses out the most.

The end

By Unshakeable 

Once again,thank you for your time.

Sources 1 2 3 4 5 

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