Cracking the laugh code: laughter through the lens of biology, psychology and neuroscience

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Franciscus de Waal, Emory University; Fausto Caruana, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Elisabetta Palagi, Università di Pisa; Frans BM De Waal, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-11-07
• Publisher: Royal Societ
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 The Authors.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0159
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Volume: 377
• Issue: 1863
• Start Page: 20220159
• End Page: 20220159
• Grant/Funding Information: We received no funding for this study.
• Keywords: Neurosciences; Laughter; Biology
• Research Categories: Biology, General

Abstract

Laughter affects conversational schemes, supports speech production, establishes social bonds and is connected to playfulness. Despite the pervasiveness of this behaviour, research on laughter has long been underdeveloped, probably because it does not sound like a serious topic. Also, its social and expressive nature represents a major technical difficulty for both laboratory and naturalistic studies. The quest to uncover the processes underlying the production and perception of laughter is still in its early days, but a renewed interest in this behaviour has boosted the emergence of new ecological studies in a set of fields encompassing a broad spectrum of disciplines.