What
kind of laugh is that? back
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Berkeley
researchers categorize our chuckles. Laughter, like a handshake,
says a lot about a person.
By
Justin Berton, Article
Published Feb 8, 2006 (excerpt)
"Watch
him. Each time before he laughs, he glances at them to check
in with them. That's a submissive laugh."
The
submissive laugh, it turns out, is just one of nine distinctive
laugh types that Mary Y. Liu and her co-researchers have identified
in what they're calling the Laughter Project. The other eight
chuckles arise from feelings of embarrassment, amusement, nervousness,
taking offense, love, a need to validate someone else, conflict
avoidance, and a need to be dominant. Through the Department
of Psychology, Liu and fellow researchers have watched hundreds
of hours of people yucking it up, all in an attempt to decode
the subtle nonverbal messages sent out by laughter. In the
future, the research may provide a sort of dictionary to the
varying laugh types.
Liu's
preliminary analysis also showed that subjects often used a
laugh to camouflage their true feelings. "A
lot of us try to laugh things off," Liu said. "I'd
like it if we can learn how we use laughs, and
not use them to hurt people."
Until
Liu's research, researchers were mostly concerned with the
effect of laughter on physical health -- as the saying goes, "Laughter
is the best medicine." Indeed, doctors have noted that
getting in a few chuckles a day is a boost toward good health.
When a person laughs, constricted blood vessels relax, stress
hormones are defused, and the overall immune system strengthens.
On
one set of tapes, couples are asked to recall the first
time they met. On another, they're asked to discuss the problems
in their relationships. "They laughed a lot more when
talking about their problems," Liu said. "They had
to diffuse all the tension created."
Sorry
the link to the complet article is not available at this time. Check back
with us as we are trying to reach the author of the study. back
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