Abstract
Positive affect is associated with alleviating mental and physiological stress responses. As laughter is a common physiological operationalization of positive affect, we investigated whether the effects of experiencing a stressful event on stress symptoms is lessened by frequency and intensity of daily laughter. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we ambulatory assessed the self-reported experience of stressful events, stress symptoms and the frequency as well as the intensity of laughter in university students’ daily lives. Our hierarchical ecological momentary assessment data were analyzed with multilevel models. The results support the stress-buffering model of positive affect: We found that the frequency of laughter attenuated the association between stressful events and subsequent stress symptoms. The level of intensity of laughter, however, was found to have no significant effect. Future studies should use additional psychophysiological indicators of stress and straighten out the differential contributions of frequency and intensity of daily laughter.
Highlights
Positive affect is understood as a state of experiencing pleasure
Using the combined measure of experienced stress symptoms as outcome, the linear mixed modeling (LMM) yielded an unstandardized association coefficient of 0.404, with a 95% confidence interval 0.350–0.457
Using the global measure of experienced stress symptoms as outcome, the unstandardized results were 0.669, with a 95% confidence interval 0.595–0.742
Summary
Positive affect is understood as a state of experiencing pleasure. People feel happy, joyful, calm, enthusiastic, excited, and/or satisfied when being in a positive affect state [1, 2]. Using various forms of operationalization, several studies report associations of positive affect with a wealth of positive outcomes. Positive affect is positively associated with meaning in life [3], future life satisfaction [4], positive health behaviors [5], restful sleep [6], and longevity [7]; for reviews, see [8, 9]; and [10]; see [5] as well as [11] for more nuanced approaches. Studies observed that positive affect is associated with positive outcomes and plays a crucial role in alleviating stress. It has been proposed that positive affect attenuates negative
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