It's Funny Here. Is It There?

Abstract

Last month’s column focused on theories of humor – the motivations behind humor – and the therapeutic use of humor and laughter as an adjuvant to medical treatment for patients with a variety of illnesses (Flaskerud, 2014). The theoretical motivations for humor described in the last column included several based on psychology – the expression of negative emotions, such as aggression and superiority; a coping mechanism for tension release; a means to resolve incongruity; a benign violation of various norms; and reverse engineering, an evolutionary development to correct errors in perception, based on neuroscience. The positive aspects of humor and the therapeutic use of laughter were explored also (Flaskerud, 2014). Several reports have demonstrated that laughter appears to improve mood, lessen anxiety, reduce psychological measures of stress, and reduce perception of pain (Christie & Moore, 2005). There are also physiological factors involved. Laughter can lead to changes in heart rate, skin temperature, blood pressure, pulmonary ventilation, skeletal muscle activity, and brain activity, which may improve overall wellbeing. Additionally, laughter may improve immune function by blocking the production of stress hormones, such as cortisol, and by increasing the release of immune-enhancers, such as beta-endorphin (Cancer Treatment Centers of America, 2013; Christie & Moore, 2005). Two other aspects of humor will be addressed here, as they apply to cultural differences and the use of humor. The first is: Are there other theoretical explanations of humor that do not rely on Western psychology and neuroscience? And second: Are humor and laughter used therapeutically in other cultures? It should be noted that humor and laughter are considered human traits: only humans have humor and we communicate it