Use Of Laughter Research Articles

Health Promotion and the case of social prescription of laughter

Abstract Introduction The use of laughter to change lifestyle and promote active and successful ageing is an area of interest within the scope of health promotion. The positive effects of laughter practices occur throughout the life cycle. That is why “laughing” has been identified and indicated as a human activity of social prescription promoting healthy lifestyles. This communication aims to (1) identify the benefits for health, health promotion, well-being, and healthy lifestyle of using laughter activities and practices, (2) identify “laughing” as a social prescription activity that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Methods This work is structured in a narrative review of the literature and the authors’ lived experience as professionals in the well-being area. Results Studies show that laughing and using laughter-inducing approaches have immediate effects on the person who experiences them (e.g. increased general well-being, reduced cortisol levels) with benefits for the immune system and cardiovascular health. Daily practices that are structured and systematic interventions that induce laughter were revealed to have lasting and durable effects. Studies also highlighted the effectiveness of laughter and its important role in improving communication in healthcare professional-patient encounters. Discussion Several behaviors are associated with well-being, happiness and positive affect, but the one that is accessible to all people and with the most immediate effects is laughter. Daily practices, structured and systematic interventions that induce laughter are part of non-pharmacological approaches that promote health and well-being. The principles underlying laughter practices are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, namely goal 3 (Health), goal 4 (Education) and goal 16 (Peace).

Linguistic patterning of laughter in human-socialbot interactions

Laughter is a social behavior that conveys a variety of emotional states and is also intricately intertwined with linguistic communication. As people increasingly engage with voice-activated artificially intelligent (voice-AI) systems, an open question is how laughter patterns during spoken language interactions with technology. In Experiment 1, we collected a corpus of recorded short conversations (~10 min in length) between users (n = 76) and Amazon Alexa socialbots (a voice-AI interface designed to mimic human conversational interactions) and analyzed the interactional and pragmatic contexts in which laughter occurred. Laughter was coded for placement in the interaction relative to various speech acts, as well as for phonetic patterning such as duration and voicing. Our analyses reveal that laughter is most commonly found when the content of Alexa’s speech is considered inappropriate for the discourse context. Laughter in the corpus was also largely short in length and unvoiced– characteristics which are commonly associated with negative social valence. In Experiment 2, we found that a separate group of listeners did not distinguish between positive and negative laughter from our dataset, though we find that laughs rated as more positive are also rated as more excited and authentic. Overall, we discuss our findings for models of human-computer interaction and applications for the use of laughter in socialbot conversations.

토니 모리슨의 웃음: 언어적 기능과 담론의 무기

Morrison's laughter is different from that of any other literary work. Morrison uses laughter as a weapon for a discourse that dismantles the contradictions of Western conventions built up by dichotomous and rationalistic thinking. She uses laughter as a linguistic function to represent her discourse and a weapon of the discourse. By presenting the characteristics of African American laughter, that is, autonomous, unconscious, lasting for a long time, having a healing function, and combining with tears and dance, Morrison proves cultural differences and also shows the linguistic function of laughter. In addition, Morrison uses the recovery of laughter as a stepping stone to prepare for the future regarding the loss of their unique laughter as the loss of a foundation for life or the loss of the will to live.
 Morrison creates laughter as a weapon of discourse that resists dominant thinking prevents violence, and transcendent and universal discourses that break away from rationalism. This kind of laughter represents a difference rather than a language-to-language discourse and shows that there can be a variety of substitutes for language. The invention of imaginary and unrealistic laughter expands the horizons of laughter to unknown areas. Morrison's laughter does not create comedy but contains elements of both comedy and tragedy, transcends the limits of language, evokes empathy beyond language, and embraces a broader scope than the space-time contained in language. Morrison's invention of laughter means that laughter is not fixed, but changes and is created anew like language. The use of laughter allows Morrison’s extraordinary discourse as social, philosophical and cultural views to be flowered in a high level of literary art.

Prosodic Analysis of Humor in Stand-up Comedy

The present study investigated the prosodic features employed by Trevor Noah to create humor in his stand-up comedy. The study used quantitative paradigms to frame the verbal narrative. The research employed, Prosodic Markers of Saliency in Humorous Narratives (Pickering et al., 2009) as theoretical framework for prosodic features. Firstly, the data was anatomized via systematic prosodic and cognitive incongruities between the jokes’ setup and the punch lines. Secondly, for each humorous narrative, a series of measurements including pitch, volume, and pause, as identified by Praat (6.1), were used as a framework to dig out the implicit and explicit factors that caused humor in stand-up acts. The data analysis showed that the orator employed a substantial pause before delivering his punch lines which created humor. The study concluded that prosody played a vital role in creating humor, which falls within the domain of linguistics. The study was significant as it contributed to research concerning narrative forms of jokes based on instrumental prosodic analysis. Further, the research might be conducted to analyze other paralinguistic markers of humor, such as the use of laughter and smile during the delivery of jokes in different Pakistani sitcoms and stand-up comedy, to enlarge the studies on humor’s scope. 

The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Laughter—Sustainability in the Light of Parental Collaboration involving Refugee Parents

The aim of this article is to explore how laughter is played out in parental collaboration between ECEC practitioners and refugee parents. This part of the communication is seen in relation to the terms of ECEC practices regarding social and cultural sustainability, operationalised as inclusive institutions that enable parents’ participation and the sense of belonging. The study includes six days of observation during delivery and pick-up in the hallway of a Norwegian ECEC practice, and observation of one parents meeting. Four communication sequences are interpreted in the light of theories regarding laughter and different aspects of social and cultural sustainability. The findings suggest that laughter might contribute to strengthening relationships between ECEC practitioners and refugee parents. However, laughter can also create boundaries between the collaborators, leading to a notion of “us” and “them.” The article suggests that ECEC practitioners reflect upon their use of laughter in communication with minority parents and take cultural aspects into consideration, in order to enable equal participation and achieve social and cultural sustainability.

Прагматика смеха в эллинистической философии

The article deals with the philosophical possibilities of laughter in the Hellenistic age. At first, we specify the role of laughter in various genres of philosophical speech, and then we divide different types of laughter. Further, we analyze the use of laughter for liberation, however, we notice not the general anthropological aspect of “Culture of popular laughter”, but the specific philosophical possibilities of this liberation. If the whole world is a comedy, then philosophical laughter overcomes the private perspective — not to the “Collective body”, but to the perspective of the divine view. Finally, we explore the relation between laughter and the concept of godlikeness (ὁμοίωσις θεῷ).

Effect of Laughter Therapy on Mood Disturbances, Pain, and Burnout in Terminally Ill Cancer Patients and Family Caregivers.

Humor has been commonly used in palliative care and identified as a coping strategy of palliative care patients and family caregivers. However, the use of humor or laughter in palliative care settings is still limited. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of laughter therapy involving spontaneous laughter on mood disturbances and pain in terminally ill patients with cancer and mood disturbances and the levels of burnout in family caregivers. This quasi-experimental study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The laughter therapy developed was provided for 20 to 30 minutes a day for 5 consecutive days. Twenty-six pairs of terminally ill cancer patients and family caregivers in the intervention group and 23 pairs in the comparison group from the hospice ward of a tertiary teaching hospital participated in this study. The data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and 2-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. There were significant decreases in mood disturbances in the patients ( P < .001) and family caregivers ( P < .001), pain in the patients ( P < .001), and levels of burnout in the caregivers ( P < .001) in the intervention group. Laughter therapy can be an alternative intervention to support both terminally ill patients with cancer and their family caregivers experiencing multidimensional distress in palliative care settings. The appropriate use of laughter or humor therapy needs to be encouraged as a support tool in palliative care. Palliative care teams must be properly trained to provide spontaneous laughter therapy or planned humor therapy.

Use of Laughter for the Detection of Parkinson's Disease: Feasibility Study for Clinical Decision Support Systems, Based on Speech Recognition and Automatic Classification Techniques.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an incurable neurodegenerative disorder which affects over 10 million people worldwide. Early detection and correct evaluation of the disease is critical for appropriate medication and to slow the advance of the symptoms. In this scenario, it is critical to develop clinical decision support systems contributing to an early, efficient, and reliable diagnosis of this illness. In this paper we present a feasibility study for a clinical decision support system for the diagnosis of PD based on the acoustic characteristics of laughter. Our decision support system is based on laugh analysis with speech recognition methods and automatic classification techniques. We evaluated different cepstral coefficients to identify laugh characteristics of healthy and ill subjects combined with machine learning classification models. The decision support system reached 83% accuracy rate with an AUC value of 0.86 for PD–healthy laughs classification in a database of 20,000 samples randomly generated from a pool of 120 laughs from healthy and PD subjects. Laughter could be employed for the efficient and reliable detection of PD; such a detection system can be achieved using speech recognition and automatic classification techniques; a clinical decision support system can be built using the above techniques. Significance: PD clinical decision support systems for the early detection of the disease will help to improve the efficiency of available and upcoming therapeutic treatments which, in turn, would improve life conditions of the affected people and would decrease costs and efforts in public and private healthcare systems.

Maiakovskii abroad in colour and sound: My Discovery of America

ABSTRACT Vladimir Maiakovskii travelled to America to give public readings: to be seen and, more importantly, to be heard. However, the fact that Maiakovskii spoke no foreign languages complicated his travels. This is the subject of the author’s inquiry: how does a master of verbal expression cope with being rendered incomprehensible among foreigners, and how does this predicament influence the artistic representation of his experience abroad? The distinguishing feature of Maiakovskii’s travelogue, and the consequence of his temporary muteness in America, is heavy reliance on colour and non-verbal sound to describe and interpret what he sees. Maiakovskii focuses on alternative, non-verbal means of engaging with the foreign that rely on the senses, rather than language. The author traces the functions of colour, sound, and laughter in My Discovery of America: from the poster-like graphics of Maiakovskii’s representation of American cities to a more complex interpretation of their sounds, to the thought-provoking use of laughter.

Laughing with Beckett in Waiting for Godot and Endgame

Abstract This paper examines the use of laughter as redemption in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Endgame. By acknowledging the somatic life of characters, Beckett’s humour problematises un-embodied philosophies of life. Challenging Hugh Kenner’s claim that Beckett’s humour is not redemptive because of the dryness and repetitions involved, it is argued that the foregrounding of fragility and vulnerability is a way of expressing deeply humane laughter in Waiting for Godot and Endgame. While highlighting that the dialectic of lack and excess is one source of Beckettian laughter, the main thrust of the argument emphasises the possibility of transcendence in a comic situation. The play of lack and excess, rather than suspending transcendental redemption, presents the human condition in its existential mundane realities. Accordingly, visceral and repetitive laughter are discussed in the two plays to bring to the fore the ironic and redemptive aspect of the comic, especially in the scenes where some sort of existential humour is implied.

Made for Funny Business: Negotiating Age and Sexuality in British Sitcoms.

Though films and television series, portraying later life with its perks and pitfalls have proliferated throughout the past decade, explicit depictions of later life sexuality have been an ever-present absence in visual representations. Yet, it is television, TV series in particular, which enables more diverse framings of later life sexuality, as they reproduce, legitimize, transform and deconstruct stereotypical notions of age, gender, and sexuality through their serial format and unique use of laughter and humor. As such, some sitcoms featuring sexually active, rebellious, and sexually adventurous older adults have been widely regarded as stomping grounds for affirmative notions of aging and sexuality. Often paired with badly and mischievously behaving leads, they show that portrayals of later life sexuality need not necessarily be bogged down by a pervasive asexual/hypersexual divide but may rather offer "possibilities of destabilization" that run counter to cultural taboos regarding age and sexuality. Based on 2 British sitcoms (Waiting for God [1990-1994], and Vicious [2013-2016]), this article examines the practices and mechanisms sitcoms employ in order to enable or contain representations of later life sexuality, by, for instance couching transgressive portrayals of sexually active older adults in comedic terms or by "containing" older adults in rigid, heteronormative structures. Particular attention will be paid to the intersections of class, gender, and age and how far these intersections help to render later life sexuality, above all, respectable and palatable.

Exploring the role of the body in communicating ironic stance

Performing and understanding conversational irony requires a complex management of multiple viewpoints. To communicate and negotiate these intricate viewpoint shifts, speakers (and addressees) often use nonverbal means (e.g. gaze shifts, shrugs, shifts in body orientation, hand gestures, etc.) next to verbal viewpoint strategies. In the present paper we zoom in on the perspective of the speaker and try to describe and quantify bodily behavior in ironic utterances compared to non-ironic ones. To this end, we use data from a video-corpus of three-party interactions with participants wearing mobile eye-tracking devices that allow for precise eye gaze data. Our results show that speakers display more of the multimodal resources under scrutiny in ironic cases compared to non-ironic cases. More specifically, the involvement of bodily resources is mainly manifested in the use of laughter, head movements and body repositionings. We further show how those resources cluster into certain multimodal packages, and how the exact timing of the bodily behavior is relevant (i.e. the gaze behavior at the end of an ironic segment differs most notably from the end of a non-ironic one). Next to a quantitative analysis of the resources used in ironic talk in interaction, we also illustrate our findings with qualitative descriptions of relevant examples.

Gelotology as an example of a therapeutic method for children, adolescents and adults

Currently, the use of laughter as a form of treatment and support is not very popular. The purpose of this article is to try to discuss gelotology as an example of a therapeutic method that can be used not only for adults, but also for children and adolescents. This paper presents the most important issues related to laughter therapy. Research shows that humour plays an important role in the healing process. Its positive effects contribute to the reduction of symptoms of many different diseases and disorders that are often associated with pain and suffering. Laughter becomes an important therapeutic tool, the use of which contributes to the improvement of the mental and physical condition of an individual, which is why it is worth learning more about it.

George Sand comique éd. par Olivier Bara et François Kerlouégan

Reviewed by: George Sand comique éd. par Olivier Bara et François Kerlouégan Maria G. Traub Bara, Olivier, et François Kerlouégan, éd. George Sand comique. UGA, 2020. ISBN 978-2-37747-182-9. Pp. 384. A longstanding notion that George Sand's writing is "spleenétique," and that the comic is generally absent from it, is challenged in this work, a study divided into four broad sections covering comedic form and register, those who laugh, getting laughs, and the political and ethical in comedy. Twenty-one essays spread beneath these rubrics focus upon diverse aspects of comedy, beginning with the intellectual and cultural formation of Sand. As a child she read the works of eighteenth-century philosophers, notably Diderot and Sterne, found in the library at Nohant. Sand, a nineteenth-century woman writer who loved life, never abandoned her quest for a joie de vivre. Specific examples are drawn from her correspondence in personal and business matters, from her autobiography and from theatrical works. The excerpts provided cover a spectrum of emotions from affectionate to seductive, jovial to satirical, polemical to inspirational. From her autobiography, one learns the influence of family. Anecdotes, such as one from a letter of Sand's father, describe his participation in a farcical theatrical entertainment among soldiers. For the most part, Sand gathered a genteel acculturation from her aristocratic father's side, while from her mother she received exposure to the spicy, spontaneous talk of common people. Such language was not lost on her. She used it to advantage when animating peasant characters in her writing. Sand's education—literary, artistic, and experiential—enabled her to create distance and objectivity in relationships. She learned not to take herself so seriously. In correspondence with close friends, she used generous doses of self-mockery. The comic in portraits of her contemporaries is expressed affectionately when describing Balzac, a writer who exuded enormous self-satisfaction, never tiring of discussing his work. As for Stendhal, whom she encountered while traveling, she was quite satirical. Stendhal offended her by seeking to uncover weaknesses in people, then mercilessly criticizing them. Her portraiture was not only verbal. Fanciful sketches appeared at the bottom of manuscripts, i.e., Spiridion, and letters to her editor Buloz. Sand shifted easily to the sublime when describing those friends whom she considered artistically gifted, such as Delacroix and Marie Dorval. The imagination and stimulus gleaned from association with musicians and singers motivated Sand to write in an entirely new genre, "opéra-comique littéraire," as found in Teverino. The commedia dell'arte and the works of Ruzante also exerted influence on Sand. From these she captured an innocent buffoonery, incorporating it into both plays and novels. Comedy was also used to support equality issues. In her novels, she put comedy to use in battles to favor women. Well-placed humor became a weapon of social combat. Within her novels, the characters who opposed values she defended were targeted for satire. While not exclusively a "comic" writer, the comic infiltrated myriad topics for Sand, whose expression conveyed reconciliation with self and others. This work provides a useful research tool. It offers insight into her use of laughter and invites us to share in it. [End Page 228] [End Page 229] Maria G. Traub Neumann University (PA) Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

They ‘Laʒed . . . Þoʒ Þey Lost’: Laughter in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s highly-structured use of laughter invites readers to meditate on the power of the ludic to maintain, dissolve, and evolve the social associations of Camelot and Hautdesert.

1871 raisons d'y croire: logiques et imaginaire des Gilets jaunes

The Gilets jaunes movement that emerged in the fall of 2018 gave new life to the memory of the Commune: claiming its heritage on discursive and imaginary fronts while nevertheless failing to adopt all of its modes of operation. Revisiting specific aspects of this "Commune of roundabouts," this article considers the discourses and imaginaries of the Gilets jaunes with regard to their "wild" writings (banners, signs, tags and customized vests). Such examples allow us to measure the movement's specificities, the collective ethos that it develops, its relationship to history and to the revolutionary tradition, its use of laughter in response to those in power, and, ultimately, its endurance. (In French)

Qualitative research interviewing: reflections on power, silence and assumptions.

Novice researchers can face many challenges throughout their journey as researchers in training, particularly when interviewing for qualitative research. To present an authentic account of the challenges a novice researcher faced when collecting data using narrative interviews. The researcher reconsidered how previous interviews had involved power relations and the urge to seek a 'correct' answer from participants. The article explores what are considered 'data', as well as the use of laughter and silence to re-establish power dynamics. Reflection, feedback from supervisors and peers, and ongoing research experience can help novice researchers understand the strengths and weaknesses of their previous interviews. Novice researchers may find this article useful when planning for challenges they may encounter when undertaking qualitative research.

Promoting Cross-Cultural Understanding and Communication: International Chinese Students’ Use of Laughter as a Means to Modify the Meaning of Speech

Student mobility across national borders has been increasing at an extraordinary pace. Correspondingly, much research has been conducted into issues concerning learners that move internationally to pursue learning in a culturally different country. To a great extent, vigorous debate and research did promote cross-cultural diversity, understanding and communication. However, few studies have looked into international Chinese students’ use of laughter in much detail, given that laughter plays a significant part in shaping or molding meaning. This article demonstrates with examples of a group of ICSs on how their use of laughter alters the meaning of utterance in speech. The findings offer insights that aim at promoting cross-cultural understanding and communication so that a much smoother and a more inclusive and successful adjustment of these learners can be facilitated.

Laughter and smiling: sequential resources for managing delayed and disaligning responses

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the use of laughter and smiling to manage (dis)affiliation during two types of disturbances in the interactional unfolding of classrooms: delayed and disaligning responses. The analysis reveals that the sequential position and embodied turn design are integral to understanding the (dis)affiliative work laughter and smiling do. Around delayed responses, a teacher and students smile and produce standalone laughter that orients to students not responding promptly in teacher-initiated sequences as well as to subsequent actions of the teacher. Following disaligning responses, students produce standalone laughter that orients affiliatively to the non-serious nature of disaligning turns. In contrast, the teacher’s interpolated particles of aspiration and smile voice, while recognising the playfulness of disaligning turns, is more disaffiliative and precedes turns in which the teacher redirects the nature of the interaction seriously. Thus, the work that laughter does is not necessarily purely affiliative or disaffiliative but falls on a spectrum of (dis)affiliation. The analysis suggests that laughter and smiling are key resources in the management of sensitive moments in classroom interaction involving uncertainty, the mitigation of sensitive actions, and (dis)affiliation.

Laughter in Oral Histories of Displacement: “One Goes on a Mission to Solve Their Problems”

ABSTRACTAlthough analyses of the use of humor and laughter in oral history have started to appear in oral history literature, the topic is still very under-researched. This paper builds on Kate Moore’s study of humor and laughter, exploring the use of unilateral laughter in eleven oral histories of exiled Cuban internationalist healthcare professionals. My work deepens our knowledge both on the role that laughter lays for interviewees who are navigating memories of their own life histories and on the history of the Cuban global universal healthcare system. By exploring the use of laughter, I shed light on the relevance of focusing on unconscious reactions in oral history narratives in order to understand better the emotions linked to narrated memories. My narrators’ stories of displacement also touch on what Neal Norrick has called the “humorous dual perspective” that allows interviewees to distance themselves from their past while simultaneously embracing and reflecting upon it. Additionally, I assert that another key factor to be taken into consideration when analyzing narrators’ use of laughter and this humorous dual perspective is the participants’ degree of acculturation.