BIO

I am a senior from Miami, FL graduating this May and I am working towards my career goals of working in forensics and criminal investigations. I have been working in the March Lab for 2 years now and I have genuinely loved every moment, especially working on this project!

Pain-Induced Laughter: An Evolutionary Explanation & Proposed Mechanism

Abstract

Humans have the ability to reduce our discomfort when we are in physical or psychological pain. Some, for example, scream in release, grind their teeth, induce a new painful and distracting stimulus, or look to others for a social distraction. There is, however, a less intuitive method that works to reduce discomfort: some people laugh or smile. Anecdotally, this occurs in the context of others’ visible pain with examples like America’s Funniest Home Videos and slapstick-style media clearly demonstrating our penchant for laughing at another's pain. This method may also be turned inward to reduce discomfort when experiencing it ourselves. Recent research has indeed highlighted the possible healing nature of laughter, with data implying it can reduce stress, pain, and discomfort. However, it remains unclear why laughter has this effect. That is, how did laughter come to function as a means to reduce social and physical discomfort? And did such a process evolve to make ourselves feel better or is that merely an exaptation of an originally unrelated process? We are exploring one proposed mechanism for how the association between laughter and pain may have evolved. In highlighting this mechanism, we link research on the evolution of laughter with that endogenous pain reduction to propose a model that argues that laughter became a conditioned response to pain.

Keywords: Laughter, Pain, Evolution