The Definitive Book of Body Language - Barbara Pease [28]
Why We Laugh and Talk, but Chimps Don't
Robert Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, found that human laughter is different from that of our primate cousins. Chimpanzee laughter sounds like panting, with only one sound made per outward or inward breath. It's this one-to-one ratio between breath cycle and vocalization that makes it impossible for most primates to speak. When humans began walking upright, it freed the upper body from weight-bearing functions and allowed better breath control. As a result, humans can chop an exhalation and modulate it to produce language and laughter. Chimps can have linguistic concepts, but they can't physically make the sounds of language. Because we walk upright, humans have a huge range of freedom in the sounds we make, including speech and laughter.
How Humor Heals
Laughter stimulates the body's natural painkillers and “feel good” enhancers, known as endorphins, helping relieve stress and heal the body. When Norman Cousins was diagnosed with the debilitating illness ankylospondylitis, the doctors told him they could no longer help him and that he would live in excruciating pain before he died. Cousins checked into a hotel room and rented every funny movie he could find: the Marx Brothers, Airplane, The Three Stooges, etc. He watched and re-watched them over and over, laughing as hard and loud as he could. After six months of this self-inflicted laughter therapy, the doctors were amazed to find that his illness had been completely cured—the disease was gone! This amazing outcome led to the publishing of Cousins's book Anatomy of an Illness, and the start of massive research into the function of endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals released from the brain when you laugh. They have a similar chemical composition to morphine and heroin and have a tranquilizing effect on the body, while building the immune system. This explains why happy people rarely get sick and miserable but complaining people often seem to be ill.
Laughing Till You Cry
Laughter and crying are closely linked from a psychological and physiological standpoint. Think of the last time someone told you a joke that made you buckle up with laughter and you could hardly control yourself. How did you feel afterward? You felt a tingling sensation all over, right? Your brain released endorphins into your system that gave you what was once described as a “natural high” and is the same experience that drug addicts get when they take dope. People who have trouble with laughing at the tough things in life often turn to drugs and alcohol to achieve the same feeling that endorphin-induced laughter produces. Alcohol loosens inhibitions and lets people laugh more, which releases endorphins. This is why most well-adjusted people laugh more when they drink alcohol, while unhappy people become even more despondent or even violent.
People drink alcohol and take drugs to try to feel
how happy people feel normally.
Paul Ekman found that one of the reasons we are attracted to smiling and laughing faces is because they can actually affect our autonomic nervous system. We smile when we see a smiling face and this releases endorphins into our system. If you are surrounded by miserable, unhappy people, you are also likely to mirror their expressions and become morose or depressed.
Working in an unhappy environment is
detrimental to your health.
How Jokes Work
The basis of most jokes is that, at the punch line, something disastrous or painful happens to someone. In effect, the unexpected ending “frightens” our brain, and we laugh with sounds similar to a chimp warning others of