Humor, laughter, and physical health: Methodological issues and research findings.

Martin, Rod A.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.504

Cited by 475 publications

(357 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(163 reference statements)

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“…Studies looking at sense of humor or the occurrence of laughter were not included (for a comprehensive review of humor and health, see R. A. Martin, 2001). …”

Section: Scope and Organization Of The Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does positive affect influence health?

Pressman

Cohen

2005

Psychological Bulletin

1,735

1,566

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This review highlights consistent patterns in the literature associating positive affect (PA) and physical health. However, it also raises serious conceptual and methodological reservations. Evidence suggests an association of trait PA and lower morbidity and of state and trait PA and decreased symptoms and pain. Trait PA is also associated with increased longevity among older community-dwelling individuals. The literature on PA and surviving serious illness is inconsistent. Experimentally inducing intense bouts of activated state PA triggers short-term rises in physiological arousal and associated (potentially harmful) effects on immune, cardiovascular, and pulmonary function. However, arousing effects of state PA are not generally found in naturalistic ambulatory studies in which bouts of PA are typically less intense and often associated with health protective responses. A theoretical framework to guide further study is proposed.Keywords: positive affect, mortality, morbidity, health, emotions A cheerful heart is good medicine.-Proverbs 17:22Self-help books, popular magazines, and Sunday newspaper supplements have suggested for years that positive affect (PA) can improve people's health. However, this hypothesis has been relatively ignored in research on psychological predictors of health. For example, a search of PsycINFO revealed that there are over 20 times more studies on depression and health than there are on happiness and health. Although the recent interest in "positive psychology" has focused attention on the potential benefits of positive feelings (e.g., Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), there has been little critical discussion of the evidence linking PA to physical health. In this article, we review the literature examining the association between measures of PA and markers of physical health status, examine the conceptual and methodological weaknesses in the existing literature, and discuss how PA could get "under the skin" to influence health. PAWe define PA as the feelings that reflect a level of pleasurable engagement with the environment (Clark, Watson, & Leeka, 1989) such as happiness, joy, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment. These can be brief, longer lasting, or more stable traitlike feelings. Although some use the terms affect, mood, and emotion to distinguish duration, these uses are not applied consistently in the literature, and thus we use these terms interchangeably. We, however, distinguish between studies using measures that assess more stable disposition-like PA, which we refer to as trait PA, and those measuring or manipulating relatively short-term bouts of positive emotions, which we refer to as state PA.To date, reviews examining associations between positive psychological constructs and health outcomes have been broad in scope, including traits such as self-esteem, extraversion, purpose, mastery, and optimism along with PA (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005;Ryff, 2003;Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, & Steward, 2000;Zautra, 2003). Hence, it has been difficult to separate t...

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“…Studies looking at sense of humor or the occurrence of laughter were not included (for a comprehensive review of humor and health, see R. A. Martin, 2001). …”

Section: Scope and Organization Of The Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does positive affect influence health?

Pressman

Cohen

2005

Psychological Bulletin

1,735

1,566

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Based on the assumption that humor is associated with the well-being of patients (Bennett & Lengacher, 2006a, 2006bMartin, 2001;Stuber, et al, 2007), there has been an increase in interventions provided by "clown doctors" in pediatric settings (Koller & Gryski, 2008). The few existing studies concerning clown intervention suggests a decrease in the child's and the parent's distress and an increase in children's cooperation with medical procedures (Golan, Dobija, Lazar, & Keidan, 2007;Smerling, et al, 1999;Vagnoli, Bastiani, Turchi, Caprilli, & Messeri, 2007;Vagnoli, Caprilli, Robiglio, & Messeri, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

The effects of clown intervention on worries and emotional responses in children undergoing surgery

2010

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This study investigated whether clown intervention could reduce preoperative worries and the affective responses of children undergoing minor surgery. Parental anxiety was also tested.Child's age, previous hospitalization, and temperament were tested as predictors of the child's responses during this preoperative phase. Seventy children were assigned to one of two groups: children accompanied by their parents and a pair of clowns or, those accompanied by the parents but without the clowns. The results emphasized the relevance of clown intervention on the reduction of preoperative worries and emotional responses, not only in children but also in their parents.

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“…Despite inconclusive evidence, 5 the idea that laughter has positive health benefits has been attributed to changes in musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, endocrine, immunological and/or neural systems such as reduced muscle tension, increased oxygenation of blood, exercising of the heart and endorphins production. 6,7 More specific effects of laughter include improved postprandial glucose transfer in the presence of insufficient insulin action in type 2 diabetic patients, 8 increased leptin concentration in breast milk 9 and cardioprotection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy expenditure of genuine laughter

et al. 2006

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Objective: To measure energy expenditure (EE) and heart rate (HR) during genuine laughter. Design: Experimental trial of viewing film clips in four cycles either intended to evoke laughter (humorous À10 min) or unlikely to elicit laughter (not humorous À5 min) under strictly controlled conditions of a whole-room indirect calorimeter equipped with audio recording system. Participants: Forty five adult friend dyads in either same-sex male (n ¼ 7), same-sex female (n ¼ 21) and mix-sex male-female (n ¼ 17); age 18-34 years; body mass index 24.774.9 (range 17.9-41.1). Measurements: Energy expenditure in a whole-room indirect calorimeter, HR using Polar HR monitor. Laugh rate, duration and type from digitized audio data using a computerized system and synchronized with HR and EE results. Results: Laughter EE was 0.7971.30 kJ/min (0.1970.31 kcal/min) higher than resting EE (Po0.001, 95% confidence interval ¼ 0.75-0.88 kJ/min), ranging from -2.52 to 9.67 kJ/min (À0.60-2.31 kcal/min). Heart rate during laughter segments increased above resting by 2.173.8 beats/min, ranging from À7.6 to 26.8 beats/min. Laughter EE was correlated with HR (r s ¼ 0.250, Po0.01). Both laughter EE and HR were positively correlated with laughter duration (r s ¼ 0.282 and 0.337, both Po0.001) and rate (r s ¼ 0.256 and 0.298, both Po0.001). Conclusion: Genuine voiced laughter causes a 10-20% increase in EE and HR above resting values, which means that 10-15 min of laughter per day could increase total EE by 40-170 kJ (10-40 kcal).

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Humor, laughter, and physical health: Methodological issues and research findings.

Cited by 475 publications

References 111 publications

Does positive affect influence health?

Does positive affect influence health?

The effects of clown intervention on worries and emotional responses in children undergoing surgery

Energy expenditure of genuine laughter

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