Laughter and humour for personal development: A systematic scoping review of the evidence

Gonot-Schoupinsky, Freda; Garip, Gülcan; Sheffield, David

doi:10.1016/j.eujim.2020.101144

Cited by 36 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 158 publications

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“…Similarly, it might be of interest to examine the differential effects of humor, seen as a predominantly cognitive process, and laughter as a physical behavior on outcomes associated with chronic pain, as they do not necessarily occur together. 52 There indeed is some evidence that also laughter only therapies might be effective in increasing well-being and also in reducing pain for different patient populations. 31,53 In the present study, patients often laughed in the training sessions, especially in module 1 (allowing yourself to laugh), but frequency and duration of laughter were not documented or measured individually, which would be necessary to build evidence for the benefit of laughter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a Humor Training for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Kugler¹,

Kuhbandner²,

Gerum³

et al. 2021

JPR

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Background: Humor and laughter are positively associated with psychological as well as with physical well-being. As there is little research examining to what extent patients suffering from chronic pain could benefit from a humor intervention, the goal of this study was to develop a pain-specific humor training and to evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness as component of regular, multimodal pain therapy. Patients and Methods: Patients from inpatient treatment groups for chronic pain in a German hospital were randomly assigned to the training group (final n = 62) and the control group (final n = 65). The training consisted of four sessions that were implemented in the usual therapy throughout two weeks. Outcomes were divided into primary (perceived current pain intensity and depression) and secondary ones (quality of life impairment by pain, cheerfulness, and self-enhancing humor) and were assessed prior to and after intervention. Results: Results showed improvements in all outcomes for both groups. For primary outcomes, a trend for a greater reduction in current pain intensity was found for the training group compared to the control group (p = 0.060, η 2 p = 0.02), as well as, for secondary outcomes, a trend for greater reduction of quality of life impairment by pain (p = 0.079, η 2 p = 0.02) and a trend for greater increase in self-enhancing humor (p = 0.086, η 2 p = 0.02). Depression and cheerfulness remained unaffected. Feedback indicated feasibility of the training within multimodal therapy, showing overall acceptance as well as providing specific suggestions for improvement. Conclusion:As the first study evaluating a specific humor training for patients with chronic pain within a randomized controlled trial, its results are promising regarding an additional contribution that humor interventions can make towards multimodal pain therapy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a Humor Training for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Kugler¹,

Kuhbandner²,

Gerum³

et al. 2021

JPR

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“…Laughter and humour can have wide-ranging Biological, Psychological, Social and socio-economic, Environmental, and Behavioural (BPSE-B) benefits on personal development throughout the lifecycle [ 17 ]. Although laughter and humour are often viewed as spontaneous social activities, both can be trained and self-induced solo activities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Laughter is a natural, free, innate behaviour associated with a range of health outcomes across the lifecycle [ 17 ]. A meta-analysis of ten randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of laughter and humour interventions showed they significantly decreased adult depression, anxiety, and improved sleep quality [ 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prescribing laughter to ameliorate mental health, sleep, and wellbeing in university students: A protocol for a feasibility study of a randomised controlled trial

Gonot-Schoupinsky

Garip

Sheffield

et al. 2020

Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications

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Objectives This research is the first study to investigate the potential effects of a laughter prescription on both psychological health and objective sleep parameters in university students. The primary objective is to evaluate the feasibility of prescribing laughter to inform a larger randomised controlled trial. Secondary objectives are to assess if a two-week laughter prescription improves subjective and objective sleep outcomes, wellbeing, and/or psychological health outcomes. Trial design To assess the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial for laughter prescription in relation to sleep, psychological health, and wellbeing. Forty university students will be recruited and randomised to one of two conditions (control/experimental). Methods Wrist actigraphy and sleep diaries will be used to estimate sleep outcomes during a one-week baseline testing phase and across the two-week intervention. The experimental group will be shown how to record a Laughie (a 1-min recording of their joyful laughter on their smartphone) and prescribed to laugh with it three times daily for 14 days (the control group will only track sleep). All participants will complete the WHO (Five) Well-being Index, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale pre- and post-intervention. The CONSORT checklist, and the Feasibility, Reach-out, Acceptability, Maintenance, Efficacy, Implementation, and Tailorabilty (FRAME-IT) framework will guide intervention planning and evaluation. Participant interviews will be analysed using Differential Qualitative Analysis (DQA). Results The feasibility of a two-week laughter prescription in university students and its impact on sleep, wellbeing, and/or psychological health outcomes will be assessed. Conclusions Zayed University Research Ethics Committee approved the study in July 2019. The research will be completed following protocol publication. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov . ID: NCT04171245. Date of registration: 18 October 2019.

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“…There are also more than 350 research papers (Nilsen, n.d.). Most critical reviews of the research appeared within the last two decades (Banas, Dunbar, Rodriguez, & Liu, 2010;Berk, 2001aBerk, , 2001bBerk, , 2002Berk, , 2004aBerk, , 2004bBerk, , 2014Gonot-Schoupinsky et al, 2020;Jonas, 2019;Martin, 2001Martin, , 2003Martin & Ford, 2018;McGhee, 1999McGhee, , 2010Nijholt, 2020;Provine, 2000;Raskin, 2008;Rindfleisch, 2018;Savage, Lujan, Thipparthi, & DiCarlo, 2017;Segrist & Hupp, 2015). Those reviews furnish a somewhat sobering, realistic assessment of the evidence to pinpoint what we know and what we don't know (but would like to know).…”

Section: Review Of Research On Humor and Laughtermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the isolation and the loss of loved ones and colleagues, jobs, income, homes, and mental and physical health, humor can at least provide a coping strategy for the trauma and grieving so many educators and students have experienced (Klein, 1989(Klein, , 1998(Klein, , 2019Mork, 2019). The psychophysiological benefits of humor can be very therapeutic (Berk, 2001a(Berk, , 2002(Berk, , 2004a(Berk, , 2015Gonot-Schoupinsky, Garip, & Sheffield, 2020;Martin, 2001;Martin & Ford, 2018;McGhee, 2010;Rindfleisch, 2018). But I digress.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top 20 Evidence-based Humor Techniques for Online Teaching: Building on a Half-century of Research and Practice

Berk

2021

IJTTL

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The COVID-19 pandemic upended higher education in March 2020 and has continued into 2022. Within days of the international lockdowns, an emergency conversion from face-to-face (F2F) to remote learning occurred. Educators scrambled to convert their in-class teaching into some version of online teaching. The transformations ignited a surge in e-learning platforms. Combining PowerPoint (PPT) or Keynote with those platforms enabled several forms of humor to be presented by any professor in online teaching. The research evidence on the educational benefits of humor is reviewed. The top 20 humor techniques initially tested in F2F classrooms are adapted to hybrid, hyflex, synchronous, and asynchronous delivery. Faculty have the opportunity to change their teaching back to F2F or adopt some form of online. That will involve a new teaching playbook. The intentional use of humor in F2F and online teaching will add value to their students’ academic experiences with restorative and therapeutic effects in addition to all of the instructional benefits. The humor can be a game-changer in their pandemic teaching and after COVID-19.

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Laughter and humour for personal development: A systematic scoping review of the evidence

Cited by 36 publications

References 158 publications

Evaluation of a Humor Training for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Evaluation of a Humor Training for Patients with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Prescribing laughter to ameliorate mental health, sleep, and wellbeing in university students: A protocol for a feasibility study of a randomised controlled trial

Top 20 Evidence-based Humor Techniques for Online Teaching: Building on a Half-century of Research and Practice

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