Physiological Correlates of Humor

Langevin, Ronald

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-288950-9.50012-2

Cited by 39 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…We might speculate that a transformation of heart rate occurs at the level of a safety or danger judgment. Symptoms of fear and distress are associated with heart rate acceleration (Sroufe & Wunsch, 1972), while heart rate acceleration has been reported as a concomitant of laughter by Fry (1971) and Langevin and Day (1972). At the point of judgment, there appears to be a transformation of arousal from a tense preparation for action and evaluation of the situation (the orienting reaction), to emotional activity: distress and flight or laughter and approach.…”

Section: An Arousal-safety Model Of Laughtermentioning

confidence: 99%

Laughter in young children.

Rothbart¹

1973

Psychological Bulletin

142

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Research studies of laughter in children are reviewed, and a model describing eliciting conditions for laughter and related behavior is described. Following Spencer (1860), Berlyne (I960), and others, it is proposed that laughter occurs after conditions of heightened tension or arousal when at the same time there is a judgment that the situation is safe or inconsequential. The special case of laughter to discrepant or incongruous stimulation is described in detail, and it is suggested that laughter serves the function of signaling to a caretaker that a given stimulus is within the child's tolerable limits of arousal.

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Section: An Arousal-safety Model Of Laughtermentioning

confidence: 99%

Laughter in young children.

Rothbart¹

1973

Psychological Bulletin

142

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“…Greater heart rate was observed to anger and fear than to happiness in a facial expression experiment. Langevin and Day (1972) also found positive relationships among heart rate, skin conductance, and appreciation of humor.…”

Section: Cardiac Researchmentioning

confidence: 74%

Autonomic differentiation of temporal components of sexist humor

Winkel¹

1993

Humr

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Investigations employing physiological markers to assess affective responses to humor have largely ignored concomitant cognitive processes. To clarify some of these relationships, pupil diameter, the skin conductance response, and heart rate were recorded while 24 male andfemale subjects responded to a series ofnonsexist, male sexist, andfemale sexist jokes. Pupil change, heart rate, and skin conductance were measured both before and after auditory presentation ofhumorous Statements. Additionally, subjects rated the Statements on two dimensions: humorousness and offensiveness. Results provide support for the attenuation of heart rate and skin conductance measures of arousal during decoding of sexist humor. That subjects first interpreted the jokes cognitively was evidenced by pupillary dilation during Statement presentation, with decreasedpupil diameter occurring afterwards. Even though subjects clearly differentiated the Statements by humorousness and offensiveness, no relationships werefound among these subjective measures and the physiological data. This indicates that at least two temporally distinct psychological periods occurred while responding to sexist humor. The results ofthepresent investigation underscore the usefulness ofcombining cognitive and physiological measures to understand the time course of humor decoding and appreciation.Sigmund Freud clearly recognized the fact that individuals find sexual content in humor amusing and with a purpose; that is, it compels the person who is assailed of the utterance to imagine the part of the body or procedure in question and shows that the assailant is also imagining it (Freud 1960(Freud [1905). Sexist humor often contains elements of what Freud referred to äs smut, sexual content, either explicit or more subtle

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“…Spencer (1860), Berlyne (1969Berlyne ( , 1972, Chapman (1976), Fry (1979,1992), McGhee (1983b), and Langevin and Day (1972), among others, observed that humor causes an activation of the sympathetic nervous system and a corresponding increase in arousal of the perceiver; heart rate increases, blood vessels dilate, muscles become partially contracted, and the endocrine glands secrete epinephrine as the perceiver mentally processes the humor. An increase in brain activity is also detectable as the perceiver registers the incongruity.…”

Section: Biological Functions Of Humormentioning

confidence: 99%

Humor in apes

Gamble

2001

Humr

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Cognitive capacity of non-human primates has become a popular topic in recent years. Humor is an important indicator of mental function. For the four stages of humor development in children: 1.) inappropriate action. 2.) incongruous labels. 3.) incongruous features. and 4.) multiple word meanings, examples are presented from ape behavior. Apes appreciate and produce humor in a manner comparable to humans.While investigation into the cognitive capacities and mental functioning of non-human primates has become popular over the last thirty years, few researchers have pursued the topic of humor in apes. This may be because of the dangers of making assumptions with human biases about the causes of other animals' actions or because of the elusive nature of the subject of humor itself. This paper, however, will attempt to explore objectively the capacity for humor in the apes, speci®cally gorillas and chimps, ®rst by de®ning the characteristics and possible biological functions of humor, and then by searching for evidence of these attributes and the need for humor in wild and captive apes. De®nition of humorAt the most fundamental level, humor involves the recognition of inconsistency between one's previous experience with some situation or stimulus and his/her current experience with a similar stimulus. McGhee claimed,``something unexpected, out of context, inappropriate, unreasonable, illogical, exaggerated, and so forth, must serve as the basic

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Physiological Correlates of Humor

Cited by 39 publications

References 18 publications

Laughter in young children.

Laughter in young children.

Autonomic differentiation of temporal components of sexist humor

Humor in apes

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