To learn more, watch neuroscientist Sophie Scott discuss the science of laughter or check out this Radiolab podcast episode all about laughter. Listen here to learn about a recent UCLA study that identified 65 species of animals who communicate vocally during play. Some of the best studied animal play vocalizations are in rats—see how scientists record these vocalizations by tickling rats here. Listen to Marina Davila-Ross, an expert on great ape laughter, describe her groundbreaking research which reinforced the evidence linking human and great ape laughter. Want to know more about the experiments discussed in this video? Read some of the original research papers about how people around the world can tell the difference between spontaneous and “faked” laughs, how even infants can detect friends versus acquaintances by listening to their laughs, and about how laughing increases pain tolerance. 

Humor is an important trigger for laughter. Scientists are still not sure whether animals have humor, but have some theories about the psychology of humor and why it evolved. Want to incorporate more laughter into your life? Try a laughter yoga class, attend a comedy show, or take this Master class on stand-up from Judd Apatow. Still, we laugh most often during conversation, so even just chatting with your friends and family will increase laughter in your day!

Animal vocalization sounds are courtesy of Dr. Jaak Panksepp, Schwing, R., Nelson, X. J., Wein, A., & Parsons, S. (2017). Positive emotional contagion in a New Zealand parrot. Current Biology, 27(6), R213-R214.

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