![]() ![]() In a previous interview, Dunbar stated that laughter may have been favored by evolution because it helped bring human groups together and that it is a bonding mechanism that even primates use. According to Dunbar’s research, the endorphins released by laughter activate the same receptors as drugs like heroin, with pain-killing and euphoria-producing effects. Laughter also activates the endorphin system in the brain, says Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, who has conducted extensive studies on the effect of laughter on people’s ability to withstand pain. Laughter serves as one mechanism that can help regulate our emotional state. Emotional homeostasis, or emotional balance, allows us to better control our cognitive, social, and psychological functions. Clark and her colleagues’ study suggests that when we experience extremely high or low emotions, such as deep sadness or escalating uneasiness, we can feel physiologically overwhelmed and have difficulty functioning-approaching an unmanageable, emotional limit. Or perhaps, laughter in combination with nervousness suggests to other people around the person that they too should help down-regulate that nervousness,” she speculates. That is, it is ordinarily associated with happiness and may help to down-regulate the nervousness. “Perhaps laughter serves a self-regulation function. Margaret Clark, professor of psychology at Yale University and co-author of the study “Dimorphous Expressions of Positive Emotion”, says that nervous laughter has the same general form as laughter associated with humor, however, she does not think it signals amusement or happiness. But are outbursts like Kiersten’s just isolated nervous reactions, or do they serve a psychological purpose?Īccording to clinical psychologist Joe Nowinski, laughter has the effect of discharging energy and helping us relax. “When we laugh at a good joke or a comic routine, we tend to feel more relaxed afterward. Nervous laughter serves a similar function, allowing the individual to discharge anxiety and relax a bit,” he says. Everyone has a story about someone laughing or giggling when it’s least appropriate, even rude, but most people have no control over it. This seemingly illogical reaction, laughing when we’re nervous or uncomfortable, is not uncommon. That's the first time Kiersten says she was overcome by uncontrollable laughter, something she is certain she inherited from her mother, who is also notorious for uncontrollable laughter. She knew her laughter was out of place and inappropriate, but that only made her giggle more. ![]() She remembers breaking into a fit of laughter as a kid when she entered an elevator while surrounded by businesspeople. This isn’t the first time Kiersten has experienced this.
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