Why do people laugh at other people. Why do people laugh? What makes you laugh
One of the first skills that a newborn baby acquires is not speech or body control at all. The first thing a child learns to do is smile. However, with the advent of ultrasound examination of the highest degree of penetration, in other words, with high image quality, information arose that this is generally an innate skill. Some babies manage to smile while they were in fetal development. But why do people laugh?
Curious facts
There is no need to talk a lot about laughter, because everyone, without exception, sometimes fakes it. In other words, we all laugh from time to time. According to statistics, an adult smiles every day until laughing about 17 times a day. It goes without saying that the more often the better, because the fact that laughter is useful is known to almost everyone.
In a laughing person, the level of adrenaline in the blood decreases, the hormones of pleasure endorphins are produced, and about 550 kilocalories are burned every minute. A similar consumption takes place for 1 minute of active sports. By the way, man is the only creature on earth who expresses emotions in this way. However, domesticated animals can repeat this. It is known that you can teach a dog or a horse to laugh.
Reasons for laughter
Physiologically, the nature of laughter has not been established. On this account, it remains to be tormented by conjectures. But psychologically and mentally, scientists and doctors came to the conclusion that this is the reaction of our consciousness to something that is sharply different from the picture of the world that we have put in our minds. In other words, this is how our consciousness reacts to what supposedly cannot be, but which does not cause fear. Each person has his own, special, sense of humor. There is the so-called "black humor", there is just fun, there is even professional humor. All this depends on the mindset of a person, as well as on the knowledge he has acquired about the external world. It often happens that something makes one person laugh and at the same time does not amuse another at all. Everyone perceives facts differently. If, for example, one person finds a fact that simply does not fit into the general situation, he will be amused by this fact. But, someone else, the possibility of such events fully admits, therefore, accordingly, they will not laugh.
People, as dodgy creatures, have learned to use laughter and not for its intended purpose. Thus, mocking laughter, ridicule appeared. Moreover, there is also a nervous laugh as a result of a stress factor affecting a person. These are no longer congenital, but acquired variations. People with low self-esteem make fun of other people, so there is no need to talk about the reasons for such laughter. Nervous laughter is also understandable, because as soon as a person is emotionally not well, his subconscious is looking for how to fix it. And at the level of reflexes, it has already been developed that laughter is good. So it turns out that a person, without realizing it, laughs in order to stop being nervous and relieve tension.
Another acquired option is hysterical laughter. Here the picture is about the same as with a nervous laugh, only the emotions of such a person are already out of control, and he is not able to stop. You can stop such laughter only by ending the hysteria.
It happens that people laugh even in their sleep. This fact also testifies in favor of the fact that laughter is one of the emotions that comes from the subconscious and is often not controlled by the consciousness itself.
Such a simple and common thing for all of us as laughter for scientists still remains a mystery. And even more questions are raised by the fact that at the same unfamiliar joke, some people laugh until they drop, while others just shrug their shoulders in bewilderment. Why do people laugh? Let's try to answer this question.
What do we know about laughter
Humans are the only creatures on the planet that can laugh. And all that scientists today know about why we laugh is:
- An adult laughs about 17 times a day;
- When laughing, 80 facial muscles are involved;
- Laughter from the heart can burn 550 calories in half an hour, and one minute of laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes of fitness;
- When laughing, blood pressure decreases, blood circulation improves, stress levels decrease;
- Laughter promotes the production of endorphins and antidepressants, which leads people to a state of peace;
- Laughter is one of the reactions of a person to humor or tickling;
- Laughter can be a sign of nervous tension or mental disorder;
- Laughter is not an innate emotion, and it is not transmitted by genotype.
A special section of psychiatry deals with the study of laughter, it is called gelotology. The scientific definition of laughter is as follows: a complex act that consists of modified breathing movements associated with certain facial expressions.
What is laughter
Laughter can be different, it can be natural, bold, pacifying, and it can be ingratiating, mocking, threatening, when we experience very strong emotions, there can even be “laughter through tears”. But if laughter still calms those who laugh, then it can upset and offend those who are laughing. We love jokes, but we do not like to be their objects, and when it does happen, we sometimes sigh bitterly: Why are they laughing at me? People really laugh when they see the awkwardness or weakness in another person. Therefore, hearing loud laughter next to them, people with low self-esteem first of all think that they are laughing at them. Why laugh in a dream? Laughter is a natural reaction for us, but sometimes we suppress our emotions so that they begin to manifest themselves at the moment when we lose control of our mind, namely in a dream.
What makes you laugh
Scientists spend years trying to answer the question of the century what exactly causes laughter, why little children smile, why girls laugh, where does the sense of funny come from. And the exact answer has not been found. Laughter expert Robert Provine spent hours recording people's conversations, trying to figure out what makes them laugh. And he revealed only general patterns - laughter was a reaction to a funny joke, to an unexpected resolution of the situation, and sometimes it just appeared for no reason. But one thing is certain, laughter is inherent in all people from birth, not as a mental, but as a physiological feature. Even people who are deaf and dumb from birth, who have never heard laughter in their lives, laugh. Perhaps laughter is our tool of social interaction. After all, a good laugh rallies, makes people easier and closer, but it can also make people quarrel if people laugh at each other, and always, without exception, attracts the attention of people of the opposite sex.
Smiling is the first skill that a newborn has. And even more than that: the baby can smile even in the mother's womb, ultrasound shooting made it possible to prove this. People all over the world are smiling, regardless of the color of their skin or the language they speak.
People also laugh everywhere, in order to laugh, the child does not need to learn anything, such a reaction to positive emotions is programmed in the subconscious and begins to manifest itself even before birth.
Statistics show that the average person smiles and laughs about 17 times a day. This is approximate information, because the tendency to laugh and smile directly depends on the person's temperament, his emotional background during the current period. Smiles and laughter are useful, and therefore even doctors recommend maintaining a positive attitude and laughing heartily, smiling more often. Even if a person is sad, he can make an effort over himself and smile, and his mood will begin to rise.
Also, smiling and laughing are the best gymnastic exercises. They make more than 80 facial muscle groups work, keeping the face toned and youthful. At the same time, the body receives a dose of endorphins, hormones of pleasure, and spends about 550 kilocalories per minute, which is comparable to intense exercise. Laughter also lowers adrenaline. It is known that only man laughs on Earth, although some animals can also be taught this.
Ask the question "Why are you laughing?" 100 people and at least 99 from at least 99 will hear the answer - "Because it's funny!" But research shows that the real reason for laughing isn't usually because it's funny. Laughter expert Robert Provine spent hours recording the conversations of people in malls, classrooms, offices and parties in order to understand - what makes people laugh?
Here's what he found out: in the overwhelming majority of cases, people did not laugh because they heard a joke or saw a funny situation. Laughter sounded at the end of unfunny phrases, in response to unfunny remarks (“Look, this is Andre!” - “Hee-hee”), sometimes for no reason at all. Even the respondents' attempts to show off their sense of humor caused less laughter than the banal phrase "Are you sure?"
The areas of laughter control in our brain are as “ancient” as those responsible for breathing and reflexes. This means that they are located quite far from the later developed areas, those responsible for speech and memory. There is one more fundamental feature of laughter: all people, without exception, are capable of laughing, even those who are deaf and dumb from birth. Even though they have never heard sounds of laughter, they make the same sounds when they are funny. All this suggests that laughter is our physiological, not mental, feature. Perhaps this also explains why we sometimes cannot, by an effort of will, stop an attack of uncontrollable laughter.
Of course, we actively use laughter for social interaction. Laughter can both unite a group of people and quarrel when some laugh at others. Laughter can express a wide range of emotions: from contempt to delight. Laughter can attract the attention of the opposite sex. Etc.
So, here are the two answers we have today: Laughter is our physiological feature and Laughter is a tool for socialization. But in order to understand the nature of laughter, it is required to find an answer to other questions: Why did laughter develop? How did it develop? How does it develop over the course of a person's life? And finally, How does it work?
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Most often, in such a situation, we feel uncomfortable, and sometimes, especially if this happens in childhood or adolescence, we get it for life. How do you learn to experience ridicule painlessly?
To begin with, there are certain reasons why people laugh at each other. Suppose, in the company of teenagers, someone throws a remark to one of the girls: “What, did you find this dress in the trash?”. Someone else picks up: "No, she bought it at the sale" All for 10 rubles! "". Or something like that. And now barbs are heard from all sides ...
Recently, foreign psychologists have found that most of all, among children and adolescents, it is not the least popular individuals who are teased, but, on the contrary, those who stand out, for example, excellent students and geeks. Why? Because they attract attention. Often they are envied or not understood, and this is annoying ... If a child or adolescent is so positive all of himself, this makes his peers look for flaws in him. And, of course, they are found, because there are no ideal people, let alone children.
They also tease those who are unable to resist - say, the most timid and well-mannered. The pretext can be absolutely anything. When I was a teenager, they teased those whose parents could not afford to buy imported clothes for their child. Now - those who have cheap mobile phones. But then again, mind you, it might not occur to anyone to laugh at the daughter of a lonely cleaning lady who can barely make ends meet, despite the lack of decent clothes and gadgets. Because she, not burdened by upbringing, was able to "put" herself in the company of her peers. But the daughter of a divorced researcher runs the risk of becoming an "outcast" forever, since due to the "correct" upbringing she allows herself to be swaggering. A teenager who has something that others do not have - the best clothes, the best things ... In short, any one can be ridiculed.
Besides, we willingly laugh at someone else, fearing that they might laugh at us... As long as we engage in bullying, we are "protected." If we try to avoid this or to protect the victim, then we ourselves can turn into an object of persecution. The logic is simple: it is better to be with the pack than to confront it.
You can become the object of ridicule at any age. For a woman, the reason for ridicule is often her appearance: “Well, did she get her hair cut again in an economy class hairdresser?” If you know some details of your personal life, they can also be used as a "tool": "Well, did you kiss the jamb again yesterday?" (meaning that the roommate bruised the lady), "And when is the wedding?" (knowing that it doesn't smell like a serious relationship here).
To get out of the situation with minimal psychological losses, you should learn how to properly respond to such attacks.
First of all, try to analyze the situation and understand why they are laughing at you... Do not assume that if you are ridiculed, you are worse than those who do it. All people have some flaws. And your scoffers may have even more of them than you. Perhaps they are laughing at you to stop feeling inferior ... Remember: a strong and successful person does not need to assert himself at the expense of others! This is always a sign of weakness and.
Don't make excuses in any way. After all, they laugh at you, wanting to hurt you, and your excuses will only serve as an excuse to continue the ridicule.
Don't show that you are offended. After all, the goal of scoffers is to unsettle you and make you feel uncomfortable.
It is best to exaggerate the situation and laugh at yourself along with the scoffers. For example, in response to a remark about clothes found in a garbage dump, it is fun to say: “Yes, I have been rummaging through the garbage for a long time! In response to the question about the "imminent wedding" - "As soon as we submit an application to the registry office, I will be the first to inform you!"
Sometimes it doesn't hurt to hint at the blunders of the scoffer himself: “What about you?”, “What second-hand do you dress in?”. Although this only works when the flaws are obvious.
If you do not immediately find what to say, then analyze the situation, prepare a worthy answer, and the next time they start to mock you, give out “homework”.
Do not snap back and in every way. This will show that the goal of the offenders has been achieved and you are hurt.
If in your company it is simply customary to make fun of each other, then you should not take ridicule seriously at all. You can also make fun of others.
If the person who constantly taunts you, especially in public, is your close friend or partner (sometimes even husbands and wives are publicly ridiculed), then it makes sense to talk to him in private and explain that his behavior is causing you pain. Perhaps he simply does not know about it. If it turns out that a person is doing this deliberately, this is a reason to limit or end the relationship.
