kavisolo.

My friend and co-worker Sagar is really into social dynamics lately. Last night, after working some hard overtime, we walked to the subway together. On our walk he started talking about why we laugh. I said he should write something about it and put it on my blog. He did.

I was walking home yesterday with Kavi and began ranting to him, as I usually do, about a seemingly mundane topic that I recently took an interest in: laughter. Kavi mentioned that he was intrigued by the arbitrary subjects I go on about and suggested I write an entry on his blog about my findings, so here we are.

Laughter. Everybody laughs. Truly a fascinating thing when you think about it. It is recognized by all cultures and backgrounds, all over the world. I can laugh with someone from half way across the globe, and despite not speaking a word of the same language, we would both understand each other. It is one of the few universally recognized elements of human language.

Maybe I should back up a bit. What got me on this whole laughter bit in the first place? Last week when I was walking, I came up to a stop light and noticed a homeless fellow singing to himself in a rather amusing way. As I looked over my shoulder, I noticed there was a cute girl standing next to me who happened to notice this guy as well, so we exchanged looks and began laughing. I started chatting to her and we ended up having a twenty minute conversation.

I know what you’re thinking: Nice story, but what does it have to do with anything? Well, as I reflected on that interaction later on, I realized how extremely powerful laughter is. I’ve always had an interest in social dynamics, but it was both bizarre and intriguing to me that two strangers on the street can share a laugh about such a trivial thing and mutually understand it as way of saying “Hi, I’d like to bond with you socially.”

As you may know, laughter is not done consciously. It is not thought, it is not planned. Our brain decides to do it for is. Like most people, before I did any research on the matter, I always attributed laughter to funny things. Jokes, comedians, and the like. Perhaps the most interesting thing I discovered was this: most laughter is not in response to something that’s funny.

Since I read that, I began observing the people around me and those I interact with regularly. Guess what? It’s true. People laugh for all kind of reasons – rarely does it have to do with something funny. Some people laugh as a way of breaking tension. Some people laugh to seek approval. Some laugh as a means of compensating for insecurity, and some people laugh for no reason at all. Despite the myriad of reasons that people laugh, I think it’s generally accepted as a way of conveying good vibrations.

Have you ever found yourself laughing with a group of people, but not sure why? It’s human instinct to laugh when others around us are laughing. Laughter is like social glue. That’s why you would sooner talk to yourself than laugh with yourself. A psychological study shows that people watching television shows that contain sound clips of laughter are more inclined to think of those shows as being funny, as well as to laugh along with them.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, and given my short attention span I’ll probably be ranting about something like missile silos next week, but for now what I can suggest is: maybe all the world needs is a little more laughter. Try it, you might agree.