Psyche There are friends to smile at

Friendly people laugh at each other differently than completely strangers
That a laugh in all countries sounds the same and can even be contagious, is most people aware. Now scientists found out that our laughter sends out signals to people who know us better. It sounds different when we laugh with friends than when we laugh with completely strangers.

When friends laugh at each other, it sounds different when we laugh with people who are foreign and unknown to us, researchers from the University of California said during an investigation. People seem to send special signals to known people when they laugh together. The physicians published their findings in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".

By the way of laughing, people can tell if the laughing people are friends or completely alien. This makes it easier for us to identify certain existing social covenants. (Image: iko / fotolia.com)

Laughter can indicate positive emotions and the willingness to cooperate
For their study, the researchers analyzed the data from nearly 1,000 subjects from 24 different countries, all of whom had previously heard different shots of laughing people. Subjects were able to identify in 61 percent of cases whether a pair of friendly people laughed at the shot, the researchers say. Laughter could have helped our ancestors identify which people were their friends. Laughter could contain more information than we previously knew. It can express positive emotions and indicate the willingness to cooperate, explain the physicians.

Laughter is a sign of relationship status
The investigators focused their study on groups of people who laughed together, a so-called co-laughter. They tried to determine whether laughing together, people outside the group tells something, say the experts. It was already known that laughter across all cultures is seen as a sign of relationship status. But little is known about the communicative element of laughter and what information we can gather from other laughing people. When friends laugh together, they tend to give tell-tale signs, such as their pitch and increasing unpredictable volume, say the doctors. Subjects generally found it easier to identify laughing, friendly couples, if these were women, the researchers add.

Laughter can help identify existing social covenants
The study is the largest cross-cultural study of laughter ever undertaken around the world, said lead author Professor Greg Bryant of the University of California. The results provide insight into how our laughter could help identify people's existing social covenants and then navigate better in the social environment, the expert adds. People seem to have found a way to distinguish between genuine and forced laughter. There is another form of laughter, the unintentional laughter. This laugh is more of social interaction, such as a polite laugh with a person we just met, say the experts.

Some people fake the sound of laughter to signal affiliation
The results of the investigation also show another interesting fact. There are people in groups who are not really close friends with the others and therefore "fake" the sound of laughter to signal their affiliation with the group to strangers, explain the physicians. Shared laughter can provide a quick and accurate assessment of affiliation that works across cultural and linguistic boundaries. In addition, laughter is a universal means of signaling cooperative relationships. (As)