Ha ha HA Haha. The Sound Of Laughter Tells More Than You Think

NPR:

Hear it in Rio, Kathmandu or Timbuktu — it doesn’t matter. A hearty, belly laugh means the same thing on every continent: joy.

But when we laugh with someone else, our chuckles may divulge more than we realize.

Scientists have found that people around the world can tell whether folks are friends or strangers by listening to them laughing together. And the ability transcends culture and language.

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But the results were consistent across all the societies studied. That’s a big deal, says Robert Provine, a psychologist and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who wasn’t involved with the study. “That suggest we’re dealing with a very basic aspect of human nature,” he says.

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Neuroscientist Carolyn McGettigan at the Royal Holloway University of London agrees with Provine. “This study is really impressive,” she says. “The scale of it is an achievement.” But also, she says, it suggest that, even in the most remote places on Earth, a laugh among friends is a special sound.

Read the whole story: NPR