The Warrior Power of Laughter
Image: Chinese poets ShiDe and Han-shan (detail) (13th century) by Yan Hui Tokyo National Museum / Public Domain
This is a public service announcement! Even during the most fraught times, we are allowed to laugh. Not only can we give ourselves permission to laugh, but levity is a beneficial friend in times of crisis. The Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs states: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”[i] The ancients knew the wisdom of that saying.
Scientific research concurs. An article, “Laughter is the best medicine,”[ii] in the June 2023 issue of British medical journal The Lancet, describes a video of a Ukrainian soldier dancing in the snow while gunfire rattles in the distance.[iii] The viral video had sparked controversy, both criticism and praise. The article explored the role of humor in dealing with the emotional toll of war and cited media clips circulating during the early days of the COVID pandemic of doctors and nurses dancing as an emotional outlet for the heavy burden of bearing witness daily to medical emergencies.
Does it feel like a betrayal to laugh while others are suffering, when every day seems to highlight a new disaster? Can making laughter your friend aid the common good?
The answer is yes: laughter has its evolutionary roots in creating social bonds that help individual and group survival.[iv]
Laughter has been studied by evolutionary biologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, among many others. Their findings include a long list of positive physical and mental health outcomes including boosted immunity, pain relief, muscle relaxation, easing of anxiety and stress, improvement of mood, and stronger resilience.
In the sphere of social relations, laughter has been shown to increase desirability, strengthen friendship and group bonds, defuse conflict, enhance teamwork and reduce threats. It’s difficult to imagine a single pill that could have such a wide variety of benefits. Who knew that a hefty dose of laughter relaxes the body for 45 minutes after the laughter stops by decreasing stress hormones and increasing immune cells and infection fighting antibodies.[v]
Laughter also increases endorphin production which eases pain and encourages a sense of well-being. By improving vascular blood flow, laughter benefits the heart. A study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor outlived those who didn’t laugh as much. The difference was particularly notable for those with cancer.[vi]
Kavita Khajuria, MD, a psychiatrist in Los Angeles advises: “Given the brain's neuroplasticity, it’s to our benefit to make our lifetime experiences as positive and hilarious as possible.”[vii]
Scientists speculate that the origin of laughter as a survival mechanism arose in young mammals from the heavy breathing produced during play in a shared arousal experience. Evolutionary biologists David Sloan Wilson and Matthew Gervais suggest that in social species like ours, “natural selection favors characteristics that foster survival of the group, not just the individual.” [viii]
This makes sense: if laughter fosters harmony and cooperation within a group, the group has a better chance of surviving. People are thirty times more likely to laugh in a group than alone. [ix] And laughter not only strengthens positive social bonds between the laughers but also to those listening to laughter.[x]
Spontaneous involuntary eruptive laughter that results from true amusement is called Duchenne laughter. Non-Duchenne laughter is voluntary and volitional. It is often used as a social strategy, as in a hierarchical office setting when an employee laughs at her boss’s inane joke. The two types of laughter use different neural pathways. Duchenne laughter originates in the brain stem and limbic system in areas responsible for emotions. When we say we’ve had a “good laugh,” we are talking about Duchenne laughter, the kind of laughter that erupts spontaneously, makes it hard to breathe, and brings tears to our eyes; laughter that flushes out burdensome feelings and liberates negative emotions.
Non-Duchenne laughter is controlled by the frontal cortex in an area thought to plan movement. Non-Duchenne laughter, the forced kind, can evolve into Duchenne laughter, as when one gets caught up in group laughter that initially did not provoke laughter.[xi]
Philosophers, religions, and wisdom traditions also ponder laughter as a subject of importance to humankind. In Genesis, when Sarah, aged ninety, is told by God that she is to birth Abraham’s child, she laughs with bitter disbelief. But after their son Isaac is born, her laughter comes from wonder and jubilation at God’s mysterious ways.
Navajo people celebrate a baby’s first laugh with a joyful family ritual called Baby’s First Laugh Ceremony. Some Native tribes hold ceremonies featuring sacred clowns, trickster coyotes, and teasing to encourage humility and laughter.
In Buddhism, laughter is part of the teachings in the Sutra on Great Happiness. The figure called “Laughing Buddha” is revered in some Buddhist sects. The bald, big-bellied laughing monk is not the sage of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, but a character known in China as Budai and in Japan as Hotei, one of the seven lucky gods known for his jovial nature and his magnanimity. HIs joyful, playful attitude toward life is currently embodied in His Holiness the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who is often seen with a warm, inviting smile.
The renowned Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl, writes about the saving grace of humor as a means of transcending the horrors of Auschwitz. In his unforgettable memoir and guide to surviving the worst human cruelties, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl writes:
“Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”[xii]
What laughter can’t do is eliminate the stressors from our lives, but when we engage in laughter, we feel lighter, freer, more open to connection and creativity.
When was the last time you had a good laugh? Laughter may seem like a weak or inappropriate ally during these difficult times, but remember, laughter has helped our species survive. Laugher, it seems, is serious business!
What makes you laugh? Here are a few suggestions to tickle your funny bone.
1. Look in the mirror and start to laugh (Non-Duchenne laughter). Keep laughing until the involuntary laughter breaks through. Try making silly faces at yourself.
2. Watch old comedy shows: “I Love Lucy,” “Laurel and Hardy,” “Abbott and Costello,” “Laugh In,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Saturday Night Live.”
3. Join a “laughter yoga” class.
4. Go to a comedy club with friends.
5. Draw silly pictures on a big pad using colorful crayons or pencils.
6. Close your eyes and remember a time when you couldn’t stop laughing. While you hold the memory, feel yourself fill up with the past laughter and carry it forward.
[i] King James Bible, Book of Proverbs, 17:22
[ii] Petrov, Dmitriy and Marchalik, Daniel, “Laughter is the best medicine,” The Lancet, Volume 401, Issue 10391, P1844, June 03, 2023
[iii] Ukraine War Truth Slava Ukrayini Channel, “Ukraine War: Morning Pikachu dance!! Ukrainian female soldier demonstrates the high morale!!” December 5, 2022
[iv] Dunbar, R.I.M., “Laughter and its role in the evolution of the human social bonding,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, September 21, 2022
[v] Robinson, Lawrence; Smith, Melinda; Segal, Jeanne, “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” HelpGuide.org. February 5, 2024.
[vi] Romundstad, Solfrid, et al., “A 15-Year Follow-Up Study of Sense of Humor and Causes of Mortality: The Nord-Trondelag Health Study,” Psychosomatic Medicine, Volume 78, Issue 3, pp 345-353, April 2016.
[vii] Khajuria, Kavita, “Laughter is the Best Medicine,” Psychiatric Times, Vol 35, Issue 8, August 17, 2018.
[viii] Gervais, Matthew and Wilson, David Sloan, “The Evolution and Functions of Laughter and Humor: A Synthetic Approach,” The Quarterly Review of Biology, Volume 80, Number 4, December 2005.
[ix] Provine, Robert R., “Laughing, Tickling, and the Evolution of Speech and Self,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, Volume 13, Issue 6.
[x] Raine, Jordan, “The evolutionary origins of laughter are rooted more in survival than enjoyment,” The Conversation, April 13, 2016.
[xi] Gervais, Matthew and Wilson, David Sloan, Op. cit.
[xii] Frankl, Viktor, Man’s Search for Meaning, Beacon Press, 1959, p. 24.
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