什么能叫你发笑？能让大家笑出声是什么原因有不少，其中一个重要原因是为了打造和保持社会联系。你感觉和朋友在一块的时候更容易笑吗？
What things make you laugh? There are many things that make us chuckle1 or burst into laughter. This natural show of emotion gives off signals that we are happy, we find something humorous or even that were just a barrel of laughs! Gelotologists have been looking at why we do it and what the benefits are.
Laughter is a very primitive2 way of making a sound. When we do it, we make very strange noises from wheezes3 and squeaks4 to gasps5 and snorts and each sound simply reflects the muscles in the chest squeezing out air from our ribcages under very high pressure.
Most of the time our laughter is involuntary and contagious6, particularly between friends. Neuroscientist, Sophie Scott, told the BBC that its a social emotion. Its better to laugh with people we like. She defines two types of laughter spontaneous laughter, where we laugh instantly and uncontrollably, and conversational7 laughter where we laugh together with friends. Research found, on average, people laugh seven times for every ten minutes of conversation.
The BBC World Service programme Crowd Science examined the science of laughter. It wanted to know what caused this highly infectious repetitive action. It found we use laughter to show others that were being playful and non-threatening, and this serves to make and maintain social bonds. Also, people outside of our social group can understand the relationship between the laughers by the sound of our chuckles8.
While our health is no laughing matter, research has found a good guffaw9 can help our body and mind it can make us feel good and relax our bodies. It also helps us manage pain and improve our immune system. Thats why laughter therapy is being used as an alternative to conventional treatments. But generally, our ability to laugh is out of our control. When you start doing it, just go with the flow and others will join in.
