Laughter: A Scientific Investigation - Softcover

Provine, Professor Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571191894 ISBN 13: 9780571191895

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2000

Synopsis

Why do we laugh? Laughter has surprisingly little to do with jokes and funny stories. It is an ancient, unconsciously controlled vocal relic that co-exists with our relatively modern speech - a social, psychological and biological act which predates humour and is shared with our primate cousins, the great apes. In this fascinating book Robert Provine uses laughter as a powerful probe into human social relationships, revealing that tickling is a form of tactile communication, not a reflex; that women laugh more at men than vice-versa; that speakers laugh more than their audiences; and that laughter is mostly about relationships, not jokes.

Using the latest evidence, Provine describes laughter using sonic analysis and opera scores, evaluates whether you can 'laugh you way to health', considers what laughter shows about neuropathology, and suggests how to change environments to increase laughter. The first book to establish laughter as a topic of scientific worth, Laughter also includes such esoterica as the history of holy laughter, laughing gas, canned laughter, and a description of the Tanganyikan laughter epidemic that immobilized an entire school district in 1962.

About this title

Review:

Is it really the best medicine? Neurobiologist Robert R. Provine discovered that no scientist had ever looked into the weird, uncontrollable, and very human phenomenon of laughter, so he started off on his own. Laughter: A Scientific Investigation is his warm and--of course--funny report on how and why we giggle and snort with such regularity. Basing his views on field research conducted in a broad array of social situations (laughter being notoriously difficult to evoke in the laboratory), he posits that we use it as a universal, preverbal means of communication. Though animal research is controversial, it suggests that apes establish and maintain relationships using laugh-like behaviour, so it could be the missing link between animal communication and true language. He also explores instances in which we seem to laugh our way into and out of social situations, and includes a list of tips for keeping the laughs flowing. The irony of the scientific community not taking laughter seriously isn't lost on Provine, and he takes every opportunity to remind his fellows that even the seemingly most trivial matters can hide the most profound truths. If that isn't funny, what is? --Rob Lightner

Review:

"[A] well-written, often amusing and always fascinating exposé." --Scientific American

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0571191894
• ISBN 13: 9780571191895
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272