Towards a social functional account of laughter: Acoustic features convey reward, affiliation, and dominance

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 8; p. e0183811
• Main Authors: Wood, Adrienne, Martin, Jared, Niedenthal, Paula
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.08.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acoustic noise; Acoustic properties; Acoustics; Adult; Aged; Between-subjects design; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Center of gravity; Dominance; Evolution; Female; Females; Frequency; Human behavior; Humans; Humor; Hypothesis testing; Judgments; Laughter; Laughter - psychology; Male; Males; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Perceptions; Physical properties; Physical Sciences; Psychology; Ratings; Reinforcement; Reward; Sex; Sex Factors; Social behavior; Social classes; Social Dominance; Social Identification; Social interactions; Social Sciences; Social status; Sound effects; Spontaneity; Verbal communication; Young Adult; United States > US; Wisconsin

Recent work has identified the physical features of smiles that accomplish three tasks fundamental to human social living: rewarding behavior, establishing and managing affiliative bonds, and negotiating social status. The current work extends the social functional account to laughter. Participants...