Sharing the joke: The size of natural laughter groups

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 33, Issue 6, 2012, Pages 775-779

  Dezecache, Guillaume ^a   Dunbar, R I M ^b  

^a ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE   (France)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Endorphins; Laughter; Social bonding; Social grooming; Social group size

Indexed keywords

PRIMATES;

EID: 84867896881     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.07.002     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Aiello L.C., Dunbar R.I.M. Neocortex size, group size, and the evolution of language. Current Anthropology 1993, 34(2):184-193.
2. Akaike H. A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 1974, 19(6):716-723. 10.1109/TAC.1974.1100705.
3. Bachorowski J.A., Owren M.J. Not all laughs are alike: voiced but not unvoiced laughter readily elicits positive affect. Psychological Science 2001, 12(3):252.
4. Bachorowski J.A., Smoski M.J., Owren M.J. The acoustic features of human laughter. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2001, 110(3 Pt 1):1581-1597.
5. Beranek L.L. Acoustics (vol. 6) 1954, McGraw-Hill, New York.
6. Burnham K.P., Anderson D.R. Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach 2012, Springer Verlag, Berlin.
7. Burt J.M., Vehrencamp S.L. Dawn chorus as an interactive communication network. Animal communication networks 2005, 320-344. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. P.K. McGregor (Ed.).
8. Chapman A.J. Eye contact, physical proximity and laughter: a re-examination of the equilibrium model of social intimacy. Social Behavior and Personality 1975, 3(2):143-155. 10.2224/sbp. 1975.3.2.143.
9. Cohen J.E. Casual groups of monkeys and men 1971, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
10. Curley J.P., Keverne E.B. Genes, brains and mammalian social bonds. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2005, 20(10):561-567.
11. Davila-Ross M., Owren M.J., Zimmermann E. Reconstructing the evolution of laughter in great apes and humans. Current Biology 2009, 19(13):1106-1111. 10.1016/j.cub.2009.05.028.
12. Davila-Ross M., Allcock B., Thomas C., Bard K.A. Aping expressions? Chimpanzees produce distinct laugh types when responding to laughter of others. Emotion 2011, 11(5):1013-1020. 10.1037/a0022594.
13. Depue R.A., Morrone-Strupinsky J.V. A neurobehavioral model of affiliative bonding: implications for conceptualizing a human trait of affiliation. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2005, 28(3):313-349.
14. Dunbar R.I.M. Coevolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1993, 16:681-735.
15. Dunbar R.I.M. The human story 2004, Faber & Faber, London.
16. Dunbar R.I.M. Why only humans have language. The prehistory of language 2009, 12-35. Oxford, Oxford University Press. R. Botha, C. Knight (Eds.).
17. Dunbar R.I.M. Bridging the bonding gap: the transition from primates to humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2012, 367(1597):1837-1846. 10.1098/rstb.2011.0217.
18. Dunbar R.I.M., Duncan N., Nettle D. Size and structure of freely forming conversational groups. Human Nature 1995, 6(1):67-78. 10.1007/BF02734136.
19. Dunbar R.I.M., Korstjens A.H., Lehmann J. Time as an ecological constraint. Biological Reviews 2009, 84(3):413-429.
20. Dunbar R.I.M., Shultz S. Bondedness and sociality. Behaviour 2010, 147(7):775-803.
21. Dunbar R.I.M., Baron R., Frangou A., Pearce E., van Leeuwen E.J.C., Stow J., et al. Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2012, 279(1731):1161-1167.
22. Gervais M., Wilson D.S. The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: a synthetic approach. The Quarterly Review of Biology 2005, 80(4):395-430.
23. Gowlett, J. A. J., Gamble, C., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (in press). Human evolution and the archaeology of the social brain. Current Anthropology.
24. Grammer K. Strangers meet: laughter and nonverbal signs of interest in opposite-sex encounters. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 1990, 14(4):209-236. 10.1007/BF00989317.
25. Grammer K., Eibl-Eibesfeldt I. The ritualisation of laughter. Natürlichkeit der Sprache und der Kultur 1990, 192-214.
26. Kendon A. Some functions of gaze-direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica 1967, 26(1):22-63.
27. Kudo H., Dunbar R.I.M. Neocortex size and social network size in primates. Animal Behaviour 2001, 62(4):711-722. 10.1006/anbe.2001.1808.
28. Legget R.F., Northwood T.D. Noise surveys of cocktail parties. Journal of the Statistical Society of America 1960, 32:16-18.
29. Lehmann J., Korstjens A.H., Dunbar R.I.M. Group size, grooming and social cohesion in primates. Animal Behaviour 2007, 74(6):1617-1629.
30. Li N.P., Griskevicius V., Durante K.M., Jonason P.K., Pasisz D.J., Aumer K. An evolutionary perspective on humor: sexual selection or interest indication?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2009, 35(7):923-936. 10.1177/0146167209334786.
31. Lynch R. It's funny because we think it's true: laughter is augmented by implicit preferences. Evolution and Human Behavior 2010, 31(2):141-148. 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.07.003.
32. Machin A.J., Dunbar R.I.M. The brain opioid theory of social attachment: a review of the evidence. Behaviour 2011, 148(10):985-1025.
33. Martin G.N., Gray C.D. The effects of audience laughter on men's and women's responses to humor. The Journal of Social Psychology 1996, 136(2):221-231. 10.1080/00224545.1996.9713996.
34. Mehu M., Dunbar R.I.M. Naturalistic observations of smiling and laughter in human group interactions. Behaviour 2008, 145(12):1747-1780.
35. Meyer M., Zysset S., von Cramon D.Y., Alter K. Distinct fMRI responses to laughter, speech, and sounds along the human peri-sylvian cortex. Cognitive Brain Research 2005, 24(2):291-306. 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.02.008.
36. Owren M.J., Bachorowski J.A. Reconsidering the evolution of nonlinguistic communication: the case of laughter. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 2003, 27(3):183-200. 10.1023/A:1025394015198.
37. Petridis S., Pantic M. Audiovisual discrimination between laughter and speech. Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, 2008. ICASSP 2008, 5117-5120.
38. Platow M.J., Haslam S.A., Both A., Chew I., Cuddon M., Goharpey N., et al. « It's not funny if they're laughing »: self-categorization, social influence, and responses to canned laughter. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2005, 41(5):542-550. 10.1016/j.jesp. 2004.09.005.
39. Provine R.R. Contagious laughter: laughter is a sufficient stimulus for laughs and smiles. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 1992, 30(1):1-4.
40. Provine R. Laughter: a scientific investigation 2001, Penguin Press, Harmondsworth.
41. Provine R.R., Yong Y.L. Laughter: a stereotyped human vocalization. Ethology 1991, 89(2):115-124. 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1991.tb00298.x.
42. Ruch W., Ekman P. The expressive pattern of laughter. Emotion, Qualia, and Consciousness 2001, 426-443. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ. A.W. Kaszniak (Ed.).
43. Schel A.M., Zuberbühler K. Dawn chorusing in guereza colobus monkeys. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 2012, 66:361-373.
44. Shultz S., Dunbar R. Encephalization is not a universal macroevolutionary phenomenon in mammals but is associated with sociality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010, 107(50):21582-21586. 10.1073/pnas.1005246107.
45. Steinzor B. The spatial factor in face to face discussion groups. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 1950, 45(3):552.
46. Szameitat D.P., Darwin C.J., Szameitat A.J., Wildgruber D., Alter K. Formant characteristics of human laughter. Journal of Voice 2011, 25(1):32-37.
47. Tenaza R.R. Songs, choruses and countersinging of Kloss' gibbons (Hylobates klossii) in Siberut Island, Indonesia. Zeitshcrift fur Tierpsychologie 1976, 40:37-52.
48. Vettin J., Todt D. Human laughter, social play, and play vocalizations of non-human primates: an evolutionary approach. Behaviour 2005, 142(2):217-240.
49. Vlahovic T., Roberts S., Dunbar R.I.M. Effects of duration and laughter on subjective happiness within different modes of communication. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 2012, 17:436-450.
50. Waller B.M., Dunbar R.I.M. Differential behavioural effects of silent bared teeth display and relaxed open mouth display in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Ethology 2005, 111(2):129-142.
51. Webster J.C. Speech communications as limited by ambient noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 1965, 37:692.
52. Weisfeld G.E. The adaptive value of humor and laughter. Ethology and Sociobiology 1993, 14(2):141-169. 10.1016/0162-3095(93)90012-7.