What You “Say” With Laughter

It is debatable whether laughter is a reflexive response to something, or is a kind of communication.

The responses of certain kinds of humour being extremely diverse suggests that laughter can be:

1. A response to a sudden turn, something that surprises us or is against our expectation, but gets resolved in some manner.
2. A means to release nervous energy.
3. A kind of act that announces one’s dominant position, or a desire to increase interpersonal behaviour, or to encourage playfulness.

Laughter may relate to our own vulnerability or of other people and could be a way to express this feeling vocally.

• Lifting Laughter: A way of positively signalling someone who made a fool of themselves that everything is okay and we all are susceptible to the same kind of errors and misfortunes.
• Self-lifting Laughter: The person who made a fool of himself (or herself) often chuckles with embarrassment. This is self-lifting laughter, signalling that what the person went through is human, and could happen to anyone.