World Famous Comics: Laughter: A Scientific Investigation
Laughter: A Scientific Investigation
By: Robert R. Provine Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: December 01, 2001 Release Date: November 27, 2001
DO MEN AND WOMEN LAUGH AT THE SAME THINGS? IS LAUGHTER CONTAGIOUS? HAS ANYONE EVER REALLY DIED LAUGHING? IS LAUGHING GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH?
Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.
Amazon.com 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), Provine 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 laughlike behavior, 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
Scientific Review It's a REALLY informative book; if you're doin' a paper or someth'n, but if you're try'n to learn to be funny, like I am, it's not really helpful - interesting, but not what I was looking for.
Worth a look, but.... 3.7 stars ____________________________________________ _Laughter: a Scientific Investigation_ is just that. Too professorial for easy reading, but some cool, unobvious stuff. For instance, speakers laugh more than their audiences (doh), and women laugh at men more than men laugh at women. Well, maybe not so unobvious after all
Anyway, here's his Laugh Matrix, where S = speaker and A = audience
Hmm, be darned if I can get this to format right in Ammie's primitive word-processor. Sorry!
He also suckered some poor grad student and his (Provine's) wife(!) into analyzing 60 opera scores to see how the composers scored laughter. The sensible ones simply insert "laugh" into the score. Or, in the case of I Pagliacci, Leoncavallo instructs the singer to "laugh bitterly". In Italian, ie "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"
He notes that "at study's end, we faced a sober reckoning. We learned a lot more about opera than about laughter..."
Oh, and laugh tracks really do work. He watched some sexy tickling videos, too.
I was skimming towards the end, when the book came due, and didn't feel compelled to renew it. Great cover, though.
Happy reading-- Pete Tillman
Interesting Insights into Studying and Exploring Laughter A purely simple behaviour at a glimpse, laughter has largely been under-studied. Provine discusses how he learned how to study laughter, and provides simple facts about laughter that have gone largely unnoticed. Furthermore, he tackles the evolutionary links between bipedalism, speech and language through his studies on laughter. He takes a fascinating look into how laughter can serve as a powerful probe into social behaviours. Reading laughter will give you a whole new view of this instinctive behaviour, and it will begin to shed light on the psychological and biological importance of this ancient remnant. Laughter is an exceptionally entertaining book! It is not a complex read, but a must-read for the inquisitive-minded individual.
Disappointing IMHO, this doesn't yield any valuable conceptual insights into humor.
If you're interested in the cognitive patterns behind jokes, comedy etc. you might want to check out Arthur Koestler's "Act of Creation" instead. He sets out to discover common patterns behind creative acts in humor, art and science and comes up with very broad original insights that I found very enlightening.
Another interesting (and more formalized) attempt to conceptualize creative thinking (including humor) is being developed by some cognitive linguists (Gilles Fauconnier, Mark Turner). Their concepts seem to go along very well with Koestler's findings. You might want to check out their book "The Way We Think".
Laughter is caused by a stuttering brain Yes, yes, I know. Provine studied thousands of people but, what he failed to grasp is that laughter is the result of a "stuttering" brain. A person is confronted with anxiety and, the brain "stutters" and releases the vocalizations we call laughter. This brings the brain (rather mind) back into equilibrium and "solves" the dilemma . . .the anxiety.
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