People who laugh a lot in their daily lives may be better equipped to deal with stressful events – although this doesn't seem to apply to the intensity of laughter. These are the findings of a research team from the University of Basel.
It is estimated that people typically laugh 18 times a day – mostly during interactions with other people and depending on the level of pleasure they experience. Researchers have also reported differences related to time of day, age and gender – for example, women are known to laugh more than men on average. Now, researchers from the University of Basel recently conducted a study on the relationship between stressful events and laughter in terms of perceived stress in everyday life.
Questions asked by app
In the intensive longitudinal study, an acoustic signal from a cell phone app caused participants to answer questions eight times a day at irregular intervals for 14 days. The questions related to the frequency and intensity of laughter and the reason for laughter – as well as any stressful events or experienced stress symptoms – in the time since the last signal.
Using this method, the researchers collaborate with the lead authors, Dr. Thea Zander-Schellenberg and Dr. Isabella Collins and they were able to study the relationships between laughter, stressful events, and physical and psychological symptoms of stress ("I had a headache" or "I felt restless") as part of everyday life. The newly published analysis was based on data from 41 psychology students, 33 of whom were women, with an average age of just under 22 years.
Laughter intensity has less influence
The first result of the observational study was expected based on the literature:in phases where the subjects laughed a lot, stressful events were accompanied by smaller symptoms of subjective stress. However, the second finding was unexpected. When it came to the interplay between stressful events and the intensity of laughter (strong, medium, or weak), there was no statistical correlation with stress symptoms. “This may be because people are better able to estimate the frequency of their laughter over the past few hours than its intensity,” the research team says.
