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Laughter

Introduction

The action of laughing is essentially, a reaction of certain stimuli. It is a visual expression of happiness, or an inward feeling of a person's joy. It helps the humans to clarify their intentions during social interactions and provides an emotional and supportive context to conversations. Laughter is a contagious action, and the laughter of one person can provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback. This concept of laughter results in the increasing popularity of laugh tracks in comedy television shows.

Laughter is an excellent stress management strategy because it is available free of cost, and conveniently. In this essay, we will discuss benefits and importance of laughter for people.

Discussion

In the succeeding sections, we explain that why do people laugh and why it is important for them, by describing some of its benefits.

Why do People Laugh?

Naturally, everyone is born with the ability to laugh. In fact, a baby learns to laugh in the age 3.5 to 4 months, even before learning to speak. People laugh at different situations and for various reasons. Everyone needs laughter in his life, without laughter life would be dull and colorless. Laughter and humor is often used as medicine for reducing the pain of the upset and sick.

Laughter is an immediate response of a joke. However, it is shown by research that laughter is not only concerned with a joke or tickling, but is also about relationships between people. Sometimes a person just laughs to express his happiness while chatting with a friend, such a concept of laughing is known as contagious laughter, which occurs when a person finds another laughing. Laughing is an excellent way of sharing how a person feels with the people around him.

Laughter occurs unconsciously and spontaneously. A person does not decide to laugh, as it cannot be produced consciously. It provides powerful and uncensored insights into a person's unconscious. It bubbles up from within a person in certain situations. There is no exact measure available, that how many times a day people of different ages laugh. However, it is quite observable, that adults laugh less than children.

The action of laughter can be explained by splitting it into two parts, including expression by gesture and the production of sound. The brain stimulates the body of a person to carry on both of these actions at the same instant. Laughter occurs as a coherent response. A person usually laughs at the end of phrases in pauses. However, everyone has a unique style of laughter.

Benefits of Laughter

Research has shown that there are numerous health benefits of laughter including physiological, psychological, and physical (Bennett MP and Lengacher C., 2008). Laughter helps to relieve pain, boost energy, bring happiness, manage stress and social interactions also can result in an increase of immunity. Some of the main benefits are as following:

Effect on Health

Laughter acts as medicine for mind and body of a person, as a crucial link exists between laughter ...