15 types of laughter and their meaning

  • Apr 29, 2023
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Types of laughter and their meaning

'Health is based on happiness'. With this assumption, the famous American doctor and father of clowntherapy, Patch Adams, founded his method therapeutic, a winning combination of humor and fun as essential ingredients for physical and mental healing of the patient.

Today, experts are convinced that the so-called "Smile Therapy" is not only capable of helping patients to live their pathology better, but it also provides notable benefits in terms of breathing, oxygenation, circulation, as well as reducing stress and states of mind. anxiety. How many types of laughs are there for it? In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the types of laughter and their meaning.

You may also like: Types of caresses and their meaning

Index

  1. What is laughter and its benefits
  2. label laugh
  3. Contagious laughter
  4. Nervous laugh
  5. belly laugh
  6. silent laughter
  7. Laughter to relieve stress
  8. pigeon laugh
  9. laughter
  10. canned laughter
  11. Cruel laugh
  12. spastic laugh
  13. gelastic crisis
  14. sardonic laugh
  15. fatuous laughter
  16. uncontrollable laughter

What is laughter and its benefits.

Laughter is a nervous reaction that manifests itself in human behavior under different circumstances. Usually it is a emotional response to a comic experience or intense feelings of joy, pleasure, well-being and optimism.

In addition, laughter can also play a role in release of emotions opposite in nature, such as sadness and anger. In this case, in common language we speak of nervous or hysterical laughter. Physical causes can also stimulate laughter, regardless of any emotional context. For example, tickling or inhaling diazotium oxide (called "laughing gas").

For scientists around the world, laughter really does make life better and is the simplest and cheapest path to personal well-being, whether physical or mental. Specifically, the benefits of laughter for the body and mind are the following:

  • Improves blood circulation.
  • Helps prevent cardiovascular diseases.
  • It keeps the brain trained.
  • Fight anxiety and depression.
  • Improvement of the immune system.
  • Improves relationships with others and with oneself.

Etiquette laugh.

Sometimes people use laughter to get along with othersSo whether we're with our boss or with friends, we tend to laugh at things that just aren't funny enough to fit the context we find ourselves in.

Contagious laughter.

Within the types of laughter, contagious laughter occurs when, for example, someone tells a joke and makes one person laugh, which makes another person laugh, and so on. people are made to respond with a laugh upon hearing the laugh itself, in the same way that a yawn is mysteriously contagious.

Nervous laugh.

During periods of anxiety, we often laugh in an unconscious attempt to reduce stress and calm down. Generally, however, giggling only adds to the embarrassment of the situation. A nervous laugh often it is considered a fake laugh.

Types of laughter and their meaning - Nervous laughter

Belly laugh.

The belly laugh is considered the most honest kind of laugh. It can also be the most difficult type to experiment with, since you have to find something really hilarious to experience this kind of laughter that causes us to clench our stomachs and gasp in search for air In this article we show you different ways of control the nerves.

silent laughter.

Those of us who work in cubicles might think that silent laughter is a skill we've honed so we can laugh in situations where we shouldn't. Among the types of laughter, the silent ones are practiced in yoga classes either in laughter therapy sessions, where it is often called a joker's laugh.

Laughter to relieve stress.

Laughter to relieve stress can take many forms, but usually manifests as a rash, in the same way of the belly laugh. It is a way of laughing that relaxes the body both physically and emotionally.

Pigeon laugh.

Specifically, the pigeon laugh implies laugh without opening your mouth. It is often practiced in laughter therapy or laughter yoga. By keeping the lips closed, laughter produces a buzz that resembles the sounds a dove makes.

Types of laughter and their meaning - Pigeon laugh

laughter.

About 25% of women and 33% of men laugh by the nose. If this is your type of laugh, you should know that what happens is that when you laugh you exhale or suck through your nose. For this reason, the laughter is so loud and striking.

Laughter in a can

The boxed laugh is a real laugh, it just happens that it's a laugh taken from one context and placed in another. Due to the laughter social connection, television producers understand that placing a boxed laugh over the soundtrack of programming increases the chances that audiences will find the material funny. In addition, it is also a useful resource if you want be more fun and sociable.

Cruel laugh.

If we talk about types of laughter, cruel laughter refers to when this gesture is used to laugh at someone else's expense. To avoid this situation, in this article you will find different useful tools to learn how to don't judge others.

Spastic laugh.

This type of laughter consists of the manifestation of uncontrolled bouts of laughter triggered by non-relevant stimuli, that is, by stimuli or events that would not normally cause this emotional response. In some cases, the stimulus may have an opposite value, for example, when a person laughs in response to sad news and then abruptly breaks into tears.

Thus, it is an uncontrolled laugh that can also appear in response to non-emotional stimuli, for example if an oscillating movement is made with the hand in the person's visual field. In fact, this kind of laughter has no emotional value, is not associated with feelings of happiness, but is just a mimicry attitude. The person who bursts out laughing is often puzzled by his laughter, judges it inappropriate, and does not understand why he is laughing.

Spastic laughter is a typical expression of pseudobulbar syndrome It manifests itself in progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative disease. Generally, it is also related to cerebrovascular pathologies due to multiple microinfarcts or others such as multiple sclerosis.

Types of laughter and their meaning - Spastic laughter

Gelastic crisis.

This laugh is a rare type of partial epileptic seizure with fronto-temporal foci, characterized by the production of a stereotypical laughter not related to context. It is a sudden laugh, not triggered by an emotional stimulus, which can be accompanied by mood disorders. autonomic nervous system and/or alterations in the state of consciousness.

Often such crises are related to the presence of hypothalamic marmatomas or benign malformations that are located in the area of ​​the hypothalamus.

Sardonic laugh.

One of the types of laughter that manifests as a spasm of the facial muscles that seems to produce a smile, when in reality the person who manifests it is not laughing. It is typical of patients who contract tetanus, an infectious disease caused by a toxin that causes paralysis spasticity of the muscles of the whole body, including those of the face, from which this expression of mouth smile derives wide.

fatuous laugh

fatuous laughter is empty, childish, superficial, arises without a stimulus that provokes it and in inappropriate contexts. Often this type of laughter is accompanied by behaviors such as putting the hand in front of the mouth, shrugging the shoulders, or trying to hide. It is typical of people with frontal brain damage or severe psychosis. Discover that types of psychosis exist in this article.

Uncontrollable laughter.

Uncontrollable laughter is a continuous and intense laughing fits which gradually increases and leads to a very rare form of "situational" syncope. It does not depend on neurological pathologies, but on the lack of control on the part of the person who cannot stop laughing.

People affected by this type of laughter cannot stop laughing until they pass out. The resulting syncope is probably related to changes in the mechanisms that regulate blood pressure.

Types of laughter and their meaning - Uncontrollable laughter

This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Types of laughter and their meaning, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

Bibliography

  • Esposito, A. (2017). Pathological laughter: dal riso spastico alla risata killer. Recovered from: https://www.neuro-psi.it/risata-patologica/
  • Heesen, B. TO. (2015). The 10 different types of laughter. Recovered from: https://www.readingeagle.com/2015/01/27/the-10-different-types-of-laughter/
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