Comments on: Humans Don’t Have the Last, or Only, Laugh

By: A new city, a new publication « work in progress

A new city, a new publication « work in progress — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:56:31 +0000

[...] My first blog post for Smithsonian was a study about the evolution of laughter that was done by tickling infant humans, chimps, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas. First off, how do you get to be the lab assistant who tickles primates? No, despite my love of primates (I did a paper on gibbons and siamangs last quarter and got teased mercilessly by my j-school friends about it), I don’t want this job. I only wonder how one would get this sort of thing. I guess just by being a lucky (or unlucky, depending on your perspective) grad student/research assistant. [...]

By: David Govett

David Govett — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:57:43 +0000

In infants, at least, laughter seems to be a de-stressing mechanism. Often they laugh after something that shocks them.

By: Health and Fitness: New Study Origin of Laughter 10 to 16 million Years Old

Health and Fitness: New Study Origin of Laughter 10 to 16 million Years Old — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:54:58 +0000

[...] of our last common ancestor probably consisted of long, slow calls in a short series.Source:http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2009/06/10/humans-dont-have-the-last-only-laugh/ Posted by Andy B at [...]

By: clare

clare — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:19:24 +0000

Awesome!