1)
How
can the way a person laughs give insight into their personality? Though we may
use are thinking brain to analyze something said to see if it’s funny the
actual laughter are not fully controlled response, they are. Laughter vocalizations
and body movements are primal physical reactions rather than logical rational
word language. Though we do have different laughs and laughter we modify
depending on how we feel and how others are laughing, our laughter itself is
primal and not consciously controlled, or not controlled initially. Laughter is
primarily a “Play” signal to bond us together socially.
2)
Does
reading body language help give us insight as well? Nonverbal
communication involves using all the senses to read someone. So we hear the
many nuances of the laugh and see how the persons face and body move when they
laugh to completely read them. For example if someone laughs and their head
goes back and their mouth opens wide and their chest and torso move with the
laughter we read that they are fully engaged in big full laugh.
3)
Is
laughing (when it is sincere) something we do automatically, without putting a
lot of thought into it? Most of the time our laughter is spontaneous and
unconscious it is a primal “play” signal. It’s very difficult to control real
laughter consciously. However we do read social cues to match others laughter
and bond through the language of laughter in social situations with this
spontaneous play laughter. There is also a second kind of laughter researchers
call volitional laughter (fake laughter) that we may use under stress we use
along with to smooth out social situations say when the boss tells an off color
joke we don’t think is funny or to send negative messages in passive
aggressive, “I was just joking” way. Volitional laughter is designed to show
superior power, and or to “laugh at” in a way to cast someone out of the group.
4)
Do we
always laugh the same way, or are there different ways we laugh at different
times/in different situations perhaps? According to research we laugh 30 times
more frequently in social situations rather than in solitary situations we have
two major kinds of laughter, spontaneous and volitional laughter. We laugh when
things are funny, but we also laugh under stress and even during or after
trauma not to ignore the stress but to prepare ourselves to endure it!
5)
What
does it say about you if...
A)
You
clap your hands when laughing? You want to show how playful you are and want
others to join the play.
B)
You
usually cover your mouth? You are not sure you are laughing approximately
C)
You
throw your head back? Free spontaneous laughter
D)
You
put your hand on heart? Often to show your laughter is heartfelt, and if higher
at times to try to contain overwhelming laughter as in your chest hurts from
laughing.
E)
You
crinkle your nose? To show playfulness and that you can’t believe how sweet the
situation is, funny because we usually crinkle the nose in extreme pleasure,
but in this case we are showing extreme displeasure.
F)
Is there
another way of laughing we left out that you think is important to mention?
6)
Is
there anything else you think is important to add when it comes to discussing
how the way you laugh can reveal your personality? I have quite a few more
things here. But the major thing is I have developed a survey to test how your
laugh reveals your DISC personality type. I put a few of the questions at the
end of this document with the answer key in the survey (do you wouldn’t have
the letters D I S or C in the actual survey so if you wanted to you could put
the survey and the key in the article. Let me know.
1. Women laugh much more than
men in social situations (just like smiling)
1,200
case studies, researchers found that while both sexes laugh a lot, females
laugh more. In cross-gender conversations, females laughed 126% more than their
male counterparts, meaning that women tend to do the most laughing while males
tend to do the most laugh-getting
2. It’s complex and involves many parts of the
brain
- Laugh The left side of the cortex (the layer of cells that covers the entire surface of the forebrain) analyzed the words and structure of the joke.
- The brain's large frontal lobe, which is involved in social emotional responses, became very active.
- The right hemisphere of the cortex carried out the intellectual analysis required to "get" the joke.
- Brainwave activity then spread to the sensory processing area of the occipital lobe (the area on the back of the head that contains the cells that process visual signals).
- Stimulation of the motor sections
3. It’s beneficial
- Laughter shuts down the release of stress hormones like cortisol. It also triggers the production of feel-good neurochemicals like dopamine, which have all kinds of calming, anti-anxiety benefits.” Laughter is good for your body too–you use your core muscles when you laugh and you burn calories. increases blood pressure
- Increases heart rate (may be good exercise for the heart and may overtax it changes breathing
- Reduces levels of certain neurochemicals (catecholamines, hormones).
- Provides a boost to the immune system.
4. The first laughter appears at
3 and half to 4 months.
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
