I wanna laugh like you - human bubs have a chimp-like chuckle

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-09-01 09:01

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Dutch scientists say that when young babies get the giggles, they laugh both while inhaling and exhaling, unlike adults who laugh mainly during exhalation. It's the same style of laughter used by our closest animal cousins, chimpanzees, the researchers say, and as we develop, our laughter becomes less ape-like and more human. That may be due to social learning and the development of the vocal tract, they add. They also found people who were asked to judge recordings of babies' laughter generally rated laughs produced while exhaling as more pleasant and contagious than those produced while inhaling.

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From: The Royal Society

The ontogeny of human laughter

Human laughter is characterized by vocal bursts produced predominantly during exhalation, yet apes laugh while exhaling and inhaling. In the current study, novices and expert phoneticians listened to audio clips of infant laughter and judged the extent to which the laughter was produced during inhalation or exhalation, and the extent to which they found the laughs pleasant and contagious. The results show that young infants laughter share features with ape laughter. This initial ape-like laughter transforms into laughter similar to that of adult humans over the course of ontogeny, possibly through social learning and the development of the vocal tract.

Chimpanz-he-he - Apes and young babies laugh in surprisingly similar ways. Participants listened to clips of infants’ laughter and judged how pleasant and contagious it sounded. The results show the laughter bursts of young infants – like apes – are produced when exhaling and inhaling. Older infants’ produced laughter more on an exhale, and was judged as more pleasant, which may be due to social learning and development of the vocal tract.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live at some point after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Biology Letters

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Leiden University, The Netherlands

Funder: This research was supported by the Netherlands Science Foundation 016.VIDI.185.036, the TempletonWorld Charity Organization TWCF0267 (to M.E.K.) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program for Research and Innovation grant no. 714977 (to D.A.S).

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