Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold
Open accessAbstract
Although laughter forms an important part of human non-verbal communication, it has received rather less attention than it deserves in both the experimental and the observational literatures. Relaxed social (Duchenne) laughter is associated with feelings of wellbeing and heightened affect, a proximate explanation for which might be the release of endorphins. We tested this hypothesis in a series of six experimental studies in both the laboratory (watching videos) and naturalistic contexts (watching stage performances), using change in pain threshold as an assay for endorphin release. The results show that pain thresholds are significantly higher after laughter than in the control condition. This pain-tolerance effect is due to laughter itself and not simply due to a change in positive affect. We suggest that laughter, through an endorphin-mediated opiate effect, may play a crucial role in social bonding.
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Dunbar, R. I. M., Baron, R., Frangou, A., Pearce, E., van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Stow, J., Partridge, G., MacDonald, I., Barra, V., & van Vugt, M.
- Affiliations
- British Academy (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, 57 van der Boechorsstraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Binghamton University (US)
- British Academy Centenary Research Project, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Corresponding author
- Dunbar, R. I. M.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2011-09-14
- Volume
- 279
- Issue
- 1731
- Pages
- 1161-1167
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- PMC
- PMC3267132
- OpenAlex
- W2129084631
- Cited by
- 228
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 16.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Humor Studies and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Keywords
- pain threshold, endorphins, pain tolerance, positive affect, nonverbal communication, social bonding, well-being
- MeSH terms
- Endorphins, Female, Humans, Laughter, Male, Social Behavior, Pain Threshold
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