Sense of humor...

[ImmortalTechnique]

I hesitate to ask this question, since I know creationists will misinterpret it, but what evolutionary purpose does a sense of humor serve? Is there any current thinking of when and why it developed? Anyone have any idea? This has always interested me...

 

[GoSeminoles!]

I hesitate to ask this question, since I know creationists will misinterpret it, but what evolutionary purpose does a sense of humor serve? Is there any current thinking of when and why it developed? Anyone have any idea? This has always interested me...

Humor evolved around the same time as the first cream pie.

Seriously, my guess is that it has communication value, which is important with intensely social creatures. Laughter is a way to communicate friendly intentions, and those who made more friends had a better chance of leaving more offspring. This is just a guess; it is not anything as well supported as a theory.

 

[GoSeminoles!]

A quick search turned up this seemingly serious work, fwiw.

Everybody can laugh at 4 months - and other species laugh too. Laughter is correlated with activity in the anterior supplemental motor area (associated with planning movement and speech)
The medial ventral prefrontal cortex - the laughter circuit has physical, emotional, and cognitive components, Semantic jokes lit up the brain's posterior temporal lobe, where the semantic network is located;

phonological jokes lit up the right temporal lobe, where alternative word meanings are processed.

Presentation by Dean Shibata (and colleagues from the Univ Rochester Medical Ctr) at the last annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America showed:

Laughter was correlated with activity in the anterior supplemental motor area (associated with planning, movement and speech). The ventromedial frontal lobe (involves decoding and interpretation of information) responded during apparent determination of whether something is funny or not. And contagious laughter was associated with activity in the anterior supplemental motor area. ALL scans, however also showed activity in one of my favorite spots part of the basal ganglia, the nucleus accumbens -- an interface between motivational/emotional and motor systems . . .
Neil Greenberg, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology​

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[GoSeminoles!]

More from the same article:

Stripped of its variation and nuance, laughter is a regular series of short vowel-like syllables usually transcribed as "ha-ha," "ho-ho" or "hee-hee." These syllables are part of the universal human vocabulary, produced and recognized by people of all cultures.

Robert R. Provine, Ph.D. who is the world's leading expert on the physiology, psychology and sociology behind such involuntary human behaviors as laughter and yawning. Provine believes that laughter is a primitive social interaction we share with other primates. Human laughter patterns are different from those of chimpanzees, however, and Provine believes it's our upright stance that allows us to produce a variety of sounds, including speech. NEWS ARTICLE

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Laughter is universal. It crosses age, culture and gender and has always been considered good for us. ARTICLE:

But there is new evidence that laughter is much more than this. It leads to the playfulness of childhood and begins our interaction with the world around us. Yet there are a growing number of children who cannot play normally, who are uncontrolled and disruptive. Now research into the value of play is challenging the accepted treatment of these hyperactive children.​

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[ImmortalTechnique]

thanks for that one

 

[BigCedar]

Interesting topic.

Just a thought : Perhaps humor is a desirable trait because it contains novelty. Not refering to plastic barf , but that humor deals with a new or unexpected thought, concept or action.

 

[Phred]

Humor evolved around the same time as the first cream pie.

Silly, humor evolved along with the Banana peel.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

I don't find this thread funny in the least!

 

[raphael_aa]

Humour and the ability to laugh has been shown to reduce stress and have positive physiological benifits. I imagine that would be an evolutionary advantage.

 

[Mistermystery]

So two creationists and an evilutionist walk into a bar...

 

[Tomk80]

A more interesting question: why were all the sociological and philosophical works I've read on humor so exceedingly dull that I've immediately forgot what they said after I'd read them (if I even reached the end).

 

[BigCedar]

Because you have to read them aloud in a funny voice and insert rim-shots.

Bu-dum-ching!

 

[MSBS]

A more interesting question: why were all the sociological and philosophical works I've read on humor so exceedingly dull that I've immediately forgot what they said after I'd read them (if I even reached the end).

Maybe the only people that go in to humor research do so because they don't have a sense of humor and are trying to figure out what everyone is going on about.

 

[Tomk80]

Maybe the only people that go in to humor research do so because they don't have a sense of humor and are trying to figure out what everyone is going on about.

Remind me to reject any job offered to me in such a position. Guessing from the literature I've read on it untill now, research groups on humor might be amongst the dullest research groups on earth. Maybe it's overexposure or something?

Which makes me wonder, are there any research groups on dullness? Those might be amonst the most inspiring ones to work on!

 

[GoSeminoles!]

Which makes me wonder, are there any research groups on dullness?

Yes. Those people are called "accountants."

 

[Tomk80]

Yes. Those people are called "accountants."

No, they merely institiutionalized dullness, they aren't researching it.