Interesting article:

Laughter not necessarily the best medicine, professor says
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Date: May 16, 2007
Contact: Dr. Timothy Bender
(417) 836-4129

SPRINGFIELD — A guy walks into a bar with a piece of asphalt under his arm. He says to the bartender, “I’d like two drinks: one for me, and one for the road.”
Feel better?

In recent years, many people have claimed that laughing – even at groan-inducing jokes like this one – can boost your immune system. However, according to Dr. Timothy Bender, psychology professor at Missouri State University, the health benefits of humor have yet to be proven in a scientifically-sound study.

“Most of the research on the physical healing effects of laughter has not been very good research, and the research that has been good has come up with inconsistent results,” Bender says. “Humor is a form of communication, which requires a sender and a receiver. If the receiver takes the humor wrong, it might not necessarily be solving problems, it might actually be introducing more problems. We need more research on how we socially respond to humor, what the social factors are that influence our response to humorous situations.”

Whether it’s actually helpful or not, having a jovial disposition can’t hurt, says Bender, a self-proclaimed “pun-ophile” and the professor of an upcoming summer course on the psychology of humor. “Laughter has some effect on pain relief, for a short period of time. Now, whether that’s due to the laughter or the humor of the situation or due to something else – distraction or some other factor – is still being debated.”

The study of the psychology of humor is relatively new, says Bender, which could explain why some of the research is not taken seriously (pardon the pun) by the academic community. Psychology of humor is an offshoot of “positive psychology,” an area of study that has only surfaced in the last couple of decades.

“With positive psychology, you look at what people are doing right, instead of looking at the problems people have, the abnormalities and the disorders,” says Bender. “What are people who are getting along really well doing that might be the reason they’re getting along so well? One aspect of that is looking at humor and seeing what type of humor a successful person has, as well as what effects humor might have in the workplace, in teaching and in therapy.”

Bender explains that researchers in positive psychology examine everything from why we laugh when we’re tickled (a sign of submission, studies suggest) to why laughter is contagious (specifically-functioned “mirror neurons” activate when someone else laughs, giving us the urge to do the same).

While laughter may not help us live longer or healthier, studying people who laugh will afford scientists a unique insight into the human psyche.

“I think the best thing that’s going to come out of any of the research in laughter is not so much how we can use laughter to get things done, but how laughter can tell us something about people,” says Bender. “Laughter is a means for finding out about how healthy a person is mentally and what level of well-being they have at the moment. It’s a good measure of personality.”

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