Can you see what this German is laughing about? Scientists say people from all cultures can detect the emotions behind chuckling. Can you decipher this giggle?
Germans may not be known for their sense of humor or their quickness to laugh.
But scientists now say you should be able to figure out what makes them giggle – just by listening.
Researchers from Brunel University of London played 121 videos of German laughter to an international group of participants.
They found that people from all over the world could tell whether the laughter was caused by joy, tickling or enjoying the suffering of others.
So, can you figure out the emotions behind this chuckle?
When we see or hear someone laugh, it gives us information about what kind of emotions he or she is feeling and what stimuli he or she is responding to.
But while it may be easy to know why your friends are laughing, the researchers wanted to test whether this was something that could cross cultural boundaries.
Dr. Diana Szameitat, co-author of the paper published in Scientific Reports, told MailOnline: ‘Laughter is a non-verbal signal that we use for social interaction and emotional communication.
‘However, it can also be used to exclude others from our peer group, for example when we make fun of others.’
In the study, 161 participants from Great Britain, Poland, India and Hong Kong heard 121 different clips of spontaneous laughter from a group of German speakers.
The laughter fragments were classified based on three different sources: joy, schadenfreude (taking pleasure in the pain of others) or being tickled.
Participants were then asked to try to guess what type of laughter each clip was.
To take the test yourself, listen to the three different clips in these videos.
If you’ve identified these clips correctly, you’re actually not alone.
The researchers found that this emotional aspect of laughter is not culturally specific, meaning anyone from all over the world can figure out why someone is laughing.
Overall, 97 percent of participants were better at guessing the type of laughter.
Dr. Szameitat said: ‘Interestingly, the laughter we used, produced by German students, could be discriminated against by participants from all cultures we examined.
‘This suggests that emotional meanings of laughter are communicated across cultures.’
The researchers say their results indicate that the emotional content of laughter is not culturally specific, meaning that laughter can cross boundaries and retain its original meaning (stock image)
However, they also found that listeners from countries closer to the laugher’s own country tended to be more successful at identifying emotions.
Participants from Britain and Poland were the most successful, correctly guessing the type of laughter more than 50 percent of the time.
Dr. Szameitat says this was “either because participants from Britain and Poland interact more with German people, or because British and Polish cultures are more similar to German culture.”
Participants from Hong Kong and India had the lowest overall recognition rate, but were still correct 43 percent and 48 percent of the time, respectively.
The researchers also found that some types of laughter were easier to recognize than others.
Joy was the most widely recognized form of laughter in every country except Poland, where schadenfreude was most recognized.
Dr. Szameitat said, “It is surprising that even gloating laughter is communicated across cultures, even though it is a type of laughter that emerges later in life and may be heavily influenced by cultural norms.”
Schadenfreude, laughing at someone else’s suffering, was more easily recognized than tickling. The researchers say this is unusual because ticklish laughter appears first in children and is less influenced by culture (stock image)
Meanwhile, tickling turned out to be the type of laughter that was most difficult to recognize across cultures.
During the tests, Hong Kong participants could only identify ticklish laughter 40 percent of the time.
Dr. Szameitat says this is an unusual result because tickling is one of the first ways people start laughing.
She explained: ‘It’s one of the few signals we have in common with animals. Interestingly enough, being tickled is one of the first triggers for laughter in human babies.
‘Baby’s first laugh is triggered by physical play and rewards between caregiver and child and strengthens their bond.
‘Later, around school age, laughter is not only positive, but is also used against other people, for example in bullying.’