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Human Laughter Up To 16 Million Years Old

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-pierolapithecus-catalaunicus-walks-into-a-bar dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Published today in the journal Current Biology, a new study shows that laughter is not a unique human trait, but a behavior shared by all great apes. Tickle a baby chimpanzee and it will giggle just like a human infant. This is because laughter evolved millions of years ago in one of our common ancestors, say scientists."

4 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. I thought it had already been tested on rats by Cochonou · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And that rats also giggled when tickled.
    A reference from 1998 might be uselful for those interested.

  2. Might be a case of convergent evolution by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Might be a case of convergent evolution.

    From what i have understood, social animals behave more or less the same; there is a evolutionary advantage in some behaviours. That should then also why we can communicate better with dogs rather than polar bears, despite that they both are about equally "far" from us.

    Rats are social animals and, possibly, their giggling is one cue to a mutual social behavious - perhaps social animals giggle. How then do dogs giggle? I do not know what do expect, but perhaps they giggle, but we just have not identified it as such yet.

    .

  3. No touchy! by Valdrax · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From the article:

    If you tickle an orangutan, for example, it makes a series of loud panting hoots; it would be easy to mistake these sounds for pain or distress, rather than joy.

    If you tickled me, especially if you when I was a small child, I would make sounds that were easy to mistake for joy when they were really sounds of pain or distress. I HATED being tickled. Hated it. My Mom would tickle me until I couldn't breathe when I was about 3-4, and I tried desperately to get away, but I couldn't stop laughing or uncurl myself from a ball. It took her a few years to get that I really, honestly despised it.

    My point is, how do we know the apes are laughing? How do we know they're enjoying it and not just incapable of fighting it off like I was when I was little?

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    1. Re:No touchy! by rohan972 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ya, blame your lack of amusement on your mom.

      I don't know that anybody likes to be tickled for very long. My wife hated tickling because of her experience of her father repeatedly tickling her way beyond the point that it was unpleasant and like the GP to the point that she couldn't breathe. She was really apprehensive when I started to tickle our children until she saw them coming back requesting more. Unlike her father, I tickle for a shorter time, giving them the opportunity to get away.

      I used to think it was a bit of a strange thing about my wife, until one day I mentioned to her brother something about the kids liking being tickled and his response was shocked disbelief. In their family, what should have been a great bit of fun between parents and kids was distorted to the point of being a form of abuse (I'm not saying that about the GP's mom). I might not have thought it possible if I had not come into contact with my wife's family.

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