by madpen on 1/10/22, 6:18 AM with 194 comments
by Tepix on 1/10/22, 10:56 AM
Laughter is yet another trait some might see as typically human, yet here we are.
by bckr on 1/10/22, 7:01 AM
Laughter is hard to beat in terms of sheer beauty--the more of it in the universe, the better. And on same planet what's more!
by mch82 on 1/10/22, 7:02 AM
> They found such vocal play behavior documented in at least 65 species. That list includes a variety of primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird species, including parakeets and Australian magpies.
Quote from the UCLA Newroom article referenced in the OpenCulture article, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/animals-laugh-too-ucla-an...
by MattGaiser on 1/10/22, 7:55 AM
by jrlocke on 1/10/22, 1:19 PM
As humans, we're strongly prone to anthropomorphize–I'm capable of ascribing human feelings even to inanimate objects–and so are prone to doing the above without rigor.
An extreme example: if you drop acid into the water in which a paramecium lives, it will fire up its cilia and frantically try to retreat. It's a single cell, there is no suffering or mental states, but it sure looks like it.
An ant could have a sad looking death, but it surely cannot reach the depths of human sorrow, and the related suffering, that a similar event could elicit. It can't mourn the time it won't spend with its children, or the ways its life could have gone.
I'm not proposing that everything between us and the paramecium cannot suffer, but that arguments in these areas must go beyond X has behavior Y, so X must have full mental state associated with Y.
by pleb_nz on 1/10/22, 7:48 AM
by wqtz on 1/10/22, 12:58 PM
I was curious about how they were defining laughter? I am a bit skeptical to be honest about the idea of change in behavior when we apply something to animals that will trigger a laughter in human. We can't be sure if that change behavior is indicative of joy and expressed through the vocalization of laugher.
The paper seem to be (I have skimmed) focused on group dynamics to determine what is laughter. They indicate that how animals signals they were having joy by making vocalization and it indicates social play.
Here is a super cute video of how social play would work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2EmA_UwIM8
But I am not sure if the animals are laughing though.
by neuronic on 1/10/22, 8:20 AM
I recently watched Dominion documentary [1] and the more we learn about animals cognition the more I feel the weight of their massive abuse especially in the last 150 years. (The recent story of an HNer interacting with a spider on his desk was really cool though, I don’t have a link anymore.)
Without judging anyone or their behavior in particular I just feel repelled by our treatment of other clearly cognitive beings. The people working these places don’t seem like ones you would want around anyone in society either and I don’t buy the story that it’s only bad in some places. I’d wager that it’s really bad in most cases.
by GoblinSlayer on 1/10/22, 7:39 AM
by Closi on 1/10/22, 7:16 AM
by Ccecil on 1/10/22, 8:45 AM
Anyone who has had one as a pet knows they laugh when tickled and "talk" quite a bit. When they are happy they make a hard to explain "cooing" noise as they go about their mischief.
by mrVentures on 1/10/22, 2:45 PM
by notRobot on 1/10/22, 3:58 PM
Includes species of cats, dogs, monkeys, rodents, birds, others.
by albatross13 on 1/10/22, 3:26 PM
by kwyjibo1230 on 1/10/22, 6:38 PM
All jokes aside, interesting research. We find ourselves more similar than dissimilar to our less sentient counterparts each year.
by gtsnexp on 1/10/22, 1:59 PM
by pkrumins on 1/10/22, 11:25 AM
by kingkawn on 1/10/22, 4:09 PM
by yread on 1/10/22, 7:59 AM
by jadbox on 1/10/22, 8:37 PM
by 01100011 on 1/10/22, 1:46 PM
by erfgh on 1/10/22, 3:17 PM
What a load of bunk.
by angusiasty on 1/10/22, 12:24 PM
by tamaharbor on 1/10/22, 1:16 PM
by jiggawatts on 1/10/22, 11:02 AM
Slapstick is popular for a reason. We laugh instinctively at others' accidents because being laughed at provides a negative reinforcement for the individual that is the object of ridicule.
Being laughed at is not pleasant, at all. It's not "fun" or "play". It hurts. Most people will do anything to avoid being laughed at, especially in public or social situations.
That's... the point! Being laughed at is negative reinforcement, teaching us what not to do. The reason even our friends and family will hurt us emotionally in this manner when we make a mistake is not because they're cruel or mean, but because this is the mechanism the human species uses to make sure every tribe member learns the lessons they need to learn to keep each other safe.
That's why we all think it's funny if someone slips on a banana peel. We point and laugh as the victim is crying in pain.
We don't think it's funny if a banana tree falls on someone. We don't laugh. We run over to help immediately.
In the first case the person wasn't paying attention and needed their inattention corrected. They were at fault and needed to be taught how to walk safely, like a young child.[1]
In the second case they were not at fault and laughing wouldn't help them improve. They just need help.
If we didn't find laughing at silly people pleasant, we wouldn't do it, and then... people would learn less and make more mistakes. They -- our children or cousins -- might even die or accidentally kill other tribe members killed through their ineptitude. Hunting is lethally dangerous. Mistakes must be punished. Laughing minimises mistakes in our genetic kin and tribe members on whom our own reproductive fitness depends. Hence, laughing would be highly selected for in intelligent social creates like apes and especially humans.
PS: It's a fun exercise to think of more scenarios where you would laugh at someone or similar scenarios where you wouldn't. You'll find that much of the time you would laugh, the person you're laughing at would have probably learned a lesson from that that's beneficial to you. (e.g.: would keep you safer if they made less mistakes in the workplace around dangerous tools.)
[1] Young children are especially hilarious to adults precisely because they make so many mistakes that need correcting! We laugh less at adults because there's a delicate balance between hurting people emotionally versus the expected benefit of the lesson being taught. Similarly, senior people will laugh at the mistakes of junior people, but the other way around is very rare.
by spoonjim on 1/10/22, 8:09 AM