laughter – News Stories About laughter - Page 1

Laughing at Your
Slipups Makes
You More Likable

NEW STUDY

Mar 8, 2026 3:15 PM CDT

Laughing at Your Slipups Makes You More Likable

Using humor to respond to harmless blunders signals confidence and authenticity

(Newser) - If you just waved enthusiastically at a total stranger, science has some advice: chuckle, don't cringe. A series of six experiments involving more than 3,000 people, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , found that when someone responds to a harmless gaffe by laughing at themselves,...

Forget Apples: A Belly Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Laughing Hard Is 'Like
You've Taken Pain Medication'

Dec 27, 2025 4:24 PM CST

Laughing Hard Is 'Like You've Taken Pain Medication'

Experts say laughter offers a slew of heart and immune system benefits

(Newser) - Melanin Bee curves her spine like a stretching cat as she lets out a maniacal, forced laugh. The quick-fire pattern of manufactured giggles soon ripples into genuine laughter. She's practicing what she calls Laughaste, a hilarious yoga routine she created that's a descendant of "laughter clubs" that...

Trump Pauses
UN Speech,
Surprised by
Laughter

VIDEO

Sep 25, 2018 10:45 AM CDT

Trump Pauses UN Speech, Surprised by Laughter

Audience members snickered when he boasted of his administration's accomplishments

(Newser) - President Trump was addressing the UN Tuesday morning, and he got an unexpected reaction from an early boast: laughter. "In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country," Trump told the General Assembly, which prompted some audible...

'Creepy' and 'Evil': Amazon's Alexa Is Laughing at Users

Amazon's Alexa Appears
to Be Pulling a HAL 9000

Mar 7, 2018 4:29 PM CST

Amazon's Alexa Appears to Be Pulling a HAL 9000

People say digital personal assistant letting out 'creepy laugh' without prompting

(Newser) - Amazon is "aware" Alexa is laughing at you and is "working to fix it," the Verge reports. Hold on, what? Starting in February, owners of Alexa-enabled devices began reporting laughter coming from their digital personal assistants, occasionally without any sort of prompting whatsoever. "Lying in bed...

Woman May Go to Prison for
Laughing in Sessions' Hearing

May 3, 2017 12:51 PM CDT

Woman May Go to Prison for Laughing in Sessions' Hearing

Activist Desiree Fairooz is currently on trial for the outburst

(Newser) - Laughter may be the best medicine, but it's a lawyer, not a doctor, that a Code Pink activist now needs for guffawing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Senate confirmation hearing. HuffPost reports that 61-year-old Desiree Fairooz is on trial this week after being arrested by US Capitol Police for...

You Can Tell a Rat
Is Happy by His Ears

study says

Dec 16, 2016 8:20 AM CST

You Can Tell a Rat Is Happy by His Ears

Researchers say the rodents have their own versions of smiling

(Newser) - Scientists have already found that rats seem to enjoy having their bellies tickled. They let out a noise too high-pitched for the human ear to detect and keep coming back for more. Now, adding to the idea that rats have their own version of a giggle, researchers at the University...

Even a Second
of Laughter
Speaks Volumes

NEW STUDY

Apr 12, 2016 9:03 AM CDT

Even a Second of Laughter Speaks Volumes

Scientists find that across cultures humans are good at discerning intimacy via laughter

(Newser) - What can be revealed in just a brief moment of laughter—an audio recording a mere second long, played without any context to people in two dozen different parts of the world? Quite a lot, it turns out. In fact, that tiny blip of sound is enough for many of...

LOL Is Dead, Haha Reigns

Aug 10, 2015 12:28 PM CDT

LOL Is Dead, Haha Reigns

Facebook looks at how we laugh online

(Newser) - A recent New Yorker essay about online laughter prompted Facebook to crunch data on how people actually express a chuckle in the ether. It's probably not a big surprise to find out that LOL is no longer the phrase of choice, but it might be surprising at just how...

If You Type 'HaHa' Instead of 'HeHe,' You're Probably Old

Apr 30, 2015 5:52 PM CDT

If You Type 'HaHa' Instead of 'HeHe,' You're Probably Old

New Yorker writer assesses a new-ish arrival

(Newser) - Sure you laugh, but how do you "e-laugh"? Sarah Larson explores the question in the New Yorker . After sussing out the various iterations of "ha," she settles on "haha" as the current "feel-good standard in chat laughter." So why does she keep seeing...

Fake Laughing?
Your Friends
Can Tell

study says

May 11, 2014 8:26 AM CDT

Fake Laughing? Your Friends Can Tell

It's all about your breathing sounds, experts say

(Newser) - If you're forcing a laugh after a bad joke, the teller probably knows it. Researchers found that people can identify a fake laugh two-thirds of the time: "Quite a few fake laughs sound pretty good, but listeners seem to pay attention to certain acoustic features that are really...

National Laughing
Contest Debuts in US

Apr 6, 2013 2:38 PM CDT

National Laughing Contest Debuts in US

Contestants try to infect audience with laughter

(Newser) - Like laughing at nothing in particular? Then check out the American Laughing Championship when it debuts tomorrow in San Diego, reports the Huffington Post . The audience will determine which contestant is best at the Alabama knee-slapper, the maniacal laugh, and the diabolical laugh—the latter an attempt to make the...

Comedies Are
Good for Your Heart

study says

Aug 29, 2011 6:56 PM CDT

Comedies Are Good for Your Heart

But war movies aren't

(Newser) - To give your heart a boost, turn on The Hangover—but make sure you avoid Halloween. Movies that make you chuckle are good for your vascular function, while stressful war and horror movies hurt your system, a study finds. Researchers showed bits of funny movies one day and the opening...

For Contagious Laughs,
Open Your Mouth

Nov 20, 2010 12:36 PM CST

For Contagious Laughs, Open Your Mouth

... And get your vocal chords into it

(Newser) - When it comes to laughs, the bigger the better, at least if you want it to spread. In one of those science-confirms-the-obvious studies, researchers found that open-mouth laughs in which people use their vocal chords in "vowel-like bursts" are the most contagious, LiveScience reports. And the longer they last,...

When Does
'Grumpy'
Begin?
Try Age 52

Oct 9, 2010 10:53 AM CDT

When Does 'Grumpy' Begin? Try Age 52

Study says our temperament is 'all downhill' from there

(Newser) - The tipping point of being grumpy occurs at age 52, say Welsh researchers. That's when people are more likely to gripe than laugh, according to the University of Glamorgan study. "We laugh twice as much in our teens as we do in our fifties," one of the researchers...

Rats Laugh When Tickled

viral video

Apr 2, 2010 12:02 PM CDT

Rats Laugh When Tickled

And guess what? They like it!

(Newser) - A YouTube gem from 2007 is making the rounds again, teaching us something kind of neat and kind of gross: Rats laugh when tickled. When a Bowling Green University professor decided to try tickling the rodents, and then listening to their resulting high-frequency noises on a “bat detector,”...

Apes, Humans Share a Laugh

Jun 4, 2009 2:04 PM CDT

Apes, Humans Share a Laugh

Commonalities show laughter is pre-human

(Newser) - After tickling two dozen apes and several children, scientists have concluded that laughter developed long before humans did. In fact, a common ancestor of both apes and humans probably emitted the first chuckle at least 10 million years ago. The study measuring 800 vocalizations found that all subjects shared the...

Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

Jan 19, 2008 11:49 AM CST

Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

From memories to sleep to consciousness itself, scientists still can't agree

(Newser) - Debated for centuries, the human mind still holds a mystery or two in modern times. Here are LiveScience's top 10:

Consciousness. Still the biggest human puzzle since Socrates.
Cryonics. Can gray matter be revived from a 320-degree deep freeze?
Aging. An unappreciated benefit, or simply cell decay with no purpose?

...

Laughter Also Good Medicine for Orangutans

Jan 2, 2008 4:52 PM CST

Laughter Also Good Medicine for Orangutans

Study finds empathy, mimicry in primates' grins and chuckles

(Newser) - Humans aren't the only animals who laugh, according to a new study. Orangutans engage in a primitive form of laughing, the BBC reports—when one exhibits a facial expression such as an open, gaping mouth, and a companion displays the same expression less than half a second later. This sense...

Their Phony Yuks Run Amok

OPINION

Dec 12, 2007 2:50 PM CST

Their Phony Yuks Run Amok

Writer says Hillary and Rudy are only hurting themselves

(Newser) - The presidential frontrunners have both taken to laughing loudly when facing hostile questions, and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter says they’re tittering up the wrong tree. Hillary Clinton laughs uncontrollably when her health care plan is compared to “socialized medicine” and Rudy Giuliani gets giggly when quizzed on his...