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The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies
Gregory A Bryant1,2, Daniel M T Fessler2,3, Riccardo Fusaroli4,5
11 Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles.
Psychological Science
|July 26, 2018
Summary
Listeners globally can distinguish between spontaneous and volitional laughter, regardless of culture. Acoustic features of vocal production uniformly predict these judgments, highlighting laughter's role in human affiliation.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Anthropology
Background:
- Laughter is a universal human behavior crucial for social interaction.
- Distinguishing between spontaneous (genuine) and volitional (posed) laughter is vital for interpreting social cues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cross-cultural abilities in differentiating spontaneous from volitional laughter.
- To identify acoustic features influencing these cross-cultural judgments.
Main Methods:
- Acoustic analysis of 36 recorded female English laughter samples.
- Testing 884 participants from 21 diverse societies on their ability to classify laughter as real or fake.
Main Results:
- Listeners differentiated between spontaneous and volitional laughter with 56%–69% accuracy across cultures.
- Sound features related to vocal arousal consistently predicted judgments across all societies.
Conclusions:
- Cross-cultural consistency exists in laughter perception.
- Nonverbal vocalizations like laughter play a significant role in human affiliation and cooperation.
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