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| Why can't we stop laughing when someone suddenly falls? |
Who among us has not laughed out loud when a friend slipped while walking, bumped their head while standing, or tripped on the stairs?
I am the first person to admit guilt in such a matter. So I'd like to apologize once again to my colleague Jenny when I watched her fall to the floor in slow motion and burst out laughing. Although this happened due to his legs being numb.
Expressions of clumsiness, loss of balance, falls, etc. are characteristic of American actor Charlie Chaplin's adventures in which he repeatedly spontaneously slips on banana peels and people laugh and get robbed. Similarly, scenes like children falling and people getting 'stuck' in America's funniest home videos have people laughing uncontrollably and heartily.
But in such situations shouldn't we actually feel sympathy for the person involved in a delicate and possibly humiliating situation? Be sure that our laughter is not fueled by a lack of compassion or an instinct to be happy to see someone in pain.
As a clinical psychologist who specializes in the field of emotion regulation, I would like to highlight the various aspects of situations that have the potential to trigger our normally simple but meaningful laughter.
Being unpredictable and out of place
The first thing they include is surprise or surprise. To put it more specifically, it is seeing a person surprised by a situation in everyday life when only a few seconds ago everything was under his control. Unexpected situations take us by surprise and something happens against our expectations.
This randomness and unpredictability highlight our forecasting errors. We usually predict that X is followed by Y, but something unexpected happens that there is B. Thus we make mistakes in our prediction of what will happen next. It no longer connects. Laughing at the situation is a way of resolving the paradox through a new, more coherent, humorous interpretation of it.
Facial expressions
Faced with this surprising and random or random situation, our brain searches for information that will allow us to interpret it and react accordingly. What does the face of the stumbler want to tell us? What we perceive of it determines our response.
An attempt has been made to find out through a study. It asked participants to view 210 images representing three types of faces.
A look of surprise
Faces or expressions of pain or anger
Faceless people whose bodies were placed in awkward positions (eg a face hidden by an object; or a head in profile with the face hidden by an arm).
Twenty additional landscape images were also included to confuse participants about the purpose of the study. Participants were asked to press a button whenever they saw a landscape picture, and their brain activity was recorded during the task. Participants were also told to indicate how funny they thought the picture was.
At the end of the study, participants rated photos with surprised faces as funnier than photos with faces showing pain or anger, and even funnier than photos with bodies in funny positions. But facial expressions were hidden.
Brain data supported facial expressions as a component of how funny we found these awkward situations.
So when we notice confusion in the facial expression of someone with clumsiness (surprise, surprise, worried look), this information creates a context that triggers our laughter.
On the other hand, if we read pain or anger in facial expressions, we will be moved by the pain of the fallen and sympathize with their pain and this will prevent us from laughing. Our neural circuits appear to have the ability to recognize and appreciate the absurd elements of unfortunate situations and to analyze the context as risk-averse.
What if I am a victim of this situation?
After witnessing another person's unfortunate situation, if we imagine ourselves in the same situation and ask, 'What if it were me?'
We identify what they are going through and what they might be feeling. This practice of compassion can quickly trigger feelings of anxiety, helplessness, humiliation, and shame in us. In this case, if there is laughter, it means that we are relieved to be out of this state and away from it.
Let us forgive ourselves for laughing at other people's clumsiness and ridiculous situations! We are not laughing at another person's pain or suffering. We are reacting to their bewildered, confused, and incoherent expression, assuming that they are not actually in pain and that they have not actually harmed themselves.
And I end with the revelation that I once tripped myself because my foot was stuck in a crevice. Hope you're having a laugh at this!'