Laughter: A Scientific Investigation

by RobertRProvine (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2001

  $13.88

  Do men and women laugh at the same things?
  Is laughter contagious?
  Has anyone ever really died laughing?
  Is laughing good for your health?

  Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.39

  Robert Provine argues in this book that laughter is mostly about relationships, not jokes; that women laugh more at men than vice versa; that speakers laugh more than their audiences; that tickling is a form of tactile communication, not a reflex; and that laughter explains why chimpanzees cannot talk. Among other topics are a history of canned laughter and a description of the laughing epidemic that brought a district of Tanganyika to a standstill in 1962.