第1段

Humans start developing a sense of humour as early as six weeks old, when babies begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humour provide psychological scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.

人类在出生后六周就开始形成幽默感，当婴儿开始对刺激做出笑和微笑的反应时。笑声在所有人类文化中普遍存在，甚至在老鼠、黑猩猩和倭黑猩猩等动物中也以某种形式存在。与其他人类情感和表达方式一样，笑声和幽默为心理学家提供了丰富的资源，用于研究人类心理学，从语言发展到社会感知的神经科学。

第2段

Theories focusing on the evolution of laughter point to it as an important adaptation for social communication. Take, for example, the recorded laughter in TV comedy shows. Back in 1950, US sound engineer Charley Douglass hated dealing with the unpredictable laughter of live audiences, so started recording his own ‘laugh tracks’. These were intended to help people at home feel like they were in a social situation, such as a crowded theatre. Douglass even recorded various types of laughter, as well as mixtures of laughter from men, women, and children. In doing so, he picked up on a quality of laughter that is now interesting researchers: a simple ‘haha’ communicates a remarkable amount of socially relevant information.

关于笑声演化的理论将其视为社交沟通的重要适应。例如，看看电视喜剧节目中记录的笑声。回到1950年，美国音频工程师查利·道格拉斯讨厌应对现场观众不可预测的笑声，所以他开始录制自己的“笑声音轨”。这些音轨旨在帮助家中的人感觉自己处于社交场合，比如拥挤的剧院。道格拉斯甚至录制了各种类型的笑声，以及男性、女性和儿童的混合笑声。这样做，他发现了一个对研究者来说现在很有趣的笑声特质：一个简单的“哈哈”可以传达相当多的社会相关信息。

第3段

In one study conducted in 2016, samples of laughter from pairs of English-speaking students were recorded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A team made up of more than 30 psychological scientists, anthropologists, and biologists then played these recordings to listeners from 24 diverse societies, from indigenous tribes in New Guinea to city-dwellers in India and Europe. Participants were asked whether they thought the people laughing were friends or strangers. On average, the results were remarkably consistent: worldwide, people’s guesses were correct approximately 60% of the time.

在2016年进行的一项研究中，加利福尼亚大学圣克鲁兹分校记录了英语学生的笑声样本。由30多位心理学家、人类学家和生物学家组成的团队随后将这些录音播放给来自24个不同社会的听众，包括纽几内亚原住民部落和印度和欧洲的城市居民。参与者被问及他们认为笑声的人是朋友还是陌生人。平均而言，结果非常一致：全球范围内，人们的猜测大约有60%的准确度。

第4段

Researchers have also found that different types of laughter serve as codes to complex human social hierarchies. A team led by Christopher Oveis from the University of California, San Diego, found that high-status individuals had different laughs from low-status individuals, and that strangers’ judgements of an individual’s social status were influenced by the dominant or submissive quality of their laughter. In their study, 48 male college students were randomly assigned to groups of four, with each group composed of two low-status members, who had just joined their college fraternity group, and two high-status members, older students who had been active in the fraternity for at least two years. Laughter was recorded as each student took a turn at being teased by the others, involving the use of mildly insulting nicknames. Analysis revealed that, as expected, high-status individuals produced more dominant laughs and fewer submissive laughs relative to the low-status individuals. Meanwhile, low-status individuals were more likely to change their laughter based on their position of power; that is, the newcomers produced more dominant laughs when they were in the ‘powerful’ role of teasers. Dominant laughter was higher in pitch, louder, and more variable in tone than submissive laughter.

研究人员还发现，不同类型的笑声作为复杂人类社会等级的密码。由加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校的克里斯托弗·奥维斯领导的团队发现，高地位的个体与低地位的个体的笑声不同，并且陌生人对个体社会地位的评估受其笑声的主导或顺从品质的影响。在他们的研究中，48名男性大学生被随机分配到由四人组成的小组，每个小组由两名低地位成员和两名高地位成员组成，低地位成员刚刚加入他们的大学兄弟会，高地位成员是在兄弟会活动至少两年的老生。在其他人取笑他们的时候，记录了每个学生的笑声，包括使用轻微侮辱性绰号。分析结果显示，符合预期的是，相对于低地位个体，高地位个体产生了更多的主导笑声和较少的顺从笑声。同时，低地位个体更有可能根据他们的权力地位改变他们的笑声；也就是说，新人在扮演“有权力”的取笑者角色时会产生更多的主导笑声。相对于顺从笑声，主导笑声的音调更高、音量更大、音调更变化多样。

第5段

A random group of volunteers then listened to an equal number of dominant and submissive laughs from both the high- and low-status individuals, and were asked to estimate the social status of the laugher. In line with predictions, laughers producing dominant laughs were perceived to be significantly higher in status than laughers producing submissive laughs. ‘This was particularly true for low-status individuals, who were rated as significantly higher in status when displaying a dominant versus submissive laugh, ‘ Oveis and colleagues note. ‘Thus, by strategically displaying more dominant laughter when the context allows, low-status individuals may achieve higher status in the eyes of others.’ However, high-status individuals were rated as high-status whether they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a submissive one.

然后，一组随机志愿者听了来自高地位和低地位个体的相同数量的主导和顺从笑声，并被要求评估笑声者的社会地位。与预测一致，产生主导笑声的人被认为在社会地位上显著高于产生顺从笑声的人。奥维斯和同事指出：“对于低地位个体来说，这一点尤其明显，当展示主导笑声时，他们的社会地位被评为显著更高。”然而，无论高地位个体是发出他们自然的主导笑声还是试图发出顺从笑声，他们都被评为高地位。

第6段

Another study, conducted by David Cheng and Lu Wang of Australian National University, was based on the hypothesis that humour might provide a respite from tedious situations in the workplace. This ‘mental break’ might facilitate the replenishment of mental resources. To test this theory, the researchers recruited 74 business students, ostensibly for an experiment on perception. First, the students performed a tedious task in which they had to cross out every instance of the letter ‘e’ over two pages of text. The students then were randomly assigned to watch a video clip eliciting either humour, contentment, or neutral feelings. Some watched a clip of the BBC comedy Mr. Bean, others a relaxing scene with dolphins swimming in the ocean, and others a factual video about the management profession.

澳大利亚国立大学的大卫·成和王璐进行的另一项研究基于幽默可能为工作场所的乏味情境提供喘息机会的假设。这种“心理休息”可能有助于恢复心理资源。为了测试这个理论，研究人员招募了74名商学生，表面上是进行感知实验。首先，学生们完成了一个乏味的任务，在其中他们必须划掉两页文本中的每个字母“e”。然后，学生们被随机分配到观看引发幽默、满足或中性情感的视频片段。有些人观看了BBC喜剧《憨豆先生》的片段，其他人观看了海豚在海洋中游泳的放松场景，还有些人观看了有关管理职业的事实视频。

第7段

The students then completed a task requiring persistence in which they were asked to guess the potential performance of employees based on provided profiles, and were told that making 10 correct assessments in a row would lead to a win. However, the software was programmed such that it was nearly impossible to achieve 10 consecutive correct answers. Participants were allowed to quit the task at any point. Students who had watched the Mr. Bean video ended up spending significantly more time working on the task, making twice as many predictions as the other two groups.

然后，学生们完成了一个需要坚持的任务，要求他们根据提供的个人资料猜测员工的潜在表现，并告诉他们连续正确猜测10次会导致胜利。然而，软件被编程成几乎不可能连续做出10次正确答案。参与者可以随时退出任务。观看《憨豆先生》的学生最终在任务上花费的时间显著多于其他两组，预测次数是其他两组的两倍。

第8段

Cheng and Wang then replicated these results in a second study, during which they had participants complete long multiplication questions by hand. Again, participants who watched the humorous video spent significantly more time working on this tedious task and completed more questions correctly than did the students in either of the other groups.

成和王在第二项研究中复制了这些结果，在这个研究中，他们让参与者手写完成长乘法问题。同样，观看幽默视频的参与者在这个乏味任务上花费的时间显著多于其他两组，并且回答问题的准确率也更高。

第9段

‘Although humour has been found to help relieve stress and facilitate social relationships, the traditional view of task performance implies that individuals should avoid things such as humour that may distract them from the accomplishment of task goals,’ Cheng and Wang conclude. ‘We suggest that humour is not only enjoyable but more importantly, energizing.’

成和王总结道：“尽管人们已经发现幽默有助于缓解压力并促进社交关系，但任务绩效的传统观点暗示个体应避免分散他们注意力、使他们无法完成任务目标的事物，比如幽默。我们认为，幽默不仅仅是愉快的，更重要的是具有激励作用。”