Laughter indicates perceived similarity among friends and strangers

Resumen

Laughter is a signature of social connection, thought to communicate a shared understanding of nonseriousness. Building on this idea, the present work examines whether people laugh more when they perceive similarity with their social partner, or instead, feel more similar when they laugh. Participants (N = 132) had semi-structured conversations with both a friend and a stranger, discussing ways they were similar to and different from one another. Although conversation topic did not affect overall laughter, friends laughed even more than strangers when discussing their differences. Baseline perceived similarity in identity, behavior, and beliefs predicted how much dyads laughed and colaughed; however, laughter did not predict post-conversation perceived similarity. Participants laughed more if they felt similar to their partner or if their partner felt similar to them. To test whether laughter reflects shared understanding, we used overall laughter to predict both subjective experiences and verbal expressions of shared reality (e.g., saying “I agree”). Laughter predicted verbal expressions of shared reality, but not self-reported experience. Further, laughter and verbal agreement appeared to serve overlapping conversational functions: when laughter occurred, shared reality verbal expressions became less likely in the next two seconds. A subset analysis of friend dyads showed that only perceived similarity—not actual similarity—predicted laughter. In sum, conversational laughter seems to reflect, but not generate, the sense of similarity and shared understanding that underlies social connection.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Wood, A., Chadha, S., Liu, C., Yuan, Q., Davis, A., Elnakouri, A., Scholer, A., & Boker, S. M. (2025). Laughter indicates perceived similarity among friends and strangers. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3r7tc_v1