Zero to 60 Laughs per Hour: Observed Laughter, Physical Health, Personality, and Well-Being in People Aged 67 to 95, an Exploratory Study.
Is the physiological act of laughing good for physical health? Or is it a sign of nervousness, people-pleasing agreeableness, or not taking life seriously? A review of the laughter measurement literature reveals that the frequency of laughter rarely has been measured, and never in a sample of adults...
| Published in: | Journal of Nonverbal Behavior Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 363 - 382 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Dec2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=159839404&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 159839404 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01915886 JNV jtl: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior issn: 01915886 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2022 vid: 46 iid: 4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 159839404 10.1007/s10919-022-00407-4 ppf: 363 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: Zero to 60 Laughs per Hour: Observed Laughter, Physical Health, Personality, and Well-Being in People Aged 67 to 95, an Exploratory Study. aug: au: Haviva, Clove Starzyk, Katherine B. affil: Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada su: Canada Laughter Personality Well-being Self-evaluation Rural conditions Health status indicators Interviewing Old age Research sug: subj: Laughter Personality Well-being Self-evaluation Rural conditions Health status indicators Interviewing Old age Canada Research keyword: Aging Laughter frequency Physical health Subjective well-being Aging Laughter frequency Physical health Subjective well-being ab: Is the physiological act of laughing good for physical health? Or is it a sign of nervousness, people-pleasing agreeableness, or not taking life seriously? A review of the laughter measurement literature reveals that the frequency of laughter rarely has been measured, and never in a sample of adults over 65, the population that might reap the most from any benefit of laughter. We analyzed the correlations of unobtrusively observed laughter, with self-reported physical health, personality, and well-being, during face-to-face interviews with 82 rural, Canadian, senior-housing residents, aged 67 to 95. Twenty-one of them were over 90 years old. Participants laughed 0 to 60 times per hour, averaging 23 laughs per hour. This rate is consistent with observed laughter of younger adults, and much higher than any published self-reported laughter rate, by adults of any age. Laughter frequency was unrelated to physical health, well-being (mental health, satisfaction with life, positive or negative emotional experiences, stress, self-esteem), age, gender, and four of the five-factor-model personality dimensions: neuroticism (which includes nervousness), agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience. The fifth factor, conscientiousness, was negatively correlated with laughter, r = − 0.35, indicating that more conscientious people laughed less. Many of these results were unexpected, based on research showing extraverts laughing more, and older adults and men laughing less than younger adults and women. This study highlights the importance of observation over self-report for accurate measurement of laughter. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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