Is that where a Japanese or a Dutchman laughs? Researchers have investigated the extent to which people can recognize cultural affiliation from the sound of laughter. According to the results, there are apparently subtle indications in the non-verbal utterances that enable a correct assignment: With the help of short audio samples, test subjects were able to recognize above average whether a laughing person comes from their own or another cultural group. This applied equally to spontaneous and deliberately polite laughter.
“Hihi-Haha …”: Laughter is a behavioral phenomenon that connects all people in the world. It is a social signal with a complex meaning. It can strengthen social bonds in a number of ways, as well as expressing cooperative intentions. The basic patterns of non-verbal utterances are universal: Laughter is characterized by jerky sounds. But, as is well known, there are clear individual differences in sounds and patterns and also two fundamentally different types of laughing.
Spontaneous laughter is a knee-jerk reaction, for example to funny jokes, and is characterized by uncontrolled acoustic characteristics. The polite laugh, on the other hand, we give consciously – it is generated by a targeted modulation of the voice, which imitates spontaneous laughter in a certain way. Through this communicative signal, we convey polite approval or at least peacefulness and a good mood to our fellow human beings.
Who is laughing there?
Previous research has already shown that people can recognize certain people quite well based on their smile. You can also assign recordings of laughter to people that they have only heard speak before. Interestingly, however, they do this better through conscious laughter than spontaneous laughter. Presumably this is because the greater vocal control gives more clues about the laughing person. There has also been evidence that the emotional expressions of laughter differ in certain characteristics between different cultural groups. But to what extent can we actually infer his or her cultural affiliation from a person’s laughter? And what are the differences between the types of laughter?
Scientists working with Disa Sauter from the University of Amsterdam investigated these questions using the example of the laughs of Japanese and Dutch people. First they created audio samples. Male and female test subjects from both countries laughed either spontaneously at videos of their own choosing or “politely” at other people’s jokes that did not make them laugh reflexively. From these recordings, the researchers then won 350 Dutch and 445 Japanese laughing clips in both categories, each around five seconds long. They were then played to 273 Dutch and 131 Japanese study participants for assessment.
Recognizable signature
It turned out that in around 60 percent of the cases, the test subjects were able to correctly assign the group to which they belonged using the short laughing sequences. With a rate of around 75 percent, they were also right when asked whether the recording was a spontaneous or polite laugh. Surprisingly, however, this did not have any effect on the ability to categorize cultures: Apparently, the study participants were able to identify traces of group membership equally well in both types of laughing. The surveys also showed that spontaneous laughter is rated more positively in both cultures than polite laughter, the researchers report.
“Our results show that listeners can tell with above-average accuracy whether a laughing person comes from their own cultural group or from another. Contrary to the assumption, however, we did not find any indications that they could better recognize group membership on the basis of conscious laughter, ”sum up the authors. “These results complement the growing knowledge of laughter as a rich vocal signal that listeners can use to draw a variety of inferences about others – from their social relationships to their identity,” the researchers conclude.
Source: University of Amsterdam