I picked the episode “Laughter: The best medicine” because I anticipated that the podcast would talk about merriment and its being an ideal therapeutic intervention. Nonetheless, it shows how powerful laughter is – to the extent that it takes control of one’s motor system. Moreover, it is interesting that animals, too, use laughter to interact with each other (Kwerel, 2020). However, their vocalization is different from that of humans, as can be heard in a variety of sounds they make.
Laughter does not necessarily occur when individuals experience a humorous episode. Instead, as Sophie notes, there are different types of laughter. Ruch et al. (2019) confirm these views and take a lexical approach to comprehend the phenomenon better. Laughter is dependent on the intensity, voluntary attempt, and feigned emotional state (Kwerel, 2020; Ruch et al., 2019). Variations in laughter have resulted in the use of morphological features. Sophie has talked about a social situation, cognitive factors, and type of stimulant as aspects that trigger laughter. Ruch et al. (2019) present three additional determinants: one’s personality, organism states, and affective states. As Sophie says, people will not necessarily laugh because what was said was funny. However, people display different types of laughter depending on causative elements.
The information presented in the podcast was interesting and informative. Moreover, the podcast was engaging, prompting me to reflect on my personal experiences with laughter. As indicated by Sophie, I have also found myself laughing for no reason, as long as my mate is doing the same. Other times, I use laughter to evade a question by shifting focus. Nonetheless, the podcast missed delineating the advantages associated with laughter. While the topic noted laughter was the best medicine, this aspect is not clear in the podcast.
References
Kwerel, L. (2020). Laughter: The best medicine [Audiopodcast]. NPR. Web.
Ruch, W., Wagner, L. & Hofmann, J. (2019). A lexical approach to laughter classification: Natural language distinguishes six (classes of) formal characteristics.Current Psychology. Web.