英语听力文摘 English Digest 713 笑容的秘密（在线收听）

What’s So Funny?

Laughter research has found that only a small percentage of laughter, less than 20%, is a sincere response to someone’s humor. In fact, laughter is primarily a social signal, as opposed to an emotional outburst.

No Laughing Matter

People are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group setting than when they are alone, leading observers to conclude laughter has a primarily social function.

For instance, there’s “polite” laughter. How often have you found yourself laughing at someone’s attempt at being funny in order to spare their feelings or make them feel good?

Kings of Comedy

Research has also found that women tend to laugh a good deal more than men. And male speakers tend to elicit more laughter than female speakers.

Laughter may very well be a sign of power dynamics between people, signaling dominance and submission, acceptance and rejection. Certainly, that seems to be the case when someone is laughing at you rather than with you.

什么这么有趣？

笑声研究发现，只有不到20%的一小部分笑声是对某人幽默的真诚回应。事实上，笑主要是一种社交信号，而不是情绪爆发。

无笑问题

人们在集体环境中笑的可能性是独处时的30倍，这让观察者得出结论，笑主要具有社交功能。

例如，有“礼貌”的笑声。你有多少次发现自己在嘲笑某人试图搞笑以减轻他们的感受或让他们感觉良好？

喜剧之王

研究还发现，女性比男性更爱笑。男性演讲者往往比女性演讲者更能引发笑声。

笑声很可能是人与人之间权力动态的一个标志，表明支配和顺从、接受和拒绝。当然，当有人嘲笑你而不是嘲笑你时，情况似乎就是这样。