Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies

Gregory A. Bryant; Daniel M. T. Fessler; Riccardo Fusaroli; Edward Clint; Lene Aarøe; Coren L. Apicella; Michael Bang Petersen; Shaneikiah T. Bickham; Alexander Bolyanatz; Brenda Chavez; Delphine De Smet; Cinthya Díaz; Jana Fančovičová; Michal Fux; Paulina Giraldo-Perez; Anning Hu; Shanmukh V. Kamble; Tatsuya Kameda; Norman P. Li; Francesca R. Luberti; Pavol Prokop; Katinka Quintelier; Brooke A. Scelza; Hyun Jung Shin; Montserrat Soler; Stefan Stieger; Wataru Toyokawa; Ellis A. Van Den Hende; Hugo Viciana-Asensio; Saliha Elif Yildizhan; Jose C. Yong; Tessa Yuditha; Yi Zhou

doi:10.1073/pnas.1524993113

Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies

Gregory A. Bryant, Daniel M. T. Fessler, Riccardo Fusaroli, Edward Clint, Lene Aarøe, Coren L. Apicella, Michael Bang Petersen, Shaneikiah T. Bickham, Alexander Bolyanatz, Brenda Chavez, Delphine De Smet, Cinthya Díaz, Jana Fančovičová, Michal Fux, Paulina Giraldo-Perez, Anning Hu, Shanmukh V. Kamble, Tatsuya Kameda, Norman P. Li, Francesca R. LubertiPavol Prokop, Katinka Quintelier, Brooke A. Scelza, Hyun Jung Shin, Montserrat Soler, Stefan Stieger, Wataru Toyokawa, Ellis A. Van Den Hende, Hugo Viciana-Asensio, Saliha Elif Yildizhan, Jose C. Yong, Tessa Yuditha, Yi Zhou

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84 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Human cooperation requires reliable communication about social intentions and alliances. Although laughter is a phylogenetically conserved vocalization linked to affiliative behavior in nonhuman primates, its functions in modern humans are not well understood. We show that judges all around the world, hearing only brief instances of colaughter produced by pairs of American English speakers in real conversations, are able to reliably identify friends and strangers. Participants’ judgments of friendship status were linked to acoustic features of laughs known to be associated with spontaneous production and high arousal. These findings strongly suggest that colaughter is universally perceivable as a reliable indicator of relationship quality, and contribute to our understanding of how nonverbal communicative behavior might have facilitated the evolution of cooperation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4682-4687
Number of pages	8
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume	113
Issue number	17
Early online date	11 Apr 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524993113
Publication status	Published - 26 Apr 2016
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

laughter
cooperation
cross-cultural
signaling
vocalization

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10.1073/pnas.1524993113

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Bryant, G. A., Fessler, D. M. T., Fusaroli, R., Clint, E., Aarøe, L., Apicella, C. L., Petersen, M. B., Bickham, S. T., Bolyanatz, A., Chavez, B., De Smet, D., Díaz, C., Fančovičová, J., Fux, M., Giraldo-Perez, P., Hu, A., Kamble, S. V., Kameda, T., Li, N. P., ... Zhou, Y. (2016). Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17), 4682-4687. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524993113

@article{52cbd5f7554146b4ad37f05afd974758,

title = "Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies",

abstract = "Human cooperation requires reliable communication about social intentions and alliances. Although laughter is a phylogenetically conserved vocalization linked to affiliative behavior in nonhuman primates, its functions in modern humans are not well understood. We show that judges all around the world, hearing only brief instances of colaughter produced by pairs of American English speakers in real conversations, are able to reliably identify friends and strangers. Participants{\textquoteright} judgments of friendship status were linked to acoustic features of laughs known to be associated with spontaneous production and high arousal. These findings strongly suggest that colaughter is universally perceivable as a reliable indicator of relationship quality, and contribute to our understanding of how nonverbal communicative behavior might have facilitated the evolution of cooperation.",

keywords = "laughter, cooperation, cross-cultural, signaling, vocalization",

author = "Bryant, {Gregory A.} and Fessler, {Daniel M. T.} and Riccardo Fusaroli and Edward Clint and Lene Aar{\o}e and Apicella, {Coren L.} and Petersen, {Michael Bang} and Bickham, {Shaneikiah T.} and Alexander Bolyanatz and Brenda Chavez and {De Smet}, Delphine and Cinthya D{\'i}az and Jana Fan{\v c}ovi{\v c}ov{\'a} and Michal Fux and Paulina Giraldo-Perez and Anning Hu and Kamble, {Shanmukh V.} and Tatsuya Kameda and Li, {Norman P.} and Luberti, {Francesca R.} and Pavol Prokop and Katinka Quintelier and Scelza, {Brooke A.} and Shin, {Hyun Jung} and Montserrat Soler and Stefan Stieger and Wataru Toyokawa and {Van Den Hende}, {Ellis A.} and Hugo Viciana-Asensio and Yildizhan, {Saliha Elif} and Yong, {Jose C.} and Tessa Yuditha and Yi Zhou",

year = "2016",

month = apr,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1073/pnas.1524993113",

language = "English",

volume = "113",

pages = "4682--4687",

journal = "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences",

issn = "0027-8424",

publisher = "National Academy of Sciences",

number = "17",

}

Bryant, GA, Fessler, DMT, Fusaroli, R, Clint, E, Aarøe, L, Apicella, CL, Petersen, MB, Bickham, ST, Bolyanatz, A, Chavez, B, De Smet, D, Díaz, C, Fančovičová, J, Fux, M, Giraldo-Perez, P, Hu, A, Kamble, SV, Kameda, T, Li, NP, Luberti, FR, Prokop, P, Quintelier, K, Scelza, BA, Shin, HJ, Soler, M, Stieger, S, Toyokawa, W, Van Den Hende, EA, Viciana-Asensio, H, Yildizhan, SE, Yong, JC, Yuditha, T & Zhou, Y 2016, 'Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 17, pp. 4682-4687. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524993113

TY - JOUR

T1 - Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies

AU - Bryant, Gregory A.

AU - Fessler, Daniel M. T.

AU - Fusaroli, Riccardo

AU - Clint, Edward

AU - Aarøe, Lene

AU - Apicella, Coren L.

AU - Petersen, Michael Bang

AU - Bickham, Shaneikiah T.

AU - Bolyanatz, Alexander

AU - Chavez, Brenda

AU - De Smet, Delphine

AU - Díaz, Cinthya

AU - Fančovičová, Jana

AU - Fux, Michal

AU - Giraldo-Perez, Paulina

AU - Hu, Anning

AU - Kamble, Shanmukh V.

AU - Kameda, Tatsuya

AU - Li, Norman P.

AU - Luberti, Francesca R.

AU - Prokop, Pavol

AU - Quintelier, Katinka

AU - Scelza, Brooke A.

AU - Shin, Hyun Jung

AU - Soler, Montserrat

AU - Stieger, Stefan

AU - Toyokawa, Wataru

AU - Van Den Hende, Ellis A.

AU - Viciana-Asensio, Hugo

AU - Yildizhan, Saliha Elif

AU - Yong, Jose C.

AU - Yuditha, Tessa

AU - Zhou, Yi

PY - 2016/4/26

Y1 - 2016/4/26

N2 - Human cooperation requires reliable communication about social intentions and alliances. Although laughter is a phylogenetically conserved vocalization linked to affiliative behavior in nonhuman primates, its functions in modern humans are not well understood. We show that judges all around the world, hearing only brief instances of colaughter produced by pairs of American English speakers in real conversations, are able to reliably identify friends and strangers. Participants’ judgments of friendship status were linked to acoustic features of laughs known to be associated with spontaneous production and high arousal. These findings strongly suggest that colaughter is universally perceivable as a reliable indicator of relationship quality, and contribute to our understanding of how nonverbal communicative behavior might have facilitated the evolution of cooperation.

AB - Human cooperation requires reliable communication about social intentions and alliances. Although laughter is a phylogenetically conserved vocalization linked to affiliative behavior in nonhuman primates, its functions in modern humans are not well understood. We show that judges all around the world, hearing only brief instances of colaughter produced by pairs of American English speakers in real conversations, are able to reliably identify friends and strangers. Participants’ judgments of friendship status were linked to acoustic features of laughs known to be associated with spontaneous production and high arousal. These findings strongly suggest that colaughter is universally perceivable as a reliable indicator of relationship quality, and contribute to our understanding of how nonverbal communicative behavior might have facilitated the evolution of cooperation.

KW - laughter

KW - cooperation

KW - cross-cultural

KW - signaling

KW - vocalization

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1524993113

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1524993113

M3 - Article

SN - 0027-8424

VL - 113

SP - 4682

EP - 4687

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

IS - 17

ER -

Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies

Abstract

Keywords

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