The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies

Gregory A. Bryant; Daniel M. T. Fessler; Riccardo Fusaroli; Edward Clint; Dorsa Amir; Brenda Chávez; Kaleda K. Denton; Cinthya Díaz; Lealaiauloto Togiaso Duran; Jana Fanćovićová; Michal Fux; Erni Farida Ginting; Youssef Hasan; Anning Hu; Shanmukh V. Kamble; Tatsuya Kameda; Kiri Kuroda; Norman P. Li; Francesca R. Luberti; Raha Peyravi; Pavol Prokop; Katinka J. P. Quintelier; Hyun Jung Shin; Stefan Stieger; Lawrence S. Sugiyama; Ellis A. Van Den Hende; Hugo Viciana-asensio; Saliha Elif Yildizhan; Jose C. Yong; Tessa Yuditha; Yi Zhou

doi:10.1177/0956797618778235

The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies

Gregory A. Bryant^*, Daniel M. T. Fessler, Riccardo Fusaroli, Edward Clint, Dorsa Amir, Brenda Chávez, Kaleda K. Denton, Cinthya Díaz, Lealaiauloto Togiaso Duran, Jana Fanćovićová, Michal Fux, Erni Farida Ginting, Youssef Hasan, Anning Hu, Shanmukh V. Kamble, Tatsuya Kameda, Kiri Kuroda, Norman P. Li, Francesca R. Luberti, Raha PeyraviPavol Prokop, Katinka J. P. Quintelier, Hyun Jung Shin, Stefan Stieger, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Ellis A. Van Den Hende, Hugo Viciana-asensio, Saliha Elif Yildizhan, Jose C. Yong, Tessa Yuditha, Yi Zhou

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners’ judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1515-1525
Number of pages	12
Journal	Psychological Science
Volume	29
Issue number	9
Early online date	25 Jul 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618778235
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2018
Externally published	Yes

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Bryant, G. A., Fessler, D. M. T., Fusaroli, R., Clint, E., Amir, D., Chávez, B., Denton, K. K., Díaz, C., Duran, L. T., Fanćovićová, J., Fux, M., Ginting, E. F., Hasan, Y., Hu, A., Kamble, S. V., Kameda, T., Kuroda, K., Li, N. P., Luberti, F. R., ... Zhou, Y. (2018). The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies. Psychological Science, 29(9), 1515-1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618778235

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title = "The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies",

abstract = "Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners{\textquoteright} judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.",

author = "Bryant, {Gregory A.} and Fessler, {Daniel M. T.} and Riccardo Fusaroli and Edward Clint and Dorsa Amir and Brenda Ch{\'a}vez and Denton, {Kaleda K.} and Cinthya D{\'i}az and Duran, {Lealaiauloto Togiaso} and Jana Fan{\'c}ovi{\'c}ov{\'a} and Michal Fux and Ginting, {Erni Farida} and Youssef Hasan and Anning Hu and Kamble, {Shanmukh V.} and Tatsuya Kameda and Kiri Kuroda and Li, {Norman P.} and Luberti, {Francesca R.} and Raha Peyravi and Pavol Prokop and Quintelier, {Katinka J. P.} and Shin, {Hyun Jung} and Stefan Stieger and Sugiyama, {Lawrence S.} 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 = "2018",

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Bryant, GA, Fessler, DMT, Fusaroli, R, Clint, E, Amir, D, Chávez, B, Denton, KK, Díaz, C, Duran, LT, Fanćovićová, J, Fux, M, Ginting, EF, Hasan, Y, Hu, A, Kamble, SV, Kameda, T, Kuroda, K, Li, NP, Luberti, FR, Peyravi, R, Prokop, P, Quintelier, KJP, Shin, HJ, Stieger, S, Sugiyama, LS, Van Den Hende, EA, Viciana-asensio, H, Yildizhan, SE, Yong, JC, Yuditha, T & Zhou, Y 2018, 'The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies', Psychological Science, vol. 29, no. 9, pp. 1515-1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618778235

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T1 - The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies

AU - Bryant, Gregory A.

AU - Fessler, Daniel M. T.

AU - Fusaroli, Riccardo

AU - Clint, Edward

AU - Amir, Dorsa

AU - Chávez, Brenda

AU - Denton, Kaleda K.

AU - Díaz, Cinthya

AU - Duran, Lealaiauloto Togiaso

AU - Fanćovićová, Jana

AU - Fux, Michal

AU - Ginting, Erni Farida

AU - Hasan, Youssef

AU - Hu, Anning

AU - Kamble, Shanmukh V.

AU - Kameda, Tatsuya

AU - Kuroda, Kiri

AU - Li, Norman P.

AU - Luberti, Francesca R.

AU - Peyravi, Raha

AU - Prokop, Pavol

AU - Quintelier, Katinka J. P.

AU - Shin, Hyun Jung

AU - Stieger, Stefan

AU - Sugiyama, Lawrence S.

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 - 2018/9/1

Y1 - 2018/9/1

N2 - Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners’ judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.

AB - Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884 participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh was real or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysis revealed that sound features associated with arousal in vocal production predicted listeners’ judgments fairly uniformly across societies. These results demonstrate high consistency across cultures in laughter judgments, underscoring the potential importance of nonverbal vocal communicative phenomena in human affiliation and cooperation.

U2 - 10.1177/0956797618778235

DO - 10.1177/0956797618778235

M3 - Article

SN - 0956-7976

VL - 29

SP - 1515

EP - 1525

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

IS - 9

ER -

The Perception of Spontaneous and Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies

Abstract

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