Some Things to Laugh About Essay Example for Free

Some Things to Laugh About Essay After reading the three articles one cannot help but realize that laughter is a serious but comical subject worth debating on. All in all, these three documents unite in one concept: that laughter can be used as a tool for social interaction for acceptance and as reinforcement to achieve certain positive responses. According to Richard Penson, et.al., many people believe that laughter is one of the best medicines that can cure not only physical ailments but human relationships as well.    Although laughing does not always result to healing, many consider good sense of humor as a great way to put their problems in better perspectives which in turn helps in better handling of awkward or grave situations. Gregory Berns supports Penson’s claim that laughter is a popular tool that is being used to gain social acceptance even though it can also jeopardize human interactions with misuse and abuse such as when jokes are delivered to embarrass a person. Jaak Panksepp’s article about rats supports Berns’ and Penson’s idea that laughter can be used in social interactions to gain certain rewarding results because his observations showed that rats tend to chirp (their version of laughter) when they are faced with threatening situations against fellow rats.   Panksepp implicates that rats try to lighten an aggressive encounter with a fellow rodent with their own way of laughing. Although studies about laughter and humor have been done, many researchers find it difficult to pursue their studies because of the ambiguity of how laughter originates from humans.   The scientific world has previously assumed that only humans experience emotional highs like laughing but Panksepp’s research on rodents can pave the way to show that other mammals also have their own forms of laughter.   Knowing that rats can also use their form of laughter called â€Å"chirping† as a tool for social acceptance and alleviating threatening situations can be helpful because this means that more research and observations can be done using animals instead of people which tend to be tedious and yield inconsistent results due to many uncontrollable factors. Panksepp’s frequent use of side comments such as referring to his insight as â€Å"delusion† was funny and it showed how humor can really help lighten even heavy subject matters like his research. However, his study needs to be validated and followed up by other scientists because as he has pointed out, it seems that he is the only one who can tell when rats are chirping even under direct provocation.   Although it is Panksepp’s perception that the scientific community is not very open to suggestions that animals can feel emotions, to reach out to his colleagues in the field by not mentioning this setback can probably boost his research’s acceptance. Berns’ article about how laughter or sense of humor says that â€Å"any discussion of humor would be incomplete without at least the mention of sex† because humor can actually originate from man’s hedonic brain processes. Berns’ assumption makes one realize that even common things such as laughter can be subconsciously used to gain social acceptance or even sexual attraction. However, it would take more studies to strongly validate these findings because of many uncontrollable factors that need to be considered when experimenting with human behavior.   Some of these factors include the personal family history of the participants, personality type and their probable experiences with the subject such as the comic strip’s theme.   Finding humor in a joke or comic strip relies on subjective perception. Therefore, many repeated studies must be done to show that these responses are really common enough to be validated as true. Although doctors and other caregivers showed how laughter can be a great tool to lighten the mood or atmosphere in their morbid situations, this writer believes that it is insulting to the patients when these professionals wager on the success of their treatments. The matter of life and death rests on the hands of these professionals and although gambling on a successful surgical operation may help lighten the stress the activity imposes, it comes across as disheartening to patients who would rather that their doctors pay attention to the risks involved and not on their wagers. More study on how medical professionals can use sense of humor in a better way to cope with their stressful jobs is evident so that gallows humor can be alleviated. More studies on laughter and how it originates must be done to help the human race use this very powerful tool to the fullest. The medical world will benefit from it by helping doctors, patients, and caregivers avoid or alleviate depression. The political arena, wherein everything is a serious matter, may also benefit if people become trained to use laughter as a device in peace talks and negotiations instead of dangerous artillery. More studies on laughter can be one of the most serious contributions that scientists can do to make the world a happier place.