The "dark side of laughter" refers to its use in negative social interactions such as ridicule, exclusion, and expressions of superiority (schadenfreude), as well as its potential association with certain psychological or neurological conditions.
Crucially, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen argues that a wicked laugh offers one of the clearest signs that a villain harbours such evil, gaining "open and candid enjoyment" from others' suffering – moreover, fiction writers know this intuitively, time and again using the malevolent cackle to identify their darkest characters.
While happiness is generally beneficial, excessive pursuit or intense levels can lead to negative outcomes, such as neglecting other emotions, unrealistic expectations, and increased risk-taking behaviors.
Smiling or laughing when disclosing trauma can be an indicator of shame. Some trauma survivors hold deeply entrenched feelings of self-blame and other distorted and inaccurate thoughts about the role they believe they played in their abuse.
Well a joke, good or bad, is usually a situation where laughter is appropriate provided that it doesn't come at the expense of somebody who isn't in on the joke. If a friend tells you that their beloved pet passed away, it is generally appropriate not to laugh. Death isn't something to make light of.
You use this emoji when you see or read something hilarious. 😂 Face with tears of joy emoji: This means laughing so hard. 😅 Grin faces with sweat emoji: This means you are laughing but relieved, or when you have escaped a stressful situation.
Not smiling for a week can deeply affect the brain and our emotional state. Research shows that not smiling can change how we handle stress, making us more anxious. This change can also impact our mood, thinking, and how we process emotions.
Intense laughter can trigger asthma attacks, heart arrhythmias, seizures, fainting spells, and in rare cases, can exacerbate existing cardiovascular conditions. It may also cause temporary loss of muscle control or breathing difficulties.
Smiling causes others to be more likely to trust you. A genuine smile can emote generosity, among other good qualities. A smile increases people's willingness to trust you by about 10%, according to a psychological study. Women are especially likely to do this.
The 'fight or flight' response is how people sometimes refer to our body's automatic reactions to fear. There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'.
Falling job satisfaction and economic insecurity are probably contributing factors. Technology and social media. The rise of smartphones and social platforms has coincided with declining youth mental health since the early 2010s.
A huge research study concluded that in developed countries, people start having decreasing levels of happiness starting at age 18. It continues in their 20s and 30s before reaching an unhappiness peak — or bottoming out, if you prefer — at the precise age of 47.2.
This knowledge about happiness states that 50% of our happiness is determined by genetics, 10% by our circumstances and 40% by our internal state of mind. This rule originates from the book “The How Of Happiness” written by Sonja Lyubomirsky. A lot of people and even psychologists live by this rule.
Manic laughter is laughter that occurs during periods of mania that may be contextually inappropriate. This type of laughter also goes by the term inappropriate laughter, but it's different from inappropriate laughter caused by the pseudobulbar affect.
The full biblical phrase says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It's not money itself that causes harm, but rather an obsession with wealth that can lead to unethical behavior, greed, and corruption.
Autistic laughter may be quiet or loud, breathy or squealy, short bursts or long giggles. Families describe a high “bubble” laugh in excitement, a soft chuckle in calm, or a tight, breath-held laugh when anxious. The sound often matches any child's laugh. The difference is when and why it happens.
Around 72% of Gen Z report that they compare their smiles to others on social media with 45% saying social media harms their confidence in their smile. The same source of these insecurities is often looked to for solutions.
Smiling when discussing trauma is a way to minimize the traumatic experience. It communicates the notion that what happened “wasn't so bad.” This is a common strategy that trauma survivors use in an attempt to maintain a connection to caretakers who were their perpetrators.
The rarest smile type is the complex smile, with only an estimated 2% of the population possessing this smile.
The hardest deaths to grieve often involve a child, a spouse/life partner, or a loss due to suicide or homicide, as these challenge fundamental beliefs about life's order, shatter primary support systems, or add layers of trauma, guilt, and unanswered questions, leading to potentially complicated grief. However, grief is deeply personal, and the "hardest" loss is ultimately the one that feels most significant to the individual.
Pseudobulbar affect, also called PBA, is a brain condition in which a person suddenly starts to laugh or cry and can't manage the reaction. The term "pseudobulbar" means a condition in the brainstem's corticobulbar pathways that control facial and emotional expression.
It has been theorised that laughter is beneficial because it is a form of aerobic exercise. Like exercise, laughter is stimulating: it increases heart rate and blood pressure, enhances immune functioning and exercises skeletal muscle.
When people were portrayed with smiles in art, they were often either children, fools, or drunkards, labels most people didn't want. There was a social stigma associated with smiling in photographs for this reason. Photographs, just like portraits, were not common occurrences in the 1800s.
Proverbs 15:30 also says, “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health” So, then, a smile is a mighty powerful thing. It improves your looks; it makes you healthier, and it helps those around you. A smile is what your face does when your heart is glad.
While it's a combination of genetic and societal influences, smiling is largely thought of as a natural, innate response. We can observe smiling in blind infants (Freedman, 1964).