How do babies know how/when to laugh?
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Evolutionary Predationist here: It’s little-known, but “humor” is actually a stress response. Specifically, it’s a response to situations which cannot be easily classified among “known stressors”, such as predators, environmental hazards, or the like.
When presented with an unfamiliar or unexpected condition, the mind doesn’t immediately “know” how to react. This is a form of stress, but as the stressor is unexpected, the mind hasn’t developed a specific, situation-appropriate response.
Socially-based creatures have actually evolved a ‘catch-all’ response to such unexpected stressors. This response typically manifests as a distinct, involuntary vocalization which alerts all nearby members of the ‘pack’ to the occurrence. Greater numbers allow the group to analyze the event in greater safety. Among humans, this vocalization is well known as laughter.
Comedy is essentially the art of manipulating this stress response in such a way as to be considered pleasurable.
None of the above is actually *true*, mind you. There’s no such thing as an “evolutionary predationist”.
It’s ingrained into our DNA. The same as breathing. Humans instinctively smile, laugh, cry, etc etc at pretty much all the same things.
Before humans developed language, those non-language forms of communicating how your feel to other humans were crucial for social groups to understand and assist each other. So those actions are ingrained in our DNA.
So babies don’t know how/when/why to laugh, they just naturally do laugh. The same way they don’t know they need to breathe, they just do.
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