(with brain science): why is it sometimes the case that people have more than 1 pattern for laughing?

Question

Sorry as I’m not sure if this’d be biology or psychology or another category.

And I don’t mean people can both laugh and chuckle and the like.

Sometimes you see someone is a silent laugher (in that they seem to laugh at jokes etc. under their breath without thinking even when it’s an ok space and a very huge laugh), but they also do the more wailing kind of laugh (this would still be about when it happens without thinking). Laughing is as intuitive and instinct-dense as behaviours go, so I’m curious: How are these things wired in a brain? And why, say, for laugher, there can be multiple patterns for 1 person?

Edit: clarity?

In: 0

Answer 1

Laughing is inherently a social activity and it involves not just yourself but everyone around you. Not just that, but it is intended to communicate different things at different times.

So even when you are not consciously thinking about it at all, you are still choosing from a pool of different types of laughs. You are selecting the one that you think will best convey what you feel to the people around you. So if you think someone might be offended by an uproarious laugh, you might choose a more restrained one.

Even when you are by yourself you will choose laughs based on social cues, in much the same way as when you talk to yourself to reinforce some ideas you still choose what vocabulary to use and what not to use. So if you think of yourself as a caring person you might choose a more restrained and guilty sounding laugh when you see someone get kicked in the testicles then someone would if they felt no such restrictions.