• Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us
Prospective Students

Prospective Students

Prospective Students
  • Admissions
    Procedure & Timelines
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admissions Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • COVID-19 Impacts on Admissions
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Prerequisites
    General Information
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Mission Statement
    • Curriculum Resdesign
    • Honor Code
    • FAQs
    • Admissions Brochure
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admission Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • Competencies
    • COVID-19 Impact on Admissions
    • DACA Applicants
    • DGSOM Mission Statement
    • Equity and Diversity Inclusion
    • FAQs
    • Honor Code
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Virtual Events
  • Outreach & Pipeline Programs
    Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccaluareate Programs
    • UCLA SHPEP
    • UCLA PREP
    • UCLA RAP
    Outreach and Recruitment
    • Contact and Events
    • Mailing List
    • Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccalaureate Programs
    • Stay Connected
    • Join our Mailing List
  • Financial Aid & Scholarships
  • Degrees & Programs
  • Curriculum
  • Student Life
    Why Choose UCLA
    • Research
    • Clinical Work
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    Campus Life
    • Student Organizations
    • Annual Events
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Photo Galleries
    • Medical and Research News
    • Medical Student Council
    • Geffy Guide
    • Search Campus and Health News
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    • Photo Galleries
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Medical and Research News
    • Search Campus and Health News
  • How to Apply
  • Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us

Prospective Students

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  1. Home
  2. Prospective Students
  3. Student Life
  4. Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Share this

Health News

Title

Using laughter as their guide, five-month-olds can distinguish friends from strangers

Health News

Date
03/13/2019
Article

Even before we can speak, humans can glean useful information from the sound of laughter.

A study by UCLA and New York University researchers found that infants as young as five months can differentiate laughter between friends and laughter between strangers. The results suggest that the ability to identify the nature of social relationships is instilled early in human infancy, possibly as part of what the scientists call an "affiliation detection system" that uses vocal cues.

"If young infants are able to pick up social information from such brief clips of vocal behavior, it suggests a biologically evolved sensitivity," said Gregory Bryant, a professor of communication and co-author of the paper. "Laughter is an ancient social vocalization shared with many other mammals, so it makes sense that we see very early emergence of infants' ability to produce, perceive and understand the signal."

The research, which was published in Scientific Reports, is the latest by Bryant and colleagues in a series of studies on "co-laughter" — the act of two people laughing together. Previous studies have addressed how adults from across cultures can tell whether they are listening to two friends or two strangers laughing together, and how people generally can tell whether a laugh is spontaneous or not.

Bryant and co-author Athena Vouloumanos, an associate professor of psychology at NYU, sought to study infants because the research would shed light on how early in life humans can gauge people's relationship types using vocalizations.

"Infants' sensitivity to different kinds of laughter might be one of the early emerging tools they use to understand and navigate the complex social world," Vouloumanos said.

The researchers examined how five-month-olds processed exchanges of laughter between adults by tracking how long the infants listened to strangers laughing together versus how long they listened to friends laughing together. Previous child development research has established that scientists can determine how interested an infant is in something based on how long the subject holds the child's attention.

In the first of two experiments, five-month-old infants heard alternating audio recordings of laughter between friends and between strangers. Researchers found that the infants listened longer to laughter between friends — showing not only that infants could differentiate between the two types of laughter, but also that they preferred to listen to friends laughing.

In the second experiment, researchers played audio recordings of laughter while showing the infants video clips of actors depicting friend-to-friend and stranger-to-stranger relationships. In one clip, two women faced and smiled at each other as if they were friends; in the other, the women turned their backs to each other, indicating that they were strangers. Both videos included a still frame of the actors with neutral facial expressions turned toward the camera. Infants then heard alternating audio recordings of friends' laughter or strangers' laughter.

The infants spent more time looking at the images when the social interaction was incongruous with the type of co-laughter they heard — that is, when the laughter between strangers was matched with the image of friends, and vice versa. That followed the scientists' expectation for the experiment because gaze length is a commonly used measurement for spotting infants' comprehension of interactions. A longer gaze indicates evidence of surprise — in this case, a mismatch between co-laughter and the nature of the relationship.

Bryant said the study reaffirms laughter's role as a communication tool in human social relationships.

"But we have a lot to learn about how it works specifically," he said. "While laughing is related to vocalizations in other animals, human laughter is much more flexible in its use. The study of laughter provides a great opportunity to get a window into both human uniqueness, and our evolutionary past."

Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
  • Giving
  • Publications
  • Newsroom
  • Weekly Digest
  • Directory
  • Contact Us
  • Diversity
  • Emergency
  • Maps & Directions
  • UC Regents
  • Abuse Free
  • Volunteer
  • Biomed Library
  • Disability Resources
  • UCLA Health
  • Smoke-Free
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare