There is a well-known saying worldwide that we should laugh sometimes to avoid crying. When it comes to the pressures that accumulate in our daily lives, laughter is exactly what doctors may recommend. Researchers from the Department of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland state that laughter can be a source of comfort when dealing with stress and life pressures.
The new study found that laughter and smiling can help mitigate the negative effects of stress. The authors of the study estimate that people laugh about 18 times a day, usually during interactions with others or experiences that bring them joy and happiness. In the study, participants answered questions using a mobile app eight times a day for 14 days. The study included 41 psychology students, of whom 33 were women, with an average age just under 22. Randomly generated questions measured the intensity of each participant's stress, the frequency of laughter, and its causes. The app also tracked stressful events or stress and tension symptoms that participants experienced since the last question they answered. Using the results, the two main authors of the study, Dr. Thea Zandler Schillenberg and Dr. Isabella Collins, examined the relationship between laughter, stress, and the psychological and physical symptoms they caused. The findings revealed that when participants laughed frequently, stressful events were more closely related to mild personal stress symptoms.
Does louder laughter really help? The study showed that the second set of results indicated that stressful events and the intensity of laughter—whether strong, moderate, or weak—did not seem to correlate with the stress symptoms experienced by participants. The researchers clarified, saying, "This may be because people can better assess the frequency of their laughter than others." In conclusion, the researchers noted that laughter can help a person cope better with the stress they encounter in daily life and that there is no direct relationship between the intensity of a person's laughter and how it can affect stress in this regard.
