The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach
The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach
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DOI：
10.1086/498281
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发表时间：
2005-12-01
影响因子：
6.5
通讯作者：
Wilson, DS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gervais, M;Wilson, DS
最近有一些假说试图解释笑和幽默的最终进化起源。然而，这些理论大多在进化框架上缺乏广度，同时忽视了两种不同类型的笑声——杜兴笑声和非杜兴笑声——的经验存在，以及这种区别对笑声作为一种信号的进化的影响。这些假设中的大多数都是在相对孤立的情况下提出的，并且与相关的经验文献脱节。在这里，我们试图通过综合以往的笑声和幽默研究来弥补这些不足，然后(i)根据几个相关学科的理论和数据对这一研究进行重新评估，以及（ii）提出一个综合进化框架，考虑到系统发育和历史，以及近似机制和适应意义。我们认为笑是一种预适应，是通过生物和文化进化逐渐完善和吸收的。我们假设杜氏笑声在4到2千年之间的早期原始人中完全成为仪式化的，作为一种好玩的情绪感染的媒介。这种机制将小型原始人类群体的情感结合在一起，并在短暂的安全和满足感时期促进资源建设社会游戏，这是早期两足动物生活的特征。我们进一步假设，一种非严重的社会不和谐的普遍类别将是这种安全时代的可靠指标，从而成为笑声和有趣情感的有力远端诱发因素。这类刺激起源于灵长类动物的社交游戏，是人类正式幽默的基础。在这一框架下，杜氏笑声和原始幽默在人类认知更复杂的生物行为中得到了很好的确立。人类的特征是在2000万年到现在之间进化的。笑声和幽默的预先存在使它们被用于许多新颖的功能，正是在这个过程中，非杜兴笑声和笑声的“阴暗面”出现了。这一观点组织了当今笑声和幽默的多种形式和功能，并阐明了笑声和幽默在人类进化过程中的时间和方式。
A number of recent hypotheses have attempted to explain the ultimate evolutionary origins of laughter and humor. However most of these have lacked breadth in their evolutionary frameworks while neglecting the empirical existence of two distinct types of laughter-Duchenne and non-Duchenne-and the implications of this distinction for the evolution of laughter as a signal. Most of these hypotheses have also been proposed in relative isolation of each other and remain disjointed from the relevant empirical literature. Here vie attempt to remedy these shortcomings through a synthesis of previous laughter and humor research followed by (i) a reevaluation of this research in light of theory and data from several relevant disciplines, and (ii) the proposal of a synthetic evolutionary framework that takes into account phylogeny and history as well as proximate mechanisms and adaptive significance. We consider laughter to have been a Preadaptation that was gradually elaborated and co-opted through both biological and cultural evolution. We hypothesize that Duchenne laughter became fully ritualized in early hominids between 4 and 2 mya as a medium for playful emotional contagion. This mechanism would have coupled the emotions of small hominid groups and promoted resource-building social play during the fleeting periods of safety and satiation that characterized early bipedal life. We further Postulate that a generalized class of nonserious social incongruity would have been a reliable indicator of such safe times and thereby came to be a potent distal elicitor of laughter and playful emotion. This class of stimuli had its origins in primate social play and was the foundation for formal human humor Within this framework, Duchenne laughter and protohumor were well established in the hominid biobehavioral repertoire when more cognitively sophisticated. traits evolved in the hominid line between 2 mya and the present. The prior existence of laughter and humor allowed them to be coopted for numerous novel functions, and it is from this process that non-Duchenne laughter and the '' dark side '' of laughter emerged. This perspective organizes the diversified forms and functions that characterize laughter and humor today and clarifies when and how laughter and humor evolved during the course of human evolution.