Perhaps this has happened to you before: at the exact moment when you should have cried, sympathized, or remained serious, you found yourself laughing. An embarrassing, uncontrollable, almost ...

Don’t want to miss a single column? Sign up to get Caleb’s writing in your inbox. On a literal level, it should be impossible to make sense of someone saying “I’m dead” unless you’re attending a ...

Prior posts in this series have explored some of the many factors influencing the perception of vulnerability, the amusement it sometimes fosters, and the desire to express this feeling through ...

Adrienne Wood receives funding from the National Science Foundation. Laughter is an everyday reminder that we humans are animals. In fact, when recorded laughter is slowed down, listeners can’t tell ...

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Late to an appointment. Money tight. Stuck in traffic. Jeffrey Briar just laughs. ‘‘Things that would normally stress me out and annoy me, I can laugh at,’’ Briar said. But he ...