It’s a myth that people with loud, raucous laughter — the type that everyone in a large room can hear or that can be heard from relatively far away — are extra-happy people.
There are no scientific papers supporting this myth.
I don’t believe for a second that someone who keeps letting out a bellowing laugh does so because they’re better at extracting joy and jubilation at any given moment.
Where I used to work was a man who was semi-retired who did some sort of gopher work.
Every day he’d come into the department and walk from one old-timer to the next.
And every 15 seconds he let out a big throaty laugh. But I rarely heard any of the other men laughing. This told me that this man had a habit of laughing just because.
There’s no way this man was happier than most people. Two of his sons were in prison, and he was illiterate.
Imagine what bad things must’ve happened to him that led to these outcomes.
Can you really be a happy camper when you can’t read and write — and it’s a sure bet that you know this is because you were robbed of the opportunity to learn when growing up poor and neglected, and both of your sons are in prison?
I’m betting that when that man went home every evening, he was as miserable as the next lost soul.
The Bid for Attention
It’s been said that loud laughter is done partly out of nervousness, even if the person truly found something funny.
What I’ve noticed, however, is that being around a lot of people seems to fuel the laughter.
I can’t imagine these people laughing as loudly if they were all alone at home watching a sitcom.
But put a few people in the room with them, and UP goes the volume of their laughter.
This is a bid for attention. It may be conscious or subconscious, but it’s there.
These very people-needy people are mugging for attention — to be the center of attention.
Ever notice that the person at a dining party in a busy restaurant, who has the loudest cackle, also tends to dominate the conversations?
They’re usually the ones talking the most. Not always, but often. Again, they want to be the center of attention. This has nothing to do with being happy.
I’ve never noticed more joy and jubilation seeping out of these people when compared to more reserved people or those with quieter laughter.
In fact, those with obnoxious, loud cackling tend to get easily offended and can be quite rude.
Can the volume of laughter be modulated?
Yes! However, people who have a tough time getting over themselves won’t believe this.
They don’t want to believe it. Just like the volume of speech can be regulated, the volume of one’s laugh can be.
Those who refuse to believe this, and instead, insist that their laugh is an automatic reflex, are onto something.
And it’s this: That they think their boisterous laughter is an automatic reflex totally contradicts the idea that they’re just very joyful, blissful people.
That it’s a reflex means it’s a bad habit, akin to the opposite end of the continuum, in which a person has a habit of biting their lip when feeling nervous, overwhelmed or uptight.
If a loud cackler really wanted to control the volume, they could easily do so.
Ever hear loud laughter from characters in film? The actor in real life may actually have a soft laugh, but for the role, boosts the volume and dynamics.
Well guess what: The reverse can be done, too. The issue is whether or not the offender wants to continue being very annoying, or wants to start employing some discretion.
Quite frankly, nobody has the right to make obnoxious noises in the presence of others. This is just plain rude and thoughtless.
- This isn’t about normal, typical laughter that we hear all the time.
- It’s about the loud bellowing type, the kind that’s clearly done for attention, often by the very person who dominates conversations.
This is not about trying to take away someone’s joy and glee.
If you find something really funny, it is NOT necessary to allow this loud, strange sound to come hurling up from your throat.
You can think something is funny without making loud noise.
That you instead permit this raucous sound to come out of your throat in the presence of other people is, ultimately, a choice — no matter how reflexive you think it is.
However, there’s some slight truth to this idea that it’s a reflex.
Some people will bellow out laughter in ANY conversation, no matter how mundane, casual, routine or run-of-the-mill. It’s like they need to get a fix every 30 or so seconds.
I’ve heard the conversations that these people were part of. They were the only ones laughing. No jokes were being told. No lightbulb jokes, no “walks into a bar” jokes, no knock-knock jokes.
These are not extra-happy people. Instead, they somehow, along the way in their life, developed a bad habit.
Sometimes it starts in childhood. That’s the best time to nip it. Why parents allow their kids to have a loud obnoxious laugh is beyond me. It does not happen overnight.
And remember, those with roaring laughs often want to be the center of attention.
Every so often at the gym, like every 30 seconds, I’ll hear loud, cartoonish laughter.
But the one or two other guys whom this person is conversing with don’t laugh.
That’s because there’s either nothing funny, or, the other guys make a point of controlling their volume.
There is absolutely NO bloody reason why I should be hearing frequent laughter from across the gym while I have earplugs in!
Laughter As Good Medicine
Though there’s research that shows that watching sitcoms or other comical entertainment helps quicken the recovery process from surgery, there is no research that shows that loud laughter helps heal or prevent disease.
In other words, you’re not going to help prevent coronary artery disease by making a point to laugh loud, vs. just a normal volume laugh.
Avoiding smoking, getting plenty of exercise, controlling your weight, keeping your sodium intake below 2,000 mg/day, eating 20 grams/day of fiber and limiting sugary foods are the leading lifestyle choices for being healthy. Others include better stress management and getting enough sleep. You don’t need a raucous cackle to fight off stress.
Nobody’s telling you not to laugh. But if you can’t get through two minutes of small talk without loudly laughing every 20 or 30 seconds, you’ll want to probe for the reason behind this.
A tipoff that you laugh excessively is if those you’re in conversation with don’t seem to be chuckling as much as you. Pay attention.
In case you think I totally lack a sense of humor, I’d like to share a joke.
Three swordsmen were arguing who was the best. The first said, “I’m SO good at swordsmanship that I could cut that fly in half.”
As the fly goes past, he slices the weapon through the air, and the two parts of the fly fall to the ground.
“Oh YEAH?” says the second swordsman. “I can do better than that! Watch!”
When another fly goes by, he flicks his sword at lightning speed, slicing the fly in four pieces that fall to the ground.
“Hmmm,” says the third swordsman. “I can top that!”
When the next fly comes around, he flashes his sword in a millisecond. But the fly flies away. “Told you!” brags the third swordsman.
“Whaddya mean?!” exclaims the first guy. “That bug flew off!”
“Yeahhh!” pipes up the second. “He flew right outta here like a bird!”
The third guy smiles. “Yep, but he’ll never make little flies ever again!”
