Happiness is important for economic growth, sustainable development and well-being which can only occur if rapport and relationships exist. A recent study shows that laughing together builds rapport (which hopefully will lead to a relationship!) If we have shared a laugh with someone, we tend to be more open with that person. As with most studies, this one was performed using college students (at Oxford University in England .) As explained in Science Daily:

To investigate the role and influence of laughter in this disclosure process, Gray and his colleagues gathered 112 students from Oxford University in England, into groups of four. The students did not know one another. The groups watched a 10-minute video together, without chatting to one another. The videos differed in the amount of laughter they invoked, and the amount of positive feelings or emotions they elicited. One featured a stand-up comedy routine by Michael McIntyre, another a straightforward golf instruction video, and the third a pleasant nature excerpt from the “Jungles” episode of the BBC’s Planet Earth series. The levels of laughter and the participants’ emotional state after watching the video was then measured. Each group member also had to write a message to another participant to help them get to know each other better.

The participants who had a good laugh together shared significantly more intimate information than the groups who did not watch the comedy routine. Gray suggests this is not merely because it is a positive experience, but because of the physiology behind a good laugh. It actually triggers the release of the so-called “happy hormone” endorphin. The findings support the idea that laughter encourages people to make more intimate disclosures to strangers.

Interestingly, the person who disclosed information was seldom aware that he or she had done so. It was only the listener who realized that it had happened.

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