Please write an introduction following the grading rubic below and the thematic grid attached from the listed 5 articles. Grading Rubric:

Authors' Names (Date)

Method – What Kind of Study?

Procedure – What Did They Do?

Results - What Did They Find?

What Does This Lead You to Predict?

Notes

Bänninger-Huber & Salvenauer (2023)

Observational Study; Micro-Analytical Analysis

Observed and analyzed laughter in contexts of dyadic communication in both ordinary and clinical scenarios. Employed Facial Action Coding System (FACS) for capturing facial activity and grouped laughter into various forms.

Humor is used as a way to regulate emotions and improve relations, decrease stress, and generate positive signals in interaction with others. Therapeutic laughter enhances the working alliance because positive affect is associated with stronger alliances.

Humor might be an effective tool used to foster positive relatedness in relationships, especially in the context of psychotherapy.

Illustrates how laughter helps in both self and interpersonal regulation; beneficial for clinical applications that are targeted to improve relationships.

Cai et al. (2024)

fMRI Study; Experimental

Investigated neural activity of autistic and non-autistic adults during spontaneous and conversational laughter. Words were presented after which participants either heard laughter or control sounds while remaining passive.

In contrast, non-autistic participants in the study had increased activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) network about conversational laughter, which was linked to social interpretative processing. mPFC activity was comparable across both types of laughter indicating Autistic participants’ difficulty in processing socio-emotionally ambiguous stimuli.

The variations in the neural responses to social communication within autism imply that the necessity for clear communication in the disorder could be warranted. The strategies of social interventions could be useful in mitigating the lack of understanding in certain aspects by autistic patients.

Stresses that laughter type affects social processing, which can have implications for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.

Plate et al. (2021)

Personality and Social Cue Perception Study; Experimental

Depending on the degree of psychopathic characteristics in the participants, they grouped the laughter sounds as affiliative (jolly) or dominant (derisive). In previous studies, laughter categories were found to have social purposes.

Laughter sensitivity is a crucial aspect of social understanding and might be expected to be impaired in such individuals, & as post–predicted from theory, participants high in psychopathic traits failed to distinguish between different forms of laughter, and did not change their level of response depending on the social context of the laughter.

Impairment in social aspects of laughter might be linked to other social deficits in psychopathy and could be considered for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.

This study demonstrated that there is a lack of processing for social cues, which is connected to psychopathy; thus, laughter should be used as a diagnostic marker of psychopathy’s interpersonal facet.

Scott, S. K., Cai, C. Q., & Billing, A. (2022)

Observational study on contagious laughter’s social role

Considered Robert Provine's data regarding the specificity of laughter in natural scenarios, focusing on the examples of contagious laughter in the broadcasts, and in the context of the evolutionary trees of laughter among humans and other animals.

Discovered that laughter has qualities of social and communicative behavior even where there are no jokes involved but group bonding. Social laughter is infectious and plays a role in strengthening social relationships; it practically does not exist in animals.

Claim that laughter is an adaptive mechanism for enhancing social bonding in humans and that other species or cultures do not exhibit the reflexivity inherent in laughter.

Emphasizes laughter as a means of social connection and not humor; the possible unique human phenomenon of 'contagious laughter'.

Weber, M., & Quiring, O. (2017)

Experimental study on emotional contagion in media settings

The study utilized a comical film segment in which the participant was joined by another actor who either laughed or did not. Their reaction including laughter and self-report ratings of funniness were complemented by the index of personality characteristics.

Dependent measures of participants’ laughter and their funniness ratings were found to be affected by the confederate’s laughter. Further, while people higher in introversion and conscientiousness were less likely exposed to laughter, they tended to laugh more and rate material as funnier.

Anticipates that the presence of emotional contagion in media is significant with introverted persons and individuals with less conscientiousness.

Supports observation about laughter’s effect in social context on content perception; brings up such factors as introversion.