Studies // Cited work
Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold
Dunbar, R. I. M., Baron, R., Frangou, A., Pearce, E., van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Stow, J., Partridge, G., MacDonald, I., Barra, V., & van Vugt, M. (2012). Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold.
Level B Experiment doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1373
What this study supports
Supports the claim that pain thresholds were higher after social laughter than in control conditions. Pain threshold is used as a proxy for endorphin release, which was not measured directly.
- Who was studied
- Participants in six studies watching comedy or control videos in the laboratory and stage performances in naturalistic settings.
- Design
- Experiment
- Level of evidence
- Controlled studies: randomised or experimental designs, and syntheses of correlational work.
Claims that rest on it
No claim in the ledger rests on this work yet.