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Study shows laughter key to relationships |
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Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
by JAMISON DORAN
News Editor
One Appalachian State University professor has found that laughter is the best medicine, at least when it comes to the relationship between someone and their significant other.
“We found that people experienced higher satisfaction when they were reminiscing about a time when they laughed with their partner,” psychology professor Dr. Doris G. Bazzini said.
Bazzini, along with a few graduate students who have all since graduated, worked for several years
setting up an experiment to test whether or not laughter was an important factor in romantic
relationships.
The idea came to Bazzini after a friend had the misfortune of having his girlfriend break up with him
because she didn’t think he was funny.
“It really made me start to wonder just how important a sense of humor or laughing was to a
relationship,” she said.
It took a while to do this experiment because it was difficult to find couples willing to participate,
especially since the study was not paid, Bazzini said.
Couples also had to work around their individual schedules to find times they could participate in the
study.
In total, 52 couples participated, with each assigned to one of four reminiscing conditions.
All of the conditions the couples experienced were positive ones, although not all involved their partner,
Bazzini said.
The experimental group, also called the shared laughter group, had the participants reminisce about a
time when they laughed with their significant other.
The three control groups were the shared positive group, the general positive group and the general
laughter group.
The shared positive group asked participants to think about a time they had a positive experience with
their partner.
The general groups differed from the shared groups in that those in the general groups were asked to
think about someone other than their significant other, Bazzini said.
“Even though every group reminisced about something positive, only the ones who thought about
laughter with their partners had increased satisfaction,” she said.
Those couples that reminisced about a time when they laughed with their partner reported higher
relationship satisfaction at the post-manipulation satisfaction assessment as compared to couples who
had gone through one of the three control conditions.
After Bazzini’s results were published in The Journal for Motivation and Emotion, mainstream
publications began to contact her and publish articles about her findings.
“There have been articles in Prevention magazine, Shape magazine and Men’s Health magazine,”
Bazzini said.
She has also been in touch with Ladies’ Home Journal magazine and said it is planning to publish an
article in its April edition about Bazzini’s findings.
Bazzini is currently working on another study, which will continue with the original and all-use couples.
“When people laugh with one another, it really strengthens their shared bond with each other,” she said.
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