A theory I’ve heard that handles this more general class of observations is that laughter specifically marks simply “relief from potentially scary tension” (which covers a very wide class of surprises).
A snap in the forest plus a fluttering of birds… people freeze and look for tigers feeling scared… someone sees that it is a child playing a trick… laughs… everyone relaxes.
(I read the Hanson piece when published, I didn’t just now re-read it)
I don’t find that convincing as it is insufficiently general: there are so many examples of humor that are difficult to fit into the model.
How does this fit? “If you see a fork in the road, take it.”
Does the humor in that piggyback on the social adaption, and how do you know which had precedence?
I definately think there are rules that might define the bounds of socially precarious humor, but that’s a specialization.
A theory I’ve heard that handles this more general class of observations is that laughter specifically marks simply “relief from potentially scary tension” (which covers a very wide class of surprises).
A snap in the forest plus a fluttering of birds… people freeze and look for tigers feeling scared… someone sees that it is a child playing a trick… laughs… everyone relaxes.