Long before modern brain imaging technologies illuminated the neurophysiological mechanisms that make laughter contagious, William James (1842-1910) observed, "We don't laugh because we're happy, ...

My three young daughters like to watch pets doing silly things. Almost daily, they ask to see animal video clips on my phone and are quickly entertained. But once my 7-year-old lets out a belly laugh, ...

Human laughter is such an intrinsic part of our lives that we don’t tend to give it much thought. But we are one of only a handful of animals that do it, along with apes, dogs, and, quite bizarrely, ...

There's way more to our giggles and guffaws than simply thinking something is funny. We asked a laughter expert to explain. No vocalization is more universal (or unifying) than laughter. There are no ...

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. CHICAGO — If anyone knows the power of ...

My three young daughters like to watch pets doing silly things. Almost daily, they ask to see animal video clips on my phone and are quickly entertained. But once my 7-year-old lets out a belly laugh, ...