The science of baby laughter

Addyman, Caspar and Addyman, Ishbel. 2013. The science of baby laughter. Comedy Studies, 4(2), pp. 143-153. ISSN 2040-610X [Article]

No full text available

Abstract or Description

'The Baby Laughter' project (http://babylaughter.net) is a research programme in developmental psychology that uses online surveys and parent submitted videos to study baby laughter. We discuss how infant laughter has been neglected in the study of both humour and of developmental psychology. We describe our surveys and research methodology, together with some of the questions we hope they can address. Some preliminary results are presented together with illustrative comments from parents who took part. These results show that the topics of infant laughter track other cognitive developments, that it is an important form of communication and bond between parent and child and a marker of social and emotional engagement. We conclude by suggesting that the highly important role of laughter in early development has until now been underestimated. Keywords

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1386/cost.4.2.143_1

Keywords:

developmental psychology, humour, infancy, laughter, parenting, social development

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates:

DateEvent
1 September 2013Published

Item ID:

16119

Date Deposited:

08 Jan 2016 12:38

Last Modified:

30 Jun 2017 12:48

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/16119

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)