Laughter has a “pressure cooker” effect, making it difficult to physically contain the laughter. It’s also contagious, which makes repression even more challenging if we hear other people laughing.
Almost everyone has felt that way uncomfortable urge to laugh at exactly the wrong moment, like a funeral, a work meeting or a tense conversation.
New research in the journal Communications Psychology suggests that this difficulty is not a failure of self-control, but the result of a complex psychological battle between automatic emotional responses and conscious regulation.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Göttingen in Germany and published in the journal Communications Psychology examined why suppressing laughter is so difficult, especially in social contexts. The investigation involved 121 participants in three experiments, each designed to test how different strategies for controlling laughter affect both external expressions and internal emotional experiences, explains .
Participants were asked to listen to jokes while responding naturally or trying to regulate their reactions using specific strategies. The scientists tested expressive suppressioncognitive reappraisal, which involved analyzing the jokes objectively and technically, and distraction, in which participants focused on an unrelated visual task while listening.
The findings revealed that the most common instinctual approach, expressive suppression, is largely ineffective at reducing feelings of humor. Although the participants managed to keep their facial expressions neutral, their internal sense of fun remained as strong as before. This discrepancy often intensified discomfort, creating what researchers described as a “pressure cooker” effect.
Distraction proved to be more effective in reducing both facial reactions and the perception of cuteness, as diverting attention from the joke reduced emotional involvement. Cognitive reappraisal produced the most consistent change in subjective experience, making the jokes seem genuinely less funnyalthough some facial reactions still escaped.
One of the most surprising findings came from the study’s third experiment, which examined the social nature of laughter. When participants heard recordings of other people laughing After a joke, their ability to suppress facial expressions decreased significantly. Muscles related to smiling were activated more strongly and frequently, suggesting that laughter triggers involuntary mimicry that competes with conscious control.
Hearing other people laugh also made the jokes seem funnier, regardless of whether the participants were trying to suppress their reactions. This social feedback helps explain why laughter can get out of control in solemn settings: as soon as someone starts laughing, the containment becomes much more difficult.
Research highlights that laughter is deeply social and partially automatic, which makes it resistant to conscious suppression. While cognitive reappraisal and distraction can help in some situations, neither strategy guarantees success, especially when other people are laughing nearby.
