“Making boys and girls laugh can create deep emotional bonds and calm their nervous system, making them more resilient and open to new ideas,” explains Jacqueline Harding, a child development expert at Middlesex University, in the United Kingdom, and author of the book The brain that loves to laugh (The Brain That Loves to Laugh), from the publisher Taylor & Francis, on how laughter can help children cope with life’s challenges and better manage stress. Against all odds, the laughter turns out to be somewhat more serious than it seems.
Harding, director of the Tomorrow’s Child center – a European research project focused on child development and parenting in the digital age – maintains that laughter and play contribute to emotional well-being and social bonding. Through his own empirical research and supported by existing studies in biology, psychology and sociology, he emphasizes that laughter is not something frivolous, but rather it is a complex biological response that involves a network of brain regions that includes motor areas and the prefrontal cortex: “Hope and humor, it seems, are not just a spice of life, but the basis of healthy development,” he points out. “When we see children laugh, we witness the brilliance of the brain in action: learning, connecting and growing,” says the author.
Laughter precedes the natural development of speech in childhood, but it also influences our heart rate, breathing, and antibody production; Likewise, it works as a buffer against the stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine, and increases the so-called happiness hormones, such as dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. Harding assures that laughter can also strengthen the immune system and improve memory, which is why he associates it with learning and healthy growth during childhood. These bonds are beneficial for boys and girls and can also contribute to and stress not only the children, but also the parents and teachers themselves, which improves mood during parenting.
Humor and mental effort
Research shows that laughter helps develop social skills and emotional intelligence. This doesn’t mean that parents should spend all their time telling jokes, but it does suggest that simple shared play and laughter, with eye contact, smiles, closeness, and joint attention on a task, foster connection. “Creative, joyful play has its greatest effect at the molecular level, especially when the human brain is most receptive,” says Harding, because spontaneous, fun play is an antidote to stress that increases endorphin levels.
But perhaps most relevant from an educational point of view is the cognitive impact of laughter. Neuroimaging studies suggest that humor requires considerable mental effort because it forces the brain to anticipate and resolve tension between contradictory ideas. This process activates working memory and the frontal lobes, promoting creative thinking and neuroplasticity.
Neurology research coordinator at Hospital de La Princesa, delves into this mechanism: “At the brain level, humor can act in two ways. On the one hand, it activates a more emotional way: it generates pleasant sensations, favors connection with the students and increases the desire to participate. On the other, it activates a more cognitive way: it captures attention, introduces surprise and helps you think a little more about what you are learning.” According to López-Rodríguez, both pathways are activated especially when the student detects the incongruity of a joke or funny situation and then resolves it. “The content can be processed more deeply,” he points out.
The scientific evidence points in the same direction, although with nuances. “The results are not entirely consistent, in part because finding the right formula and dose of humor in the classroom is not easy,” warns López, citing recent research. But not all humor is valid or at any time. The neurologist distinguishes between different types and contexts: “The humor that is used to support teaching — the so-called instructional humor — works best when it is related to the concept that you want to explain, because it helps to illustrate, understand and remember it without breaking the rhythm of the class.” Self-critical humor also stands out, which the teacher uses to joke about himself: “It improves the bond and generates closeness.”
The age of the students is another determining factor. With the little ones, López points out, humor should be simple, visual and very clear, because they still do not fully understand ironies, abstract inconsistencies or double meanings. Added to this are culture, gender, subject, context and something that is not learned in any master’s degree: the innate grace of the teaching staff, because, as he points out: “Not everyone is born with a spark.”
On the opposite side of laughter, prolonged stress negatively affects both physical and mental development. Harding points out that a period of prolonged stress during childhood can impair learning, increase the risk of stress in adulthood, suppress immune function and contribute to disease. “The first emotional experiences are recorded in the structure of the brain. In short, the emotional state of young children directly influences how they function in the world,” he says.
For the author, humor and hope can improve a child’s ability to adapt to stressful situations. Even after experiencing serious trauma, such as those caused by war or an abusive situation, Harding notes that carefully introducing moments of joy and hope can calm their nervous system and help them regain a sense of security.
Both Harding and López-Rodríguez agree in calling for a paradigm shift. Harding directly questions current early childhood education protocols and advocates integrating humor into learning environments as a tool that reduces cognitive load, makes information more digestible, and improves retention. “Curriculum should never be prioritized over safe relationships and stress-free play environments,” he warns. López-Rodríguez, for his part, points to this “magic formula” as the real challenge: “A fair dose that manages to increase motivation and awaken curiosity with closeness, without losing rigor or turning classes into mere entertainment or a continuous and empty stimulus.”
In short, neuroscience suggests that laughing together, also when learning, is one of the best things that people can do. And perhaps it is also one of the most important lessons that happen inside a classroom.
