ArticlePDF Available

A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling.

Authors:
Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff at Utrecht University
Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff
Download full-text PDFDownload full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

Presents comparative data from subhuman species to elucidate the nature of and relations between smiling and laughter. The evolution of smiling and laughter from the expressive movements of lower primates and the influence of human language on these nonverbal expressions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
vHooff 1989 Laugh Humour. p
df.pdf
Content uploaded by Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff on Sep 04, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
vHooff 1972 Phylogeny Lau
gh.pdf
Content uploaded by Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jan A.R.A.M. van Hooff on Feb 07, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
... This can increase social status, however, if that behavior persists over long periods of time, this leaves the individual themselves with less cognitive and/or social resources. Various nonverbal displays of emotions also yield benefits in social contexts by enhancing social interactions which increases friendly associations and could also avert any potential hostile behaviors from others (van Hooff, 1972). Affective empathy could function in a similar way, as individuals would be more apt to express their emotional responses in certain social contexts if necessary. ...
Relationship Between Popularity, the Oxytocin Receptor Polymorphism Gene (OXTR rs53576), Emotional Intelligence, and Empathy
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
Objective The innate drive for humans to belong is coupled with the strategies they use to gain and maintain resources (Sapolsky, Annual Review of Anthropology, 33(1), 393–418, 2004), and individuals in higher levels of social status (such as dominant individuals) use different strategies to gain that status (Hawley, Developmental Review, 19(1), 97–132, 1999; Hawley, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 49(3), 279–309, 2003). Just as the environment is important for human development, it is also important to consider the genetic components that can impact thoughts and behaviors. Oxytocin has been connected to many affiliative behaviors which assist in gaining social status (Massey-Abernathy, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 212–220, 2017). OXTR rs53576 is a specific oxytocin polymorphic receptor site that when G homozygous, meaning possessing two G alleles (GG), individuals show more empathetic concern (Smith, Social Neuroscience, 9(1), 1–9, 2014), an increased ability to infer the emotional state of others (Domes, Biological Psychiatry, 61(6), 731–733, 2007), and increased emotional regulation (Massey-Abernathy, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 212–220, 2017). Methods In the current study, the relationships between self-report questionnaires on popularity types (sociometric/perceived), resource control strategies, empathy (cognitive and affective), and emotional intelligence was examined. Then a smaller sub-sample was used to look at their relationship to OXTR rs53576 using saliva sampling. Results This study’s results indicate in this sample, the use of coercive strategies alone created perceived popular individuals. Additionally, emotional intelligence and cognitive empathy were important for increased perceived popularity, and these characteristics were also seen in those who are OXTR rs53576G homozygous. Conclusion Examining these relationships may help researchers understand why “popular” individuals use certain tactics to create and maintain their high social status.
View
... Primatologists call the reaction that tickling evokes in chimpanzees "the relaxed open-mouth display, " or simply the "play face" (van Hooff, 1972). Taking a note out of Darwin's book, contemporary researchers have systematically tried tickling various primates and have documented the play face across all the great apes, which also includes orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos (Davila-Ross, 2007). ...
What Darwin Understood About Humor
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2024
Darwin’s thoughts on humor presaged our modern scientific understanding of its nature and its cultural manifestations.
View
... The clustering of AU12, AU9 + 10, AU10 and AU16 is quite typical of stereotyped silent-bared teeth (or 'fear-grin') expressions in macaques [31], and the incorporation of AU27 during bared teeth displays can be associated with affiliative play contexts [29]. In macaques (and many other primate species) these bared-teeth displays are used typically as signals of appeasement and submission in more despotic species [28,51] and during social bonding and affiliation in tolerant species [29]. It could be that individuals who are more expressive in these bared-teeth displays are navigating these affiliative or submissive interactions more effectively, which could subsequently allow them to occupy more favourable social network positions if it is aiding the strengthening of relationships. ...
Facial expressivity in dominant macaques is linked to group cohesion
Article
Full-text available
Social living affords primates (including humans) many benefits. Communication has been proposed to be the key mechanism used to bond social connections, which could explain why primates have evolved such expressive faces. We assessed whether the facial expressivity of the dominant male (quantified from the coding of anatomically based facial movement) was related to social network properties (based on social proximity and grooming) in nine groups of captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) housed in uniform physical and social environments. More facially expressive dominant male macaques were more socially connected and had more cohesive social groups. These findings show that inter-individual differences in facial expressivity are related to differential social outcomes at both an individual and group level. More expressive individuals occupy more beneficial social positions, which could help explain the selection for complex facial communication in primates.
View
... The play face (PF) is a facial expression observed in many primate and non-primate species during play fighting (Davila-Ross and Palagi 2022). The primate PF has been described as a relaxed, open-mouth expression with lower teeth, and occasionally upper teeth, exposed (van Hooff 1967(van Hooff , 1972Symons 1974). Because of its morphological and functional similarity (Tsao et al. 2008;Palagi et al. 2019), researchers consider this playful expression homologous to the visual component of human laughter (Davila-Ross and Palagi 2022;Palagi et al. 2022). ...
Rapid facial mimicry as a regulator of play in a despotic macaque species
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2024
  • BEHAV ECOL SOCIOBIOL
During risky interactions like social play, motor resonance phenomena such as facial mimicry can be highly adaptive. Here, we studied Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM, the automatic mimicking of a playmate’s facial expression, play faces) during play fighting between young rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) living in a large zoo-housed group. For the first time and in contrast to previous data on highly despotic-intolerant macaques, we found RFM to be present at high frequency in young rhesus macaques, especially when the trigger was dominant over the responder and when both players were subadults. The hierarchical modulation of RFM may be associated with the increased uncertainty and riskiness of play involving a higher-ranking playmate. This highlights the importance of mimicry in improving communication and coordination during such interactions. Interestingly, RFM prolonged playful sessions, possibly indicating a more effective fine-tuning of motor patterns. Moreover, the occurrence of RFM had an effect on shortening the latency to restart playing after a break, possibly acting as an engine to potentially maintain playmates’ arousal. When investigating if bystanders could replicate play faces emitted by the playing subjects, we failed to find RFM, thus highlighting that being directly involved in the interaction might be crucial for RFM activation in monkeys. Even though further comparative studies should investigate the role of RFM across tolerant and despotic-intolerant species, our findings offer valuable insights into the communicative and adaptive value of motor resonance phenomena in regulating social play in despotic societies. Significance statement In risky interactions involving competition and vigorous physical contact, such as play fighting, replicating partners’ facial expressions can serve as a strategy to convey positive mood and intentions. Here we investigated the presence and possible roles of Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM) in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). For the first time, our study demonstrates that communicative strategies, including Rapid Facial Mimicry (RFM), can be both present and frequent in despotic-intolerant macaque species. We demonstrate that the role of mimicry not only prolongs playful interactions but can also be linked to the reinforcement and/or transmission of playful arousal. Our study shows how the adaptive value of motor resonance phenomena may have driven their evolution to cope with challenges during social interactions also for despotic-intolerant species.
View
How to ʻplay togetherʼ: the opening and closing phases of play fighting in Japanese macaquesいかにʻ一緒に遊ぶʼのか： ニホンザルの取っ組み合い遊びの始まり方と終わり方
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2024
Achieving ‘doing something together’ requires more than mere physical proximity and bidirectional behavior; interactants must construct a situation where both parties are intersubjectively engaged in a shared interactional space to achieve ‘togetherness.’ This paper summarizes how immature Japanese macaques （Macaca fuscata） achieve （and sometimes fail to achieve） ‘playing together’ by reviewing our research on the opening and closing phases of play fighting. Our research indicates （1） that the face-to-face configuration during the opening of play contributes to the establishment of intersubjective engagement, （2） that facial signals during the opening phase honestly reflect an individual’s motivation to play but are not used tactically to invite reluctant or infrequent partners, and （3） that the ways in which play breaks down into overt conflict are related to interindividual differences determined by dominance ranks and developmental stages. These findings provide important insights into the evolutionary basis of togetherness, a characteristic of human interaction. The paper also highlights several points not addressed in our previous research and discusses future research directions.
View
Orangutans and chimpanzees produce morphologically varied laugh faces in response to the age and sex of their social partners
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2024
Laugh faces of humans play a key role in everyday social interactions as a pervasive tool of communication across contexts. Humans often vary the degree of mouth opening and teeth exposure when producing these facial expressions, which may depend on who their social partner is (e.g., their gender and age as well as their social relationship), serving this way different functions. Although it was found that laugh faces show evolutionary continuity across humans and non-human great apes according to the Principle of Maximum Parsimony, little is known about the function of laugh face variations from an evolutionary perspective. Hence, the present work examined the morphology of laugh faces in orangutan and chimpanzee dyadic play to test if they are modified with dependence on the playmate’s characteristics (sex, age and social relationship). In total, we analysed over 600 facial expressions of 14 orangutans and 17 chimpanzees by coding the specific muscle activations (Action Units, i.e. AUs) contributing to these expressions, using OrangFACS and ChimpFACS, respectively. Our results suggest that age difference and, to a lesser extent, playmate sex influence laugh face morphology in both taxa, but in opposite ways. While the orangutans of our study seem to expose their upper teeth (with AU10) and to pull the mouth corners (with AU12) more towards weaker partners (younger and female), possibly to communicate non-hostility, the chimpanzees showed both upper and lower teeth exposure (with AU10 and AU16) more often when interacting with the stronger partners (older individuals), possibly to communicate submissiveness. These findings suggest that the ability of humans to modify laugh faces with dependence on social partner characteristics has most likely evolved from pre-existing traits, going back at least to the last common ancestor of today’s great apes, including humans.
View
View
Human Perception of Bonobo Emotional Expressions: The Role of Expertise and Expression Channel
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Jun 2024
Reading emotional states of the interacting partner is fundamental for social communication. This ability of inferring others’ emotions is specialised for within-species communication, but is known to extend to cross-species interactions. Previous studies have suggested both morphological similarity and familiarity with the expressing species play a role in the success in cross-species emotion communication. To investigate the relative contribution of these factors in cross-species emotion perception of closely related species, humans and bonobos, we asked human participants with varying degrees of experience with bonobos to assign emotion labels to images of bonobo emotional expressions, and rate them on valence and intensity. Moreover, we investigated how the channel (face vs. body) and emotional valence (negative vs. positive) of bonobo expressions modulate the perception. The results show that experts agreed more on the labels assigned to positive and neutral faces and bodies than novices or intermediates, while negative bodies were perceived similarly by all three groups. Interestingly, novices showed a higher agreement score than experts and intermediates to label negative facial expressions. The effect of expert superiority for positive and neutral images was attenuated in valence ratings, and the ratings on negative faces remained difficult even for experts. Similar to the results of the emotional labels, novices agreed specifically well on the interpretation of the negative faces. For intensity ratings, expert superiority remained the same for facial expressions with negative facial expressions yielding the highest agreement scores in general. Our results indicate a mixed effect of similarity and familiarity: while novices predominantly use anthropomorphic strategies, experts drew upon their extensive knowledge to evaluate the emotional states from bonobo images. Bodily expressions showed similar effects of expert superiority, though not as strongly as facial expressions. Overall, experience plays a predominant role in cross-species emotion recognition.
View
View
Humor
Chapter
  • May 2024
This book provides a cutting-edge overview of emotion science from an evolutionary perspective. Part 1 outlines different ways of approaching the study of emotion; Part 2 covers specific emotions from an evolutionary perspective; Part 3 discusses the role of emotions in a variety of life domains; and Part 4 explores the relationship between emotions and psychological disorders. Experts from a number of different disciplines—psychology, biology, anthropology, psychiatry, and more—tackle a variety of “how” (proximate) and “why” (ultimate) questions about the function of emotions in humans and nonhuman animals, how emotions work, and their place in human life. This volume documents the explosion of knowledge in emotion science over the last few decades, outlines important areas of future research, and highlights key questions that have yet to be answered.
View
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.