{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T11:16:48Z","timestamp":1773141408731,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":67,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,5]],"date-time":"2016-09-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1473033600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["K"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to present a new core hypothesis on laughter. It has been built by putting together ideas from several disciplines: neurodynamics, evolutionary neurobiology, social networks, and communication studies. The hypothesis focusses on the social nature of laughter and contributes to ascertain its evolutionary origins in connection with the cognitive and social-emotional functions it performs.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>An in-depth examination of laughter in the social communication context and along the life cycle of the individual is performed. This instinctive behaviour that appears as a \u201cvirtual\u201d, non-physical form of \u201cgrooming\u201d would serve as a bond-making instrument in human groups. Further, the neurodynamic events underlying laughter production \u2013 and particularly the form of the neural entropy gradients \u2013 are congruent with a sentic hypothesis about the different emotional contents of laughter and their specific effects on bonding dynamics.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The new behavioural and neurodynamic tenets introduced about this unusual sound feature of our species justify the ubiquitous presence it has in social interactions at large and along the life cycle of the individual. Laughter, far from being a curious evolutionary relic or a rather inconsequential innate behaviour, should be considered as a highly efficient tool for inter-individual problem solving and for maintenance of social bonds.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>Laughter, the authors would conclude, has been evolutionarily kept and augmented as an optimized tool for unconscious cognitive-emotional problem solving, and at the same time as a useful way to preserve the essential fabric of social bonds in close-knit groups and within human societies at large.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/k-02-2016-0026","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,10,17]],"date-time":"2016-10-17T09:31:33Z","timestamp":1476696693000},"page":"1292-1307","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Laughing bonds"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"45","author":[{"given":"Jorge","family":"Navarro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Raquel","family":"del Moral","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pedro C.","family":"Mariju\u00e1n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2020121300495428800_ref001","volume-title":"Evolving Brains","year":"1999"},{"issue":"45","key":"key2020121300495428800_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16496","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0408456102","article-title":"Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor","volume":"102","year":"2005","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020121300495428800_ref100","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"252","DOI":"10.1111\/1467-9280.00346","article-title":"Not all laughs are alike: voiced but not unvoiced laughter readily elicits positive affect","volume":"12","year":"2001","journal-title":"Psychological Science"},{"key":"key2020121300495428800_ref003","volume-title":"Sounds of Emotion 1 Vocal Expressions of Emotion","year":"2008"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020121300495428800_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1581","DOI":"10.1121\/1.1391244","article-title":"The acoustic features of human laughter","volume":"110","year":"2001","journal-title":"The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America"},{"issue":"7208","key":"key2020121300495428800_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1054","DOI":"10.1038\/4541054a","article-title":"Battle of the sexes may set the brain","volume":"454","year":"2008","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"key2020121300495428800_ref006","unstructured":"Bateson, G. 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