It's Seriously A Good Idea To Laugh At Yourself, Science Confirms

Are you really, truly capable of laughing at yourself?

If so, it's a good sign that you have an optimistic personality and a good sense of humor, a new study suggests.

A small, new study in the journal Emotion of 70 people reveals that those who are really able to laugh at themselves are more cheerful and less serious than people who fake it.

Researchers tested the phenomena by first asking the study participants if they are able to laugh at themselves. Then, they took secret footage of the study participants as they saw -- and laughed at -- distorted pictures of themselves.

Researchers found that ability of people to laugh at themselves was not connected with how much they laughed at the images of other people -- suggesting that it has more to do with a specific character trait, rather than just recognizing a funny photo when you see one, TIME reported.

In addition to being good for spirits, laughter has also been shown in past research to boost health. A small study presented this year at an American Heart Association meeting showed that listening to funny jokes or your favorite music could lower blood pressure possibly even as much as cutting salt from your diet or losing 10 pounds.

Read TIME's full story here.

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Comments

[Blues Healer]

07:47 PM on 08/11/2011

I take laughter very seriously. :)

[Vimala Nowlis]

02:34 PM on 08/11/2011

When you made a silly mistake, it is good to laugh at yourself. But there is no point in going out of your way to make a fool of yourself in public then post the pix online. What happened to good taste and class and "don't suffer fools"?

[daffyduck142]

01:32 PM on 08/11/2011

laugh at myself, of course i'm the only one to find me funny

[snoopjohnny]

01:02 PM on 08/11/2011

My family's past few generations saw some trying times that would probably destroy most people in today's society. As a kid, it was clear to me that the somewhat unusual sense of humor common to many of them had functioned as a survival mechanism. Genetic? At least partly, judging by my generation...still, I think mental health and sometimes just getting by requires that we take our challenges in life seriously....but ourselves less so.

[bmitche]

12:55 PM on 08/11/2011

Laugh fool, laugh !!

[metsbubbe]

10:37 AM on 08/11/2011

Suffering from clinical depression, I have found this to be a very healthy cognitive way of dealing with it when I get the lows.
We all should try to laugh more and try not to become upset over things which are really not of our own control.
Take charge, laugh more.

[jabb5076]

09:49 AM on 08/11/2011

A sense of humor and the ability to laugh at yourself are qualities I don't really believe can be taught; they are either part of our basic personality as we mature, or they're just absent from our basic makeup. I imagine we've all encountered some of those people who never seem to find anything (most especially themselves) funny, or even those people who clearly don't have a sense of humor, but are socially aware enough to try to fake it.

[maebven]

02:59 PM on 08/11/2011

I guess most of us can prod ourselves to lighten up a bit. But yeah, I don't think it's possible to give yourself the ability to find humor in humiliation. Human beings have a wide range of responses to specific stimuli. I think they just found a way to differentiate between sad and happy people. Perhaps it's useful diagnostically, I don't know.... Of course I'd have to have faith in the field of psychology in order to make that assessment, and I don't.

[Risky Rich]

09:45 AM on 08/11/2011

What you laughing at? BAM

[lawrencefishberg]

06:56 AM on 08/11/2011

If you laugh at yourself it would be better if there is an audience.

[Daniel Jones]

09:24 PM on 08/10/2011

the 'experiment' only showed that people can indeed laugh at themselves, which we all already knew. It says nothing on the matter of if they're 'more cheerful and less serious' or not.

[Kate Ragas]

07:59 PM on 08/10/2011

The Inuit living in the arctic have to laugh everyday because mood disorders become very common with so little sunlight. That said, there are many people who have known about the benefits of lauging for a long time.

[meftus]

11:28 AM on 08/11/2011

I couldn't agree with you more. Having lived in Fairbanks, AK for many years & having become friends with many of the Inuit women, I learned to laugh. I always had a sense of humor and consistently carried out the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" theory in my own life.
Then Winter hit, WOW did I need to laugh. Sometimes there just isn't, or you think there isn't, anything to laugh about. I found ways to laugh at myself.
Short of those who are so narcissistic that they would never admit to a mistake, anyone can find times that they "chuckle" under their own breath at a silly thing they have done. Now I have learned to turn it into full blown laughter. When people ask what is so funny, I tell them what I did that made me feel foolish. They will often laugh with/at me. Help for more than one.
Just a personal experience hope it helps someone.

[Disketta]

07:24 PM on 08/10/2011

I think it probably also helps you achieve more in life, or at least just as much with less stress, if you don't take yourself too seriously and understand that you can make mistakes, laugh at them and move on.

[maebven]

07:13 PM on 08/10/2011

I'm not sure how useful this is. How do you teach someone to have a sense of humor? Or to be self-effacing? I would imagine that people who are too sensitive to laugh at themselves aren't going to to be able to just get over it, or they would have. This is bound to just make them feel worse about themselves.

[Tater Gumfries]

11:16 AM on 08/11/2011

"How do you teach someone to have a sense of humor?" Punch em till they lighten up.

[idancesmt70]

01:56 PM on 08/11/2011

you made me laugh Tater. hahaha