Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Warum wir lachen
While exploring the neuroscience of speech and vocal behavior, Sophie Scott stumbled upon a surprising second vocation: making audiences laugh as a stand-up comic. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to you today about laughter,
by thinking about the first time
mit dem allerersten Mal,
dass gelacht wurde.
I would've been about six.
doing something unusual,
an einem ungewöhnlichen Ort lachten.
und wälzten sich vor Lachen.
laughing at, but I wanted in.
aber ich wollte dabei sein.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
"Ha, ha, ha" machen. (Lachen)
what they were laughing at
signs in toilets on trains
auf Zugtoiletten zu tun,
und nicht machen sollte.
and could not do
about the English is, of course,
feinen Sinn für Humor haben.
sophisticated sense of humor.
understand anything of that.
I've come to care about it again.
interessiere ich mich erneut dafür.
schräge Angelegenheit.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
laughter is as a sound.
als Klang eigentlich ist.
than it is like speech.
als nach Sprache.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Der erste ist ziemlich fröhlich.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
(Laughter)
(Lachen)
this is a human female laughing.
odd places in terms of making noises.
die merkwürdigsten Töne heraus.
what is that?" in French.
"Gott, was ist das?".
I have no idea.
Ich weiß auch nicht.
you have to look at a part of the body
müssen wir einen Körperteil betrachten,
don't normally spend much time looking at,
nicht so faszinierend.
your ribcage all the time.
mit unserem Brustkorb.
at the moment with your ribcage,
the muscles between your ribs,
Zwischenrippenmuskeln,
und zusammengezogen.
and contracting your ribcage,
mit einem Atemgürtel umwickle,
around the outside of your chest
at that movement,
sinusförmige Bewegung: das Atmen.
movement, so that's breathing.
completely differently.
so etwas wie dieses:
something much more like this.
movements of the ribcage
Brustkorbbewegungen im Spiel,
that can do this.
die das hinkriegen.
has a mortal enemy,
haben aber einen Todfeind:
start to contract very regularly,
Muskeln gleichmäßig zusammen
sort of zig-zagging,
ausgeprägten Zickzack,
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
derselbe Effekt.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
ergibt einen Ton: "Ha!".
you can get these spasms,
ergeben sich diese Zuckungen
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
sehr gut aus. (Lachen)
there isn't very much,
ist Lachen nur das,
everything we think we know
über das Lachen sind falsch.
to hear people to say
die einzigen Tiere, die lachen.
are the only animals that laugh.
bei allen Säugetieren.
throughout the mammals.
and well-observed in primates,
beobachtet und beschrieben.
with things like tickling.
wie Kitzeln einher.
and all mammals play.
Alle Säugetiere spielen.
im Wechselspiel statt.
it's associated with interactions.
a lot of work on this,
an diesem Thema und wies nach,
more likely to laugh
anderen Menschen lacht als alleine
than if you're on your own,
Miteinander z. B. einem Gespräch.
like conversation.
"Wann lachen Sie?",
"When do you laugh?"
bei Humor, bei Witzen.
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
lachen sie, wenn sie bei Freunden sind.
they're laughing with their friends.
ist das nur selten über Witze.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
that you understand them,
dass wir sie verstehen.
part of the same group as them.
gehören zur selben Gruppe.
that you like them.
oder sogar Liebe zu zeigen.
gleichzeitig mit ihnen
as talking to them,
diesen emotionalen Part.
of that emotional work for you.
dass wir lachen,
has pointed out, as you can see here,
funny laughs at the start,
when I found my parents laughing,
meine Eltern lachen sah,
behaviorally contagious effect.
off somebody else if you know them.
by this social context.
des geselligen Lachens.
meaning of laughter
diese verschiedenartigen Lacher.
is different kinds of laughter,
about how human beings vocalize
zwei Arten von Lachen haben.
two kinds of laughs that we have.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
haltlose, unfreiwillige Lachen
screaming about a silly song,
über das alberne Lied --
than some of that more polite
etwas höflichere Lachen hat,
which isn't horrible laughter,
das kein brüllendes Lachen ist.
as part of their communicative act to you,
Kommunikation untereinander.
they are choosing to do this.
Interaktion untereinander.
two different ways of vocalizing.
haben wir entwickelt.
are part of an older system
einem älterem Stamm an
like the speech I'm doing now.
wie mein Sprechen gerade.
might actually have two different roots.
zwei verschiedene Ursprünge.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
Menschen aufnehmen
to make people laugh,
to produce more posed, social laughter.
gesellschaftlichen Lacher.
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
this laughter is real laughter,
ob das Lachen echt ist oder nicht.
or more voluntary laughter?
gezwungen oder echt?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
Sophie Scott: Gezwungen? Ja.
all they had to do was record me
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
bei einem voraussehbaren Lachen
are good at telling the difference
Unterschied gut heraus
quite similar with chimpanzees.
if they're being tickled
wenn sie gekitzelt werden
something like that here,
vom Gesellschaftslachen unterscheidet.
being different from social laughter.
Die Töne sind höher.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
bewusst erzeugen könnte.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
nie so hoch kommen.
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
is extremely easy,
man erkennt es einfach.
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
an important social cue.
Es ist ein wichtiger sozialer Akt.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
in ganz vielen Situationen.
nasality in posed laughter,
mit Nasalität verbunden,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
these two different sorts of things.
diese beiden Arten von Lachen.
to see how brains respond
beide Reaktionen zu testen.
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
und gezwungenes Lachen vor.
it was a study on laughter.
dass es eine Lach-Studie war.
to distract them,
um sie abzulenken.
is lying listening to sounds.
and when you hear posed laughter,
signifikant anders.
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
liegt im auditiven Kortex.
more to the real laughs,
echtem Lachen mehr reagieren.
bei haltlosem Lachen Töne hört,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
with greater auditory processing
Verarbeitung einher.
laughing in a posed way,
Mentalisierungsprozesse,
associated with mentalizing,
was andere denken.
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
langweiligen Gehirnscannen,
wenn jemand "ha, ha, ha, ha" macht.
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
why they're laughing.
immer im Kontext verstehen
to understand it in context,
gar nichts damit zu tun hat.
at that point in time,
anything to do with you,
warum gelacht wird.
why those people are laughing.
echtes und gezwungenes Lachen
at how people hear real and posed laughter
mit der Royal Society
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
ein paar Lacher
or posed do these laughs sound?
und welche unecht waren.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
die gezwungenen blau.
and better at spotting real laughter.
echtes Lachen besser.
kaum einen Unterschied heraus.
they can't really hear the difference.
geschieht das erfolgreichste Raten
peak performance in this dataset
oder frühen Vierzigern.
late 30s and early 40s.
nicht richtiges Lachen.
by the time you hit puberty.
by the time your brain has matured
wenn Ihr Gehirn schon gereift ist,
throughout your entire early adult life.
als junger Erwachsener.
not, what does the laughter sound like
or posed, but we say,
make you want to laugh,
erhalten wir eine andere Kurve.
we see a different profile.
wenn es ums Lachen geht.
when you hear laughter.
when I had no idea what was going on.
than the posed laughs,
ansteckender als ein unechtes.
less contagious to you.
das Lachen nicht mehr so ansteckend.
really grumpy as we get older,
im Alter mürrischer werden,
understand laughter better,
besser verstehen
es zu unterscheiden.
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
als bloß andere lachen zu hören.
den gesellschaftlichen Kontext.
interessantes Verhalten.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
there's even more to laughter
we should look at,
gesellschaftliche Emotion ist,
people are phenomenally nuanced
enorme Bandbreite an Lachern,
set of studies coming out
in Kalifornien,
a longitudinal study with couples.
über Verheiratete macht.
men and women, into the lab,
stressful conversations to have
Themen unterhalten,
so he can see them becoming stressed.
angeschlossen sind, der den Stress misst.
and he'll say to the husband,
und er sagt z. B. zum Ehemann:
that irritates you."
über Ihre Frau, das Sie ärgert."
briefly, you and your partner --
Sie und Ihr Partner --
more stressed as soon as that starts.
wenn der Test startet.
people become more stressed.
wie sie immer gestresster werden.
who manage that feeling of stress
die diesen Stress mit Lachen,
positive emotions like laughter,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
Situation zusammen besser zurecht.
in their relationship
at close relationships,
their emotions together.
gemeinsam ihre Gefühle regulieren.
to show that we like each other,
um Zuneigung auszudrücken,
feel better together.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
auf romantische Beziehungen.
going to be a characteristic
wie Freundschaften.
such as you might have with friends,
young men in the former East Germany
um ihre Heavy-Metal-Band zu promoten,
their heavy metal band,
ernst in der Stimmung.
and the mood is very serious,
auf das Lachen alles passiert,
what happens in terms of laughter
und sich die Stimmung ändert.
and how that changes the mood.
Er hat eine Badehose an,
He's got swimming trunks on,
They are already laughing, hard.
Sie lachen sich tot.
is it's all very serious
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
und es nicht bricht,
and bone everywhere,
oder Knochenbrüche gibt
with him standing there going,
ihn außer Gefecht gesetzt.
I think this is broken,"
ich glaube es ist gebrochen."
That would be stressful.
gebrochenem Bein lachen würde
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
"Wir müssen ins Krankenhaus",
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
peinlichen Lage bewahrt,
embarrassing, difficult situation,
und wir genießen können.
actually enjoying there,
a really interesting use,
something like this happening
in Unterhosen herum.
on the ice in our underpants.
Ein Verwandter war schwierig.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
just before the whole thing started
über eine Telenovela der 70er.
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
"Warum erzähl ich das bloß?",
I don't know why I'm doing this,
mir etwas einfallen ließ,
something from somewhere
together with me.
to find some reason we can do this.
nach einem guten Grund dafür.
Wir kommen da durch.
We're going to get through this.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
how often they laugh,
wenn wir mit anderen lachen.
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
wird abgespult,
to make and maintain social bonds,
um soziale Bindungen zu erhalten.
to make ourselves feel better.
damit wir uns wohler fühlen.
it's a really ancient behavior
es ist ein uraltes Verhalten,
and makes us feel better.
zu regulieren, um uns wohler fühlen.
anderes als Säugetiere,
but mammals. (Laughter)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sophie Scott - Neuroscientist, stand-up comicWhile exploring the neuroscience of speech and vocal behavior, Sophie Scott stumbled upon a surprising second vocation: making audiences laugh as a stand-up comic.
Why you should listen
As deputy director of the University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Sophie Scott seeks out the neurological basis of communication, whether it’s speech or vocalized emotion.
As a pioneering researcher in the science of laughter, she’s made some unexpected discoveries -- including that rats are ticklish, and that the one tactic that’s almost guaranteed to get someone to laugh is to show them someone else laughing. But as an occasional stand-up comedian with UCL’s Bright Club, she shows that she’s no slouch at getting laughs herself.
Sophie Scott | Speaker | TED.com