Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Pourquoi nous rions
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,
Aujourd'hui, je vais vous parler du rire
by thinking about the first time
la toute première fois
I would've been about six.
J'avais environ 6 ans.
doing something unusual,
faisant quelque chose d'inhabituel :
laughing at, but I wanted in.
mais je voulais rire avec eux.
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
en faisant « Ah Ah ! » (Rires)
what they were laughing at
à propos d'une chanson
signs in toilets on trains
des toilettes dans le train
and could not do
faire ou non
about the English is, of course,
les Anglais, bien sûr,
un sens de l'humour très sophistiqué.
sophisticated sense of humor.
understand anything of that.
je ne le comprenais pas.
I've come to care about it again.
cela m'importe toujours.
is just play some examples
people make and how odd that can be,
que les gens font, leur bizarrerie,
laughter is as a sound.
est un son primitif.
than it is like speech.
à un cri animal qu'à la parole.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Le premier est assez joyeux.
where I'm just, like,
je me dis juste :
like he's breathing out.
c'est vraiment lui.
(Rires)
(Laughter)
this is a human female laughing.
un rire de femme.
odd places in terms of making noises.
des bruits vraiment bizarres.
what is that?" in French.
« Mon Dieu, c'est quoi ça ? »
I have no idea.
Je n'en ai aucune idée.
you have to look at a part of the body
vous devez considérer une partie du corps
neuroscientifiques ne s'attardent pas :
don't normally spend much time looking at,
your ribcage all the time.
avec votre cage thoracique -
at the moment with your ribcage,
entre vos côtes,
the muscles between your ribs,
l'air de vos poumons
and contracting your ribcage,
autour de votre poitrine,
around the outside of your chest
at that movement,
c'est la respiration.
movement, so that's breathing.
completely differently.
plutôt à cela.
something much more like this.
le mouvement de votre thorax
movements of the ribcage
capables de le faire.
that can do this.
has a mortal enemy,
se contractent régulièrement,
start to contract very regularly,
sort of zig-zagging,
très marqué :
the air out of you.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
en serrant quelqu'un :
produit un son.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
vous avez des spasmes
you can get these spasms,
-- (sifflement) -- choses qui arrivent.
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
(Rires)
there isn't very much,
il n'y a pas grand chose,
everything we think we know
tout ce que nous pensons savoir
to hear people to say
il n'est pas inhabituel d'entendre
les seuls animaux à rire.
are the only animals that laugh.
chez tous les mammifères.
throughout the mammals.
chez les primates,
and well-observed in primates,
comme les chatouilles.
with things like tickling.
and all mammals play.
et tous les mammifères jouent.
it's associated with interactions.
il est associé à des interactions.
a lot of work on this,
beaucoup travaillé sur ce sujet,
more likely to laugh
30 fois plus de chances de rire
than if you're on your own,
plutôt que seul,
like conversation.
comme les conversations.
"When do you laugh?"
quand ils rient,
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
d'humour, de blagues.
they're laughing with their friends.
ils rient avec leurs amis.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
c'est très rarement à cause de blagues.
that you understand them,
que vous les comprenez,
part of the same group as them.
que vous appartenez au même groupe,
that you like them.
que vous les aimez.
as talking to them,
un grosse partie du travail émotionnel.
of that emotional work for you.
comme vous pouvez le voir ici,
has pointed out, as you can see here,
comme tout à l'heure,
funny laughs at the start,
when I found my parents laughing,
de contagion du rire.
behaviorally contagious effect.
de quelqu'un,
si vous connaissez cette personne.
off somebody else if you know them.
par le contexte social.
by this social context.
meaning of laughter
les différents genres de rire,
is different kinds of laughter,
about how human beings vocalize
sur la façon dont les humains vocalisent
two kinds of laughs that we have.
deux genres de rires.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
du rire involontaire,
à cause d'une chansonnette,
screaming about a silly song,
than some of that more polite
d'un rire social plus poli,
which isn't horrible laughter,
as part of their communicative act to you,
et faisant partie de la communication,
they are choosing to do this.
c'est un choix.
two different ways of vocalizing.
développé deux façons de vocaliser :
viennent d'un système
are part of an older system
like the speech I'm doing now.
volontaires, comme ma conférence.
might actually have two different roots.
a deux racines différentes.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
des gens qui rient,
to make people laugh,
pour les faire rire
to produce more posed, social laughter.
un rire social, plus posé.
dise une blague,
you like your friend,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
que ce rire est vrai
this laughter is real laughter,
ou un rire volontaire ?
or more voluntary laughter?
S. S. : Oui.
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
(Applaudissements)
all they had to do was record me
que je regarde une amie
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
que je savais qu'elle trouverait drôle.
are good at telling the difference
savent faire la différence
chez les chimpanzés.
quite similar with chimpanzees.
si on les chatouille
if they're being tickled
something like that here,
est différent du rire social.
being different from social laughter.
et plus aigus.
They're higher in pitch.
from your lungs
que lorsque c'est volontaire.
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
chanter aussi aigu.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
et ces sifflements étranges,
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
est extrêmement simple,
is extremely easy,
à remarquer.
sembler un peu faux.
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
an important social cue.
c'est un signal social important.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
nous choisissons souvent de rire,
nasality in posed laughter,
de la nasalité,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
en riant involontairement.
deux choses différentes.
these two different sorts of things.
on a étudié la réaction du cerveau
to see how brains respond
this is a really boring experiment.
real and posed laughs.
des rires vrais et posés
it was a study on laughter.
une étude sur le rire.
to distract them,
pour distraire,
is lying listening to sounds.
écoutant les sons.
and when you hear posed laughter,
un vrai rire ou un rire posé,
completely differently,
which lies in auditory cortex,
dans le cortex auditif,
more to the real laughs,
au vrai rire,
laughing involuntarily,
hear in any other context.
qu'on ne percevrait pas autrement.
with greater auditory processing
à un traitement auditif plus poussé
laughing in a posed way,
un rire posé,
associated with mentalizing,
liées à la mentalisation,
somebody else is thinking.
which is completely boring
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
why they're laughing.
pourquoi.
to understand it in context,
dans son contexte,
at that point in time,
à voir avec vous,
anything to do with you,
pourquoi ces gens rient.
why those people are laughing.
perçoivent un rire vrai ou posé
at how people hear real and posed laughter
lancée avec la Royal Society,
we ran with the Royal Society,
two questions.
ils étaient vrais ou posés.
or posed do these laughs sound?
les posés sont en bleu.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
les rires vrais.
and better at spotting real laughter.
they can't really hear the difference.
n'entendent pas vraiment la différence.
peak performance in this dataset
dans cette feuille de données
late 30s and early 40s.
by the time you hit puberty.
pas entièrement le rire.
by the time your brain has matured
throughout your entire early adult life.
tout au long de l'âge adulte.
not, what does the laughter sound like
qu'au lieu de demander
on demande
or posed, but we say,
make you want to laugh,
nous observons un profil différent.
we see a different profile.
when you hear laughter.
en entendant un rire.
when I had no idea what was going on.
mes parents sans savoir pourquoi.
than the posed laughs,
que le posé,
less contagious to you.
cela devient moins contagieux.
really grumpy as we get older,
en vieillissant,
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
pour vouloir rire.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
de nos idées reçues,
there's even more to laughter
qu'il y a plus dans le rire
we should look at,
à observer,
people are phenomenally nuanced
sont énormément nuancés
set of studies coming out
a longitudinal study with couples.
avec des couples.
men and women, into the lab,
hommes et femmes, au labo
stressful conversations to have
des conversations stressantes
so he can see them becoming stressed.
afin de les voir devenir stressés.
and he'll say to the husband,
et il dit au mari :
that irritates you."
et qui vous irrite. »
briefly, you and your partner --
et votre partenaire --
more stressed as soon as that starts.
stresse un peu plus dès que cela commence.
people become more stressed.
who manage that feeling of stress
ce sentiment de stress
positive emotions like laughter,
des émotions positives comme le rire,
moins stressés
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
déplaisante ensemble,
in their relationship
at close relationships,
des relations intimes,
très utile
their emotions together.
régulent leurs émotions ensemble.
to show that we like each other,
pour montrer qu'on se plaît,
feel better together.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
aux relations amoureuses.
en fait une caractéristique
going to be a characteristic
comme celles avec des amis,
such as you might have with friends,
young men in the former East Germany
dans l'ancienne Allemagne de l'est
their heavy metal band,
de heavy métal en vidéo,
and the mood is very serious,
l'ambiance est très sérieuse,
what happens in terms of laughter
ce qu'il se passe quant au rire
and how that changes the mood.
et comment cela change l'ambiance.
He's got swimming trunks on,
Il porte un maillot de bain,
They are already laughing, hard.
Ils rient déjà très fort.
is it's all very serious
est qu'ils sont tous très sérieux
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
et dès qu'il ne passe pas à travers,
and bone everywhere,
with him standing there going,
je crois que c'est cassé »,
I think this is broken,"
Ce serait stressant.
That would be stressful.
avec une jambe cassée
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
douloureuse, embarrassante, difficile,
embarrassing, difficult situation,
que nous apprécions.
actually enjoying there,
très intéressant,
a really interesting use,
d'une chose de similaire
something like this happening
en sous-vêtements.
on the ice in our underpants.
(Applaudissements)
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
un parent était un peu pénible,
juste avant que tout commence,
just before the whole thing started
des années 70,
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
je ne savais pas pourquoi je le faisais
I don't know why I'm doing this,
something from somewhere
together with me.
pour trouver une raison de le faire.
to find some reason we can do this.
on peut traverser cette épreuve.
We're going to get through this.
tout le temps.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
how often they laugh,
la fréquence à laquelle on rit,
when you laugh with people,
a really ancient evolutionary system
à une réaction primitive
to make and maintain social bonds,
pour créer et maintenir des liens sociaux
to make ourselves feel better.
pour nous sentir mieux.
it's a really ancient behavior
c'est un comportement ancien
and makes us feel better.
et nous fait nous sentir mieux.
but mammals. (Laughter)
rien que des mammifères. (Rires)
(Applaudissements)
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