Sophie Scott: Why we laugh
Sophie Scott: Kenapa Kita Tertawa?
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
mengingat kali pertama
I would've been about six.
sekitar enam tahun.
doing something unusual,
melakukan hal-hal di luar kebiasaan
di lantai.
laughing at, but I wanted in.
mereka tertawakan,
going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)
tertawa, "Haaa haaa! (Tawa)
what they were laughing at
yang biasa orang nyanyikan,
signs in toilets on trains
di toilet di dalam kereta,
and could not do
dan tidak boleh dilakukan
about the English is, of course,
sophisticated sense of humor.
yang luar biasa.
understand anything of that.
tak paham isi lagu itu.
I've come to care about it again.
saya peduli akan tawa.
is just play some examples
beberapa contoh dari
people make and how odd that can be,
serta keganjilan tawa tersebut,
laughter is as a sound.
suara tawa sebenarnya.
than it is like speech.
binatang daripada sebuah dialog.
The first one is pretty joyful.
Yang pertama cukup ceria.
mengambil napas.
where I'm just, like,
like he's breathing out.
dia kehabisan udara.
ini dia orangnya.
(Laughter)
(Hadirin tertawa)
this is a human female laughing.
seorang perempuan.
odd places in terms of making noises.
hal-hal yang aneh mengenai suara.
what is that?" in French.
Perancis, "Ya Tuhan, apa itu?"
I have no idea.
hal yang sama.
you have to look at a part of the body
harus menelaah bagian tubuh
don't normally spend much time looking at,
Psikolog dan ahli Neurosains,
menggunakan tulang rusuk.
your ribcage all the time.
dengan tulang rusuk Anda
at the moment with your ribcage,
yang berada di antara tulang rusuk,
the muscles between your ribs,
keluar-masuk dengan
and contracting your ribcage,
jika saya mengikat
around the outside of your chest
perhatikan gerakannya,
at that movement,
akan terjadi, yakni pernapasan.
movement, so that's breathing.
dengan cara berbeda.
completely differently.
sekarang nampak seperti ini.
something much more like this.
tulang rusuk Anda
movements of the ribcage
that can do this.
yang dapat melakukannya.
punya musuh utama
has a mortal enemy,
adalah tertawa,
ketika itu:
secara reguler,
start to contract very regularly,
sort of zig-zagging,
pola zig-zag,
the air out of you.
dari paru-paru.
of making a sound.
it's having the same effect.
efeknya pun akan sama.
akan memunculkan suara.
Ha! -- gives you a sound.
kekejangan terjadi,
you can get these spasms,
(suara mengi).
these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.
there isn't very much,
tawa, ini tidaklah signifikan,
everything we think we know
konsep mengenai tawa yang
to hear people to say
mendengar orang berkata
are the only animals that laugh.
mamalia lain pun tertawa.
throughout the mammals.
pada primata,
and well-observed in primates,
with things like tickling.
sensasi digelitik.
and all mammals play.
permainan; mamalia pun bermain.
it's associated with interactions.
tawa dan interaksi berhubungan.
a lot of work on this,
secara ekstensif,
more likely to laugh
kemungkinan Anda tertawa
than if you're on your own,
daripada ketika sendirian,
like conversation.
semacam percakapan.
"When do you laugh?"
"Kapan Anda tertawa?"
about humor and they'll talk about jokes.
membicarakan humor dan canda.
they're laughing with their friends.
bersama teman mereka.
hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.
kita tidak tertawa karena guyonan.
that you understand them,
bahwa Anda paham,
part of the same group as them.
dan adalah bagian dari mereka;
Anda menyukai mereka,
that you like them.
berbincang dengan mereka,
as talking to them,
semua emosi tersebut.
of that emotional work for you.
seperti yang Anda lihat,
has pointed out, as you can see here,
funny laughs at the start,
bersama orangtua saya,
when I found my parents laughing,
behaviorally contagious effect.
mengenal orang tersebut.
off somebody else if you know them.
sangat berpengaruh.
by this social context.
meaning of laughter
is different kinds of laughter,
keberagaman tawa,
about how human beings vocalize
tentang bagaimana manusia bersuara
two kinds of laughs that we have.
tawa yang mungkin dimiliki manusia.
for helpless, involuntary laughter,
yang suka tertawa terbahak-bahak
screaming about a silly song,
berguling-guling di lantai
than some of that more polite
dibanding tawa yang sopan
which isn't horrible laughter,
ini tidaklah jelek,
mereka berkomunikasi dengan Anda,
as part of their communicative act to you,
they are choosing to do this.
mereka melakukannya dengan tawa.
two different ways of vocalizing.
bervokalisasi yang berkembang:
are part of an older system
adalah bagian dari sistem lama,
like the speech I'm doing now.
yang saya lakukan sekarang.
memiliki dua akar berbeda.
might actually have two different roots.
in more detail.
recordings of people laughing,
bunyi tawa manusia,
to make people laugh,
agar mereka tertawa,
to produce more posed, social laughter.
seperti dalam bersosialisasi.
you like your friend,
Anda menyukai dia,
the joke's all that.
a couple of those.
tawa ini sungguh-sungguh,
this laughter is real laughter,
atau tidak?
or more voluntary laughter?
Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.
SS: Anda benar.
all they had to do was record me
mereka hanya perlu merekam saya
something I knew she wanted to laugh at,
mendengarkan sesuatu yang lucu,
are good at telling the difference
mampu membedakan antara
adanya kemiripan dengan simpanse.
quite similar with chimpanzees.
ketika digelitik berbeda
if they're being tickled
bermain bersama,
melihat kemiripannya,
something like that here,
berbeda dengan tawa dalam sosialisasi.
being different from social laughter.
nadanya lebih nyaring.
They're higher in pitch.
udara dari paru-paru
from your lungs
dari saat Anda tertawa dibuat-buat.
than you could ever produce voluntarily.
suara saya tidaklah senyaring itu.
pitch my voice that high to sing.
dan keluarnya siulan-siulan aneh,
contractions and weird whistling sounds,
sungguh-sungguh tidaklah susah,
is extremely easy,
we might think it sounds a bit fake.
terdengar seperti suara bohong-bohongan.
terdapat ciri sosial di sini.
an important social cue.
to laugh in a lot of situations,
tertawa pada berbagai situasi,
nasality in posed laughter,
pada sebuah tawa yang dibuat-buat,
if you were laughing involuntarily.
ketika Anda sedang pura-pura tertawa.
these two different sorts of things.
jenis tawa.
melihat bagaimana otak merespon
to see how brains respond
this is a really boring experiment.
sebuah eksperimen yang membosankan.
real and posed laughs.
yang sukarela dan terpaksa.
it was a study on laughter.
kami meneliti perilaku tertawa.
to distract them,
untuk mengganggu mereka,
is lying listening to sounds.
suara tersebut.
and when you hear posed laughter,
suara tawa sukarela
completely differently,
sangat berbeda,
which lies in auditory cortex,
terletak pada korteks auditori,
more to the real laughs,
tawa yang sukarela,
laughing involuntarily,
yang lepas,
hear in any other context.
pernah Anda dengar pada konteks lain.
with greater auditory processing
proses auditori yang lebih banyak
laughing in a posed way,
seseorang tertawa dibuat-buat,
associated with mentalizing,
untuk melakukan mentalisasi,
somebody else is thinking.
yang orang lain pikirkan.
hal itu berarti bahwa
which is completely boring
dan kegiatan ini membosankan
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
"A ha ha ha ha ha,"
apa penyebab tawa itu.
why they're laughing.
to understand it in context,
memahami tawa,
at that point in time,
ketika saat
dengan Anda,
anything to do with you,
kenapa orang-orang tertawa.
why those people are laughing.
mendengar tawa asli dan yang dibuat-buat
at how people hear real and posed laughter
lakukan dengan the Royal Society,
we ran with the Royal Society,
yang kami tanyakan.
two questions.
asli atau dibuat-buat?
or posed do these laughs sound?
yang dibuat-buat berwarna biru.
and the posed laughs are shown in blue.
yang cepat.
and better at spotting real laughter.
menngenali tawa yang asli lebih baik.
they can't really hear the difference.
kemampuan kita akan semakin baik,
peak performance in this dataset
kemampuan kita tidak akan maksimal
late 30s and early 40s.
atau awal 40-an.
by the time you hit puberty.
tertawa ketika remaja.
by the time your brain has matured
tertawa hingga otak Anda matang
throughout your entire early adult life.
sepanjang masa awal usia dewasa Anda.
not, what does the laughter sound like
seperti apa suara tertawa ini
or posed, but we say,
membuat Anda tertawa,
make you want to laugh,
maka ada temuan yang berbeda.
we see a different profile.
when you hear laughter.
ikut tertawa.
when I had no idea what was going on.
tanpa mengerti yang ditertawakan.
tua atau muda,
than the posed laughs,
dibandingkan yang dibuat-buat,
less contagious to you.
kita semakin sulit untuk ikut tertawa.
really grumpy as we get older,
semakin cepat marah,
understand laughter better,
hearing people laugh to want to laugh.
tawa orang lain, untuk ikut tertawa.
lay assumptions are incorrect,
there's even more to laughter
yang lebih penting untuk ditelaah
we should look at,
people are phenomenally nuanced
set of studies coming out
mengenai hal tersebut
di California,
a longitudinal study with couples.
panjang dengan beberapa pasangan.
men and women, into the lab,
stressful conversations to have
yang membuat mereka stress
so he can see them becoming stressed.
untuk diamati kemunculan gejala stressnya.
and he'll say to the husband,
dan ia bilang pada sang suami,
that irritates you."
yang menyebalkan."
briefly, you and your partner --
bila itu Anda dan pasangan Anda --
merasa stress segera setelah itu dimulai.
more stressed as soon as that starts.
people become more stressed.
orang mulai stress.
who manage that feeling of stress
pasangan yang mengelola stress mereka
positive emotions like laughter,
emosi positif seperti tertawa,
level stressnya,
physically feeling better,
unpleasant situation better together,
bersama-sama dengan lebih baik,
atas hubungan mereka
in their relationship
lebih lama.
at close relationships,
hubungan yang erat,
their emotions together.
mengatur emosinya bersama-sama.
to show that we like each other,
satu sama lain,
feel better together.
merasa semakin baik.
to be limited to romantic relationships.
pada hubungan percintaan saja.
going to be a characteristic
seperti halnya Anda dengan teman Anda,
such as you might have with friends,
young men in the former East Germany
anak muda dari bekas negara Jerman Timur
their heavy metal band,
band Heavy Metal mereka,
dengan nuansa yang sangat serius,
and the mood is very serious,
what happens in terms of laughter
dalam konteks tertawa,
and how that changes the mood.
dan perubahan suasana terjadi.
He's got swimming trunks on,
Ia memakai celana renang,
They are already laughing, hard.
Dan mereka tertawa, dengan keras.
is it's all very serious
suasananya nampak sangat serius
as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,
segera setelah ia tidak bisa tembus,
and bone everywhere,
with him standing there going,
kemudian berkata,
I think this is broken,"
rasanya tulang saya patah,"
That would be stressful.
dengan kaki patah dan tertawa,
with a visibly broken leg laughing,
"Heinrich, kita harus segera ke RS,"
think we need to go to the hospital now,"
yang menyakitkan, memalukan, dan sulit,
embarrassing, difficult situation,
yang dapat kita nikmati menontonnya,
actually enjoying there,
yang sangat menarik,
a really interesting use,
kejadian semacam ini
something like this happening
ke kolam es dengan pakaian dalam.
on the ice in our underpants.
a relative who was being a bit difficult,
ada kerabat kami yang sedih,
sebelum semuanya bersedih
just before the whole thing started
that happened in a 1970s sitcom,
sinetron komedi tahun 1970-an,
kenapa saya lakukan ini,
I don't know why I'm doing this,
yang saya lakukan ialah,
something from somewhere
together with me.
membuat kami tertawa bersama.
to find some reason we can do this.
untuk dapat melewati kesedihan.
We're going to get through this.
Kita bisa melewati hal ini bersama.
hal semacam itu setiap saat.
are doing this all the time.
you don't even notice it.
meski tidak menyadarinya.
how often they laugh,
sering mereka tertawa,
when you laugh with people,
ketika Anda tertawa dengan orang lain,
a really ancient evolutionary system
sistem evolusi yang sangat kuno
dan mempertahankan ikatan sosial,
to make and maintain social bonds,
to make ourselves feel better.
untuk membuat dirinya merasa lebih baik.
saja -- itu perilaku yang sangat kuno
it's a really ancient behavior
and makes us feel better.
perasaan kita
ketika kita tertawa,
tidaklah lebih dari seekor mamalia.
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