Your Emoticons and Emojis Help Inform Laughter Theory - Psychology Today
psychologytoday.com
The way we pepper texts with "lol" and 😂 reveals something profound: laughter may be less about humor and more about social signaling — and emojis are the proof.
Laughter TheorySocial SignalingPragmaticsEvolutionary Psychology
Theory Briefing
- Digital laughter tokens like 'lol' and 😂 are used even when nothing is funny, suggesting laughter serves a social bonding function over a humor response.
- Laughter theory is evolving: researchers now see it as a communicative signal rather than an involuntary reaction to comedy.
- The explosion of emoji and acronym use in written language gives scientists a rare new dataset to study how laughter works across cultures.