Laughter is a normal and frequently repeated reaction individuals have to something they think is humorous. Laughter can be triggered by unintended humour, such as a sudden and perhaps clumsy moment, or intended humour such as jokes in movies. However, the intended trigger of laughter can be a more complex phenomenon than one might think. People have different perceptions of what they consider funny, and because of this subjectivity it should be hard to control, but is it? 

 The so called “laughter track” was introduced in 1950 in an American sitcom The Hank McCune Show and since then comedy programs make use of it to point out moments in a show where the viewers are expected to laugh. We assume that since the laughter track has been actively used for more than 60 years and is constantly replicated by many popular television shows, the effectiveness of triggering laughter is empirically proven. Participants of our research group can observe the effectiveness of this technique on themselves too, which shows that people are aware of this psychological technique imposed on them and may consciously or unconsciously accept it. Our aim is to explore: How does the laughter track influence brain activity while observing comedic television programs? 

The final report of our group can be see here: research report Epsilon