Why do humans laugh?

More than just making you feel wonderful, laughter has played an important evolutionary role for Homo sapiens, writes Sean T Smith

When was the last time you truly laughed? (Getty/iStock)

When was the last time you really laughed? Not a wry chuckle, a knowing chortle or even a throaty guffaw, but the sort of undignified spasm that crumples you double, forcing the air from your lungs in a volley of convulsive waves?

According to the eminent evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, laughter helps to explain who we are and where we’ve come from.

Howling with laughter makes you feel that you’ve lost control of yourself because in a sense you have. An ancient evolutionary impulse has taken possession of your respiratory system; it’s squeezing your diaphragm and the muscles between your ribs so hard that air is being evacuated through your lungs and larynx at a rate and force you couldn’t deliberately replicate if you tried.