Women want men with a good sense of humour

Men who want to impress the opposite sex should avoid laughing too much because it harms their chances of success.

Men who want to impress the opposite sex should avoid laughing too much because it harms their chances of success.

Researchers have found that high-pitched sounds or loud laughter are inherently arousing. But while a man, in the company of a woman, is likely to interpret this as positive, a woman in the same situation feels threatened.

"If a male wants to impress a female, he shouldn't make sounds that would increase her level of arousal as it may make her feel wary and uncomfortable around this man," said Jo-Anne Bachorowski, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and co-author of the research.

"Instead, it may be more effective for a male to initially produce somewhat innocuous laughs at a fairly low rate, and to expand his laugh repertoire only in the course of a developing relationship," she said.

The findings are based on the recorded laughter sounds of 120 students as they watched scenes from comedies. Men's laughter was linked to their relationship history with the person they watched the film with. Men with a friend of either sex laughed significantly more than did men tested alone or when paired with a stranger.

Female laughter was linked with the sex of the person they were with. Females with a male friend produced more laughs than females tested alone.