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Humor in Infants pp 1–9Cite as

An Overview of Humor

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Abstract

Laughter and its close cousin, humor, are unique and important mammalian responses that may have evolved to strengthen social bonds and thereby enhance survival. For human infants, laughter and humor appear in the first six months of life and reveal their sensitivity to social and emotional cues, and their cognitive radar for incongruity. Understanding why infants engage in humorous interactions not only teaches us about infants, but about also about human experience in general.

Keywords

  • Humor
  • Laughter
  • Infants
  • Evolution
  • Incongruity
  • Absurd
  • Bonding
  • Play
  • Social
  • Mammals
  • Darwin

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.

—Leo Rosten, American Novelist

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Sciences Department, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, USA

    Gina C. Mireault

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

    Vasudevi Reddy

Authors
  1. Gina C. Mireault
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  2. Vasudevi Reddy
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Mireault, G.C., Reddy, V. (2016). An Overview of Humor. In: Humor in Infants. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38963-9_1

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