本篇文章共分 9 段，從笑是跨種族的人類共通表現開始，整理多組科學研究的結果，說明笑聲中傳達的人際關係資訊、以及笑與幽默對於工作成效的影響。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

Having a Laugh 開懷大笑

1. 科學研究笑與幽默

   The findings of psychological scientists reveal the importance of humour

   Humans start developing a sense of humour as early as six weeks old, when babies begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humour psychological scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.

   心理學家的發現揭示了幽默的重要性

   人類早在六周大的時候就開始發展幽默感，那時嬰兒開始對刺激進行笑和微笑。笑是所有人類文化中的普遍現象，甚至以某種形式存在於老鼠、黑猩猩和倭黑猩猩中。像其他人類情感和表達方式一樣，笑和幽默為科學家研究人類心理學提供了豐富的資源，包括從語言的發展到社會感知的神經科學。

2. 笑聲傳達大量資訊

   Theories focusing on the evolution of laughter point to it as an important adaptation for social communication. Take, for example, the recorded laughter in TV comedy shows. Back in 1950, US sound engineer Charley Douglass hated dealing with the unpredictable laughter of live audiences, so started recording his own ‘laugh tracks’. These were intended to help people at home feel like they were in a social situation, such as a crowded theatre. Douglass even recorded various types of laughter, as well as mixtures of laugher from men, women, and children. In doing so, he picked up on a quality of laughter that is now interesting researchers: a simple ‘haha’ communicates a remarkable amount of socially relevant information.

   專注於笑聲演變的理論指出，笑聲是社會交流的一個重要適應。以電視喜劇節目中錄製的笑聲為例。早在 1950 年，美國音響工程師查理．道格拉斯討厭處理現場觀眾不可預測的笑聲，因此開始錄製他自己的「笑聲音軌」。這些都是為了幫助坐在家中的人感受到他們是在一個社交環境中，比方像是在擁擠的劇院裡。道格拉斯甚至記錄了各種類型的笑聲，以及男人、女人和兒童的混合笑聲。在這樣做的過程中，他發現了現在研究人員感興趣的笑聲品質：一個簡單的「哈哈」傳達了大量的社會相關資訊。

3. 從笑聲判斷關係親疏

   In one study conducted in 2016, samples of laughter from pairs of English-speaking students were recorded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A team made up of more than 30 psychological scientists, anthropologists, and biologists then played these recording to listeners from 24 diverse societies, from indigenous tribes in New Guinea to city-dwellers in India and Europe. Participants were asked whether they thought the people laughing were friends or strangers. On average, the results were remarkably consistent: worldwide, people’s guesses were correct approximately 60% of the time.

   在 2016 年進行的一項研究中，在加州大學聖塔克魯茲分校錄製了多組講英語學生的笑聲樣本。一個由 30 多位心理學家、人類學家和生物學家組成的團隊隨後向來自 24 個不同社會的聽眾播放了這些錄音，其中包括新幾內亞的土著部落以及印度和歐洲的都市居民。參與者被問及他們是否認為笑的人是朋友或陌生人。平均而言，結果非常一致：以全球來說，人們的猜測大約有 60% 的機會是正確的。

4. 笑聲表現地位高低

   Researchers have also found that different types of laughter serve as codes to complex human social hierarchies. A team led by Christopher Oveis from the University of California, San Diego, found that high-status individuals had different laughs from low-status individuals, and that strangers’ judgements of an individual’s social status were influenced by the dominant or submissive quality of their laughter. In their study, 48 male college students were randomly assigned to groups of four, with each group composed of two low-status members, who had just joined their college fraternity group, and two high-status members, older student took a turn at being teased by the others, involving the use of mildly insulting nicknames. Analysis revealed that, as expected, high-status individuals produced more dominant laughs and fewer submissive laughs relative to the low-status individuals. Meanwhile, low-status individuals were more likely to change their laughter based on their position of power; that is, the newcomers produced more dominant laughs when they were in the ‘powerful’ role of teasers. Dominant laughter was higher in pitch, louder, and more variable in tone than submissive laughter.

   研究人員還發現，不同類型的笑聲可以作為複雜的人類社會等級制度的代碼。由加州大學聖地牙哥分校的克里斯多夫．奧維斯領導的團隊發現，地位高的人和地位低的人有不同的笑聲，而且陌生人對一個人的社會地位的判斷會受到他們笑聲的主導或順從特質的影響。在他們的研究中，48 名男大學生被隨機分配到四人一組，每組由兩名剛加入大學兄弟會的低地位成員和兩名高地位成員組成，高年級學生輪流被其他人取笑，包括使用輕微的侮辱性綽號。分析顯示，正如預期的那樣，相對於低地位的人，高地位的人產生了更多的支配性笑聲和更少的順從性笑聲。同時，低地位元的人更有可能根據他們的權力地位來改變他們的笑聲；也就是說，當新來的人處於「強大」的戲弄者角色時，他們會產生更多的支配性笑聲。與順從的笑聲相比，支配性的笑聲音調更高、更響亮、音調更多變。

5. 支配性與順從性笑聲

   A random group of volunteers then listened to an equal number of dominant and submissive laughs from both the high- and low-status individuals, and were asked to estimate the social status of the laughter. In line with predictions, laughers producing dominant laughs were perceived to be significantly higher in status than laughers producing submissive laughs. ‘This was particularly true for low-status individuals, who were rated as significantly higher in status when displaying a dominant versus submissive laugh,’ Oveis and colleagues note. ‘Thus, by strategically displaying more dominant laughter when the context allows, low-status individuals may achieve higher status in the eyes of others.’ However, high-status individuals were rated as high-status whether they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a submissive one.

   一組隨機的志願者聽了同等數量的地位高和地位低的人發出的主導和順從的笑聲，並被要求估計笑聲的社會地位。與預測一致，發出主導性笑聲的人被認為比發出順從性笑聲的人地位高得多。奧維斯及其同事指出：「這對地位低的人來說尤其如此，當他們表現出主導性對上順從性的笑聲時，他們的地位明顯更高。因此，通過在環境允許的情況下戰略性地展示更多的主導性笑聲，地位低的人可能在別人眼中獲得更高的地位。」然而，無論他們是發出自然的支配性笑聲還是試圖發出順從性笑聲，地位高的人都被評為地位高。

6. 幽默與工作效率

   Another study, conducted by David Cheng and Lu Wang of Australian National University, was based on the hypothesis that humour might provide a respite from tedious situations in the workplace. This ‘mental break’ might facilitate the replenishment of mental resources. To test this theory, the researchers recruited 74 business students, ostensibly for an experiment on perception. First, the students performed a tedious task in which they had to cross out every instance of the letter ‘e’ over two pages of text. The students then were randomly assigned to watch a video clip eliciting either humour, contentment, or neutral feelings. Some watched a clip of the BBC comedy Mr. Bean, others a relaxing scene with dolphins swimming in the ocean, and others a factual video about the management profession.

   另一項由澳大利亞國立大學的 David Cheng 和 Lu Wang 進行的研究是基於這樣的假設：幽默可能為工作場所的繁瑣情況提供喘息的機會。這種「精神休息 」可能會促進精神資源的補充。為了驗證這一理論，研究人員招募了 74 名商科學生，表面上是為了做一個關於感知的實驗。首先，學生們執行了一項乏味的任務，他們必須在兩頁文本中劃掉出現的每個字母 “e” 。然後，學生們被隨機分配到觀看一個影片片段，該短片可以引起幽默、滿足或中性的感覺。一些人觀看了 BBC 喜劇《憨豆先生》的片段，另一些人觀看了海豚在海中游泳的輕鬆場景，還有一些人觀看了關於管理專業的事實影片。

7. 幽默的影響

   The students then completed a task requiring persistence in which they were asked to guess the potential performance of employees based on provided profiles, and were told that making 10 correct assessments in a row would lead to a win. However, the software was programmed such that is was nearly impossible to achieve 10 consecutive correct answers. Participants were allowed to quit the task at any point. Students who had watched the Mr. Bean video ended up spending significantly more time working on the task, making twice as many predictions as the other two groups.

   然後，學生們完成了一項需要堅持不懈的任務，要求他們根據提供的資料猜測員工的潛在表現，並被告知連續做出 10 個正確的評估將導致勝利。然而，軟體的程式設計方式是，要達到連續 10 個正確答案幾乎是不可能的。參與者被允許在任何時候退出任務。看過《憨豆先生》視頻的學生最終在任務上經歷的時間明顯更多，預測的次數是其他兩組的兩倍。

8. 另一項實驗

   Cheng and Wang then replicated these results in a second study, during which they had participants complete long multiplication questions by hand. Again, participants who watched the humorous video spent significantly more time working on this tedious task and completed more questions correctly than did the students in either of the other groups.

   Cheng 和 Wang 隨後在第二項研究中複製了這些結果，在研究中他們讓參與者用手完成冗長的乘法問題。同樣，觀看幽默短片的參與者在這項乏味的任務上經歷的時間明顯更多，而且比其他組的學生完成的題目更正確。

9. 幽默使人精神振奮

   ‘Although humour has been found to help relieve stress and facilitate social relationships, traditional view of task performance implies that individuals should avoid things such as humour that may distract them from the accomplishment of task goals,’ Cheng and Wang conclude. ‘We suggest that humour is not only enjoyable but more importantly, energising.’

   「雖然幽默被發現有助於緩解壓力和促進社會關係，但傳統的任務執行觀點暗藏著個人應該避免諸如幽默等可能分散他們對完成任務目標的注意力的事情，」Cheng 和 Wang 總結道。「我們認為，幽默不僅是令人愉快的，更重要的是，它能使人精神振奮。」