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Fear of Funny: What Scares Us About Humor
Laughter graces our very first days. Babies laugh long before they can speak, giggling in their cribs. The average kid laughs 300 times a day: walk through the halls of any elementary school if you need proof of this. But as we get older, we laugh less, considerably less. On average, an adult laughs a mere 15 times a day. This represents a 95% reduction from the glory days of childhood.
What happens? What stops the laughter as we grow older? There are many theories, ranging from the fact that the adult world is full of adult topics, many of which aren't very funny at all to the stressed-out, chronically overloaded pace at which we live our lives. Yet when you consider that humor is both one of the most effective forms of stress relief available as well as a low-to-no-cost way to handle some of those serious adult topics that plague our days, the relative low rates of laughter are surprising.
Every action has a potentially negative consequence, and it's fear of those consequences that keep us from acting. That fear is a tremendous motivator. We don't engage in dangerous activities like bungee jumping or shark wrestling because we're afraid of physical consequences. We don't pick fights at work because we're afraid of financial consequences. We don't insult our spouse's parents because we're afraid of marital consequences.
You wouldn't think laughter is scary, but for many people, it is. Researchers are just now beginning to delve into the many mysterious factors that force us to keep silent when we want to guffaw -- but there are already some well known reasons people don't laugh. These include:
Fear of Being Unique: The hardest thing to do can be being the first person to laugh: laugh at a joke, laugh at a funny situation, laugh at frustrating circumstances. What if no one else laughs? The fear of being the only one laughing, the only one who has a perspective different from the rest of the group, silences many people who would otherwise laugh. Look at how many people join in the humor after someone else has 'broken the ice': they saw the humor in the situation as well, but were reluctant to laugh until someone else went first.
Fear of Being Unprofessional: We spend so much time in the work environment. So much hinges on making a good impression and retaining the positions we have -- not to mention any chances for advancement! Many people fear that laughter will eliminate professionalism; as if a laugh could erase your skills, aptitudes and talents. What goes unsaid is the positive effect laughter can have on the workplace: lifting morale, building teams, increasing efficiency.
Fear of Being Unkind: All things being equal, most people prefer to not hurt those people who surround us. We stifle laughs in fear of being offensive. Yet there is good humor and bad humor: good humor, sometimes known as therapeutic humor, lifts and elevates the spirit, while bad humor is personal and mean-natured. It's difficult to confuse the two; so there's no reason to stifle the former for fear of the latter. When in doubt, start small by trying out humor with a few trusted friends who will let you know if you're being obnoxious -- as you use humor more, you'll feel more confident about incorporating it into your daily routine.
About the Author Need a quick laugh? Check out The Journal of Nursing Jocularity: It's full of nursing humor , nurse horoscopes, nurse jokes, and funny nursing stories! It's laugh out loud humor!
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