Humor and laughter can be effective self-care tools to cope with stress. An ability to find humor gives us a sense of perspective on our problems. Laughter provides a physical release for accumulated tension. The article reviews research on the effect of humor and laughter on our immune function and resilience to stress. Resources for finding humor are included.

Are people who are funny more attractive? Or does being attractive lead people to be seen as funnier? The answer may depend on the underlying evolutionary function of humor. While humor has been proposed to signal "good genes," the authors propose that humor also functions to indicate interest in social relationships-in initiating new relationships and in monitoring existing ones. Consistent wi...

This study examined women’s and men’s preferences for humor production and humor receptivity in long-term and short-term relationships, and how these factors interact with physical attractiveness to influence desirability. Undergraduates viewed photographs of the opposite sex individuals who were high or low in physical attractiveness, along with vignettes varying in humor production and recept...

PURPOSE Ocular immune privilege is mediated in part by the activity of constitutively produced immunosuppressive cytokines and neuropeptides. Aqueous humor was examined for content of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), and the potential of CGRP to mediate immunosuppressive activity within aqueous humor was determined. METHODS The concentration of CGRP in fresh, normal rabbit aqueous humo...

The present paper tries to discover the position of sense of humor in personality space. Several definitions of humor are discussed and a review of studies relating personality and humor is given. The authors’ conceptualization of humor is introduced and two studies are presented that tried to locate these humor dimensions within personality space. Our humor tests were given to two samples: the...

Black humor plays a crucial role in fulfilling Langston Hughes's anti-racist purposes as an integral notion in his poetry.  Accordingly, translation(s) of his poetry are to benefit from the same indexes on the basis of equivalent effect principle. On this account, 33 black-humor-rich poems of Hughes, translated by Ahmad Shamloo, Yaghma Golruee and Hassan Fayyad, were selected to be analyzed con...

Humor is one of the most important human activities, one that is enjoyed daily by people in every culture and at every age. However, very little is known about how aging affects humor experiences. Research suggests that elderly people enjoy humor more than younger people, but they have increasing difficulties in understanding jokes. Several cognitive mechanisms that may help explain this trend ...

PURPOSE The structures of the ocular anterior segment responsible for aqueous humor secretion and absorption have been well characterized in mammals. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate aqueous humor flow have remained elusive. Experimental analysis in Danio rerio, the zebrafish, is providing mechanistic insights into many cellular processes relevant to norma...