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UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

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Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#41
post #30

This is probably me not being able to “read the room” but this study both makes me very happy and very sad. I recently watched Dominion documentary [1] and the more we learn about animals cognition the more I feel the weight of their massive abuse especially in the last 150 years. (The recent story of an HNer interacting with a spider on his desk was really cool though, I don’t have a link anymore.) Without judging a…

Cultured meat will become widely available soon. I have high hopes.

> widely available soon

I keep hearing this but we're likely still decades anyway from this scaling up to replacing most meat so I think individuals who care about this issue right now shouldn't be using it as an excuse for waiting to give up meat.

It's been just around the corner for ages and still not in supermarkets, let alone at the scale and cut variety required for everyone to replace meat with it.

Stances like "I'll switch when it's the same look and taste but cheaper" and "it's unnatural" are going to take time to go away too. And what about people that want a whole roast chicken or a duck leg?

There's lots of good replacements already for dairy milk for example but it's still popular so I'm not hopeful cultured meat will be different. Maybe the real issue is the cost of animal products don't take externalities into account and are artificially cheap.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#42
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dogs growl and yip when wrestling with each other, I feel like this probably comes under the “non-aggressive vocalisation” mentioned in the article. Growling is obviously a well known sign of fear and aggression but I guess the context is important.

When playing dogs will indeed bark, growl and whines, but also produce a forced exhalation: that's their laugh. Other sounds can be produced in other contexts indeed, whereas this dog laughter is exclusive to play.

Do you mean the "sorta sneeze" they do? I think mine do that when they think/want that we are going on a walk or into the garden to run about. It's a signal of "let's go adventuring".

There's also the high pitched excited yip and then the tongue out wiggling walk thing as well both of which might be laughter I think.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#43
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt any of the laughs are provoked by verbal ‘jokes.’ But rats are very smart, and play (wrestle) around with each other. It’s probably not too different from kids giggling as they engage in rough and tumble play.

I've seen a rat punchline. One of my rats loved to nibble pencil erasers. She would find all sorts of creative ways to get the eraser from me. With rats, who need stimulation, it's good to have arms wars. I don't put the eraser in an impossible spot, rather a harder-to-get-to spot. She figured out that if she distracts me while doing homework, I'll turn my attention to the distraction. She could then run around from…

you love your rat and that's really sweet - you made my morning.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#45
post #14

I had no idea laughter had previously been believed as confined to so few species.

> I had no idea laughter had previously been believed as confined to so few species.

What humans believe about other species tells us a lot about humans, and nothing about other species.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#46
post #5
post #2

This is one of the most beautiful ideas to have ever entered my awareness. Laughter is hard to beat in terms of sheer beauty--the more of it in the universe, the better. And on same planet what's more!

Not to be nitpicky but I would say there are definitely situations where laughter is not a positive (edit: or beautiful) thing – laughing at someone else's misfortune, laughing in pain, etc.

Indeed. I have a nervous laugh that sneaks out in less than ideal situations :(

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#47
post #10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be nitpicky but I would say there are definitely situations where laughter is not a positive (edit: or beautiful) thing – laughing at someone else's misfortune, laughing in pain, etc.

Absolutely. Nevertheless, and to nitpick, "beauty" and "positivity" are not isomorphic.

But rats and cows don't know that.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#49
post #17
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Nevertheless, and to nitpick, "beauty" and "positivity" are not isomorphic.

I just have to say that i have had a word stuck on the tip of my tongue for an embarrassingly long time, maybe six months now. I’ve had occasion to use it several times recently on a project but it was just stuck wherever words get lost. I’m cruising HN in a post completely unrelated to what I’m doing and there it is, in living color: isomorphic. I could feel the tension release in my brain as it sunk in. Thank you!

Now you can use it in all kind of improper situations and laugh out loud isomorphically.

Re: UCLA Study Finds Laughter in 65 Species, from Rats to Cows

#50
post #3

For those wondering which animals… > They found such vocal play behavior documented in at least 65 species. That list includes a variety of primates, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, and mongooses, as well as three bird species, including parakeets and Australian magpies. Quote from the UCLA Newroom article referenced in the OpenCulture article, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/animals-laugh-too-ucla-an...

The full list is in the original research article [0], in both tabular and cladogram form.

[0] https://gabryant.scholar.ss.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/site...

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