Couple laughing together Now researchers have also shown that it's not even about laughing the loudest or the longest – a good sense of humour is all it takes to increase life expectancy.
Scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at data from more than 50,000 people who were assessed once, then again after seven years.
Blood samples were taken each time, health histories were noted and sense of humour was rated. This was judged on the basis of three questions that indicated a person’s self-image in regard to humour – how people perceived their own sense of what’s funny and what's not.
A good sense of humour does not mean laughing all the time, say the researchers, it may not even be externalised. "A twinkle in the eye can be more than enough," says Professor Sven Svebak, one of the study authors.
The results of the study showed that participants who had the highest humour score were twice as likely to survive the seven-year period than those with the lowest scores (based on nine levels).
However, don't think that this result works only for happy people. The researchers wanted to show that this benefit is not just about an overall positive outlook on life, and so they designed their study to specifically show that humour itself increases life expectancy. They put people in two groups – one where people felt they had ill health, and another where people thought they were healthy. They found the same life expectancy increases in both groups, regardless of a person's negative opinion of their wellbeing.
First published June 9, 2010