For teen boys at risk of psychopathy, laughter isn ’t catching

By guest blogger Lucy Foulkes When you see someone laughing hysterically, do you often find yourself laughing too? Laughter is usually extremely contagious. In fact, we are up to 30 times more likely to laugh with someone else than when alone. It’s a powerful bonding tool: we enjoy seeing other people happy, we enjoy laughing with them, and this brings us closer together. But is this equally true for everyone, or is laughter more contagious for some people than others? For a paper in Current Biology, a team of researchers at UCL, led by Elizabeth O’Nions and César F. Lima, has investigated whether adolescent boys at risk of psychopathy are less likely to find laughter catching. Psychopathic personality traits include reduced levels of empathy and guilt and a tendency to manipulate. Youths under the age of 18 who show these traits are at increased risk of developing psychopathy in adulthood. If it’s true that these young people find other people’s laughter less contagious or enjoyable than normal, that might contribute to their difficulty in forming close, loving relationships. The researchers scanned the brains of three groups of boys aged 11-16. One group was “typically developing” – they didn’t show any problem behaviour and weren’t at risk of developing psychopathy. Boys in the other two groups all showed high levels of antisocial behaviour (e.g. violence, theft, destruction of property), and in one group they also showed the personality tr...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Brain guest blogger Laughter Mental health Personality Source Type: blogs