ABSTRACT
Biological psychology includes the study of how our brains and evolution affect our experiences. This chapter explores areas of the brain used to process humor and laughter, and effects of arousal, sleep, and alcohol on this processing. It also explores evolutionary psychology’s explanation for humor as an adaptive behavior. Investigations of neural activity find that humor processes recruit widely distributed areas throughout the brain, both right and left hemispheres, and both cortical and subcortical structures. Researchers use brain imaging techniques to determine locations and time course of humor processing in both normal and brain-damaged individuals. Evolutionary psychology suggests humor is an attribute favorable for attracting mates and reproduction; it signals cognitive and social competence needed to discern threats in the environment, for example, and men produce humor to attract women and women tend to like men with a good sense of humor.
