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From: baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Nature of Laughter
Message-ID: <566@spar.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Oct-85 16:59:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: spar.566
Posted: Sat Oct  5 16:59:22 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 04:24:05 EDT
References: <-196685756@sysvis>
Organization: The Institute of Impure Science
Lines: 10

The theory of laughter as a rejection mechanism for fear has some
supporting evidence from developmental psychology, I believe.  I
distinctly recall reading about some work on the way infants learn
laughter which seemed to indicate that it first arises out of allayed
fear.  One example given was that a infant being gently tossed or 
otherwise swung about by a parent will feel fear of falling, but that
at a certain stage of development, the fear will begin to be contradicted 
by an understanding of the parent's ability to control the situation, 
and the child will laugh.
					Baba