Someone mentioned something interesting to me yesterday.
They said that laughter is a very personal thing, that some people feel uncomfortable laughing in front of others if they don’t know them well.
We all feel comfortable laughing with our friends, but if we are in a group we have never met before we tend to keep the laughter to a minimum.
I tried to think back to my own experience to see if this was the case or not. I don’t think it is for me, but that also could be because of my theatre background, I’m used to being on stage in front of lots of people and doing whatever.
I had never thought that people might be self-conscious about their laughter.
Especially now that I know all of the benefits (including social benefits) of laughter I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to laugh a lot, even in public or in new situations.
I think I need to do some more looking into this.
Perhaps this is another area where I can help, I don’t know yet.
I’ll get back to you on this once I’ve done some asking around and digging into this to see what I can find and if people really are as self-conscious of their laughter as this fellow suggested.
Until then (even in public) keep laughing.