Why we like people who make us laugh
Having opportunities to laugh throughout the day may seem like a bonus, a welcome break in the middle of a busy day. But a growing body of evidence indicates that what makes us laugh does much more than entertain: it reduces stress, improves the body's ability to fight infection, and even promotes emotional bonds between those who share a laugh.
A Finnish study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience measured the release of opioids by the brains of volunteers after they spent 30 minutes watching a compilation of comedy scenes with two close friends, and compared the level of opioids with that in the same volunteers after 30 minutes of silence, alone in a room.
The most famous opioids are morphine and heroin, known for the sensations of pain relief, relaxation, and pleasure they cause—and which so quickly lead to addiction if intense and frequent. If such substances work, however, it is precisely because there are internal opioids, produced by the brain itself, which probably lead to similar, albeit milder, effects.
In fact, it is now known that the placebo effect, the improvement in well-being and reduction in pain that occurs simply by believing that one has received treatment (when the medicine was actually just water, flour, or homeopathic globules with no active ingredient), depends on the brain's ability to produce its own opioids.
Being caressed or hugged by someone you like is a sure way to make the brain release its own opioids—but this only has an effect on the two people involved. According to the Finnish study, laughing in a group also works, and apparently has an effect on the brains of everyone involved: the release of endogenous opioids increases in the parts of the brain that lead to well-being and pleasure, and along with this come not only pleasant feelings of fun but also calm and inner peace. The more intense the laughter, the stronger the activation of the brain by its own opioids—and the more intense the positive feelings.
As a bonus, the brain records the association between the company of the moment and the pleasurable result. And so those who laughed with us, or made us laugh, gain special value in our brain.
No wonder we like our good-humored friends and partners so much and prefer their company to anyone else's. Laughter is good for the brain—and it remembers with special affection those who made us laugh.
Excerpt from Suzana Herculano-Houzel (2025) Neuroscience of Everyday Life, originally published in Folha de São Paulo in August 2017