Some Surprising Benefits of Humor and Laughter at Work
There are dozens of benefits of adding more humor into your workplace, many of them quite obvious. Here are some surprising benefits of humor and laughter that may be a bit unexpected:
1. Laughter helps jog your memory. So the next time you’ve lost your car keys, start laughing. You have nothing to lose…and potentially something to find.
2. A study reported in the International Group for Humor Studies found that laughter activates specialized brain circuits in people listening to laughter resulting in a positive emotional state that mirrors the laughter. In other words, laughing more often might put your colleagues in a better mood (as long as you’re not laughing in annoying hyena-like manner, I suppose).
3. Humor researcher Alice Isen found that when people experience positive mirth as brought about by humor they show improvements in a variety of cognitive and social behaviors: People become more cognitively flexible and engage in more creative problem-solving; they demonstrate more effective thinking, planning and judgement; they show higher levels of social responsibility and they become more generous!
4. It’s been shown in studies time and time again that all things being equal, people who demonstrate a healthy sense of humor tend to be viewed as more attractive.
5. Several studies reported in The Psychology of Humor found that people who were rated as “high-humor people” were rated by other people as being considerably more interesting, intelligent, admirable, cooperative, friendly and imaginative, and less cold, mean and passive.
Michael Kerr is an international business speaker who helps his audiences succeed by leveraging their humor resources to produce outrageous results! His latest book is called The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing all the Way to the Bank.
