Buzz
You’re in a packed cinema, watching the latest horror movie, and everywhere you look, the audience seems truly frightened. Yet, amidst the gasps and screams, bursts of laughter echo around the room.
We typically associate laughter with enjoyment or humor—it’s expected when something makes us laugh, not when we’re scared. So, why does laughter appear when fear takes over?
Scientists still haven’t pinpointed exactly what triggers laughter in situations where it seems out of place, though they have some fascinating theories.
One of the most widely discussed theories is that laughter serves a social function; when we laugh, we send a message to those around us. Primatologist Signe Preuschoft, who studied macaque laughter and published her findings in the journal Ethology, suggests that fearful laughter is a sign of submission. In her research, macaques laughed or smiled when they felt threatened by a dominant individual, and their laughter was paired with evasive or submissive body language. Preuschoft believes this type of laughter helps express fear and communicate a desire to avoid conflict.
Another perspective holds that fearful laughter is actually an attempt to deny fear. While we may feel scared, we're trying to convince both ourselves and others that we aren't—that everything is fine. In Psychology Today, physician Alex Lickerman explained, 'We’re signaling ourselves that whatever horrible thing we've just encountered isn't really as horrible as it appears, something we often desperately want to believe.' Lickerman referred to this as a 'mature' defense mechanism, distinguishing it from more 'psychotic,' 'immature,' or 'neurotic' responses. He argued that laughing in the face of trauma demonstrates our belief in our ability to endure it.
Some experts classify fearful laughter alongside other seemingly mismatched emotional responses, such as crying when we’re happy. They believe these reactions help us regulate our emotions. For instance, crying when overwhelmed by joy or laughing in fear might restore emotional equilibrium. Wray Herbert, a science journalist, wrote for the Association for Psychological Science, 'When we are at risk of being overwhelmed by our emotions—either positive or negative—expressing the opposite emotion can have a dampening effect and restore emotional balance.'
In the context of horror films, some theorists suggest that we laugh because both horror and humor stem from similar phenomena: incongruity and transgression. We find humor in situations that are incongruous or go against our expectations, or when a character breaks a social norm (like saying or doing something inappropriate). But in other contexts, these same situations can be perceived as frightening, especially when the incongruity crosses into potentially dangerous territory. In The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for example, Hannibal Lecter’s infamous line, 'I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti,' is both amusing (because there's something incongruous about him being such a 'refined' cannibal) and terrifying (because he's a cannibalistic serial killer).
Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all explanation for why we laugh in fearful situations. If we laugh during a horror film, it might be because we are reacting to the incongruity of the scenario, as much as to the 'danger' it presents. We might also be trying to convince those around us that we are not afraid—or even ourselves. Or perhaps, we’re simply trying to find emotional balance by countering fear with laughter.
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