Humor Can Improve Your Life: 5 Secrets Backed By Research

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Ideas
By Eric Barker
Barker is the author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree

  • Humor is our brain’s way of rewarding us for correcting errors in our thinking. It improves our mood because it takes brainpower to decode the joke and having to think kills bad feelings. Humor can make you more persuasive because humor mentally disarms people.

  • Women find funny guys attractive because a sense of humor = intelligence. In fact, you can predict how many women a man has slept with by how funny he is. Reliving moments that made the two of you laugh can improve your relationship.

  • Laughter can improve health. People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer.

  • Want to make funny things even funnier? Smile. Laughter can reduce pain. Sarcasm can make you more creative. If the “truth” resonates with the listener then, yes, “it’s funny because it’s true.”

  • Playful people get better grades in school. Humor is important in the workplace too. Fun was more attractive than compensation or opportunities for promotion. Only use self-deprecating humor if you’re actually powerful. (And powerful people don’t laugh much.)

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    This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

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