http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/121946
For those not intersted in the entire article, or who want instant gratification:
Tickled Pink
Oddly enough, the public has strong opinions about what Provine should and shouldn’t research. One day, when he was giving a lecture at a local museum, a female audience member pulled him aside and said, “I certainly hope you’re not studying tickling.” When Provine asked why, she said, “It’s a repulsive, unpleasant behavior.” The comment had the opposite effect. “I thought, ‘Gee, this must be really important to have generated such a strong response,’” he says.
Provine distributed a 52-item questionnaire to over 400 people, asking who tickled whom and how they felt about it. Thirty-five percent of respondents had been tickled in the past week, 86 percent in the past year. Most people enjoyed tickling others—thus the success of the Tickle Me Elmo doll—and while many claimed they hated being on the receiving end, it was more like a love-hate relationship: They’d run off screaming but come back for more. Provine also found that tickling mysteriously disappears after age 40, most likely because that’s when children move out of the house and couples have less sex (tickling is often a form of foreplay). As Provine asks, “How many 80-year-olds get into tickle battles?”
Soon, it dawned on Provine that tickling was an easy way to study laughter in other species like monkeys—so he flew to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta and asked to tickle a few of the residents. To his relief, the center humored his request, allowing him to observe as trainers tickled a chimp named Josh. Provine concluded that the “ha ha” of modern laughter evolved from the “pant pant” of primates during rough-and-tumble play. It also led Provine to identify the world’s first joke. “My candidate for the most ancient joke is saying ‘I’m gonna get you,’ then tickling them,” says Provine. “It’s the only joke you tell to a human baby and a chimpanzee.”
Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/121946#ixzz1qiRpuHky
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For those not intersted in the entire article, or who want instant gratification:
Tickled Pink
Oddly enough, the public has strong opinions about what Provine should and shouldn’t research. One day, when he was giving a lecture at a local museum, a female audience member pulled him aside and said, “I certainly hope you’re not studying tickling.” When Provine asked why, she said, “It’s a repulsive, unpleasant behavior.” The comment had the opposite effect. “I thought, ‘Gee, this must be really important to have generated such a strong response,’” he says.
Provine distributed a 52-item questionnaire to over 400 people, asking who tickled whom and how they felt about it. Thirty-five percent of respondents had been tickled in the past week, 86 percent in the past year. Most people enjoyed tickling others—thus the success of the Tickle Me Elmo doll—and while many claimed they hated being on the receiving end, it was more like a love-hate relationship: They’d run off screaming but come back for more. Provine also found that tickling mysteriously disappears after age 40, most likely because that’s when children move out of the house and couples have less sex (tickling is often a form of foreplay). As Provine asks, “How many 80-year-olds get into tickle battles?”
Soon, it dawned on Provine that tickling was an easy way to study laughter in other species like monkeys—so he flew to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta and asked to tickle a few of the residents. To his relief, the center humored his request, allowing him to observe as trainers tickled a chimp named Josh. Provine concluded that the “ha ha” of modern laughter evolved from the “pant pant” of primates during rough-and-tumble play. It also led Provine to identify the world’s first joke. “My candidate for the most ancient joke is saying ‘I’m gonna get you,’ then tickling them,” says Provine. “It’s the only joke you tell to a human baby and a chimpanzee.”
Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/121946#ixzz1qiRpuHky
--brought to you by mental_floss!
