References: Humour & play

The key studies and reviews behind these pathways – organised by page, so you can see exactly what each claim on the site is based on.

Provine, R.R. (1993). “Laughter punctuates speech: Linguistic, social and gender contexts of laughter.” Ethology, 95(4), 291–298. Provine’s own field research behind this page’s claim that people are roughly thirty times more likely to laugh in the presence of others than when alone.
Dunbar, R.I.M., Baron, R., Frangou, A., et al. (2012). “Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279(1731), 1161–1167. The evidence behind this page’s claim that laughing measurably boosts pain tolerance.
Kurtz, L.E. & Algoe, S.B. (2015). “Putting Laughter in Context: Shared Laughter as Behavioral Indicator of Relationship Well-Being.” Personal Relationships, 22(4), 573–590. The main evidence behind this page’s claim that shared laughter reliably increases feelings of closeness faster than most other ordinary interactions.

Brown, S. (2009). Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Avery. Brown’s own account of the research this page describes, including the play-deprivation histories behind his interest in the subject.
Pellis, S.M. & Pellis, V.C. (2007). “Rough-and-tumble play and the development of the social brain.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(2), 95–98. The evidence behind this page’s claim that animals deprived of play in early life tend to struggle more with unfamiliar or stressful situations later on.