A good laugh could increase a child’s pain threshold by up to ten percent, according to a new study presented during the Proceedings of The Royal Society.
Researchers at Oxford University in the U.K. divided volunteers into two groups. After establishing everyone’s baseline pain threshold, they had one group watch 15 minutes of comedy videos, while the second group watched clips of boring material, like golfing programs.
In testing pain thresholds again, the researchers found that those participants who had just experienced a good laugh were able to withstand up to ten percent more pain. To the surprise of the researchers, those who had watched the boring programming actually had a lower pain threshold than they had indicated before.
Small titters and giggles aren’t enough to gain the benefits: "It’s the emptying of the lungs that causes [this effect]," lead researcher Robin Dunbar told BBC News.
"It’s exactly what happens when we say ‘I laughed until it hurt’. It seems to be extremely painful and it’s that pain that produces the endorphin effect."
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