Development of the Laughter Production and Perception Questionnaire (LPPQ): A Novel Tool to Investigate Human Laughter Behaviour

Abstract

Human laughter is a social emotion and behaviour that is primarily expressed in social interactions and is crucial for humans to establish and maintain social bonds and relationships. Despite its universality, there is great variation in human laughter, both in terms of how people produce and perceive it. In this study, we developed the first questionnaire on healthy, everyday laughter behaviour, the Laughter Production and Perception Questionnaire (LPPQ). We first developed a 30-item version in English and collected data on an English-speaking sample (N = 823). We used Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to identify dimensions underlying human laughter production and perception. We identified four dimensions: Frequency, Understanding, Usage, and Liking. We then translated the LPPQ into Mandarin Chinese and collected data on a Mandarin Chinese-speaking sample (N = 574). A PCA suggested the extraction of the same four dimensions. However, there were some differences in the items associated with the four components between the English and the Chinese version. Future studies need to further develop and assess the psychometric properties of the LPPQ. We hope that the LPPQ will help advance research in human laughter, a social emotion and behaviour that has deep evolutionary roots and plays a crucial role in human everyday life.

Laughter in autism: perception and personal experience

“…In terms of laughter production, 'Frequency' (7 items) measures how often people produce laughter in daily life, and 'Usage' (5 items) measures people's positive usage of laughter, particularly in using laughter as a social signal to mediate social context. In terms of laughter perception, 'Understanding' (9 items) measures people's understanding of the social meaning of other's laughter; and 'Liking' (8 items) measures people's general feelings towards laughter and their emotional valence of processing other's laughter 38 .…”

“…Some of these questionnaires failed to capture laughter apart from humour (e.g., SHRQ; 35 ; CHS; 35,36 ), while others focused on measuring abnormal and unusual laughter preferences (e.g., PhoPhiKat-45; 37 ), including personal fear and joy of being laughed at (gelotophobia and gelotophilia, respectively), as well as personal joy derived from laughter at others (katagelaticism). Therefore, we applied a novel laughter questionnaire which focused on people's self-reported healthy laughter experiences in everyday life 38 . The 30-item laughter perception and production questionnaire (LPPQ) assesses people's daily laughter behaviours in both production level (Frequency of laughter and Usage of laughter) and perception level (Understanding of laughter and Liking of laughter) 38 .…”

“…Therefore, we applied a novel laughter questionnaire which focused on people's self-reported healthy laughter experiences in everyday life 38 . The 30-item laughter perception and production questionnaire (LPPQ) assesses people's daily laughter behaviours in both production level (Frequency of laughter and Usage of laughter) and perception level (Understanding of laughter and Liking of laughter) 38 .…”