Going bananas: Infants found to laugh like apes

Have you ever noticed a change in a baby’s laughter as they get older? Well, a new study suggests that babies laugh like apes for a few months after they are born before transitioning to giggling like adults do. 

Laughter has been suggested to link humans and the great apes. Adult humans tend to chuckle while exhaling, however, chimpanzees & bonobos laugh in two different ways. One involves panting with sounds being produced during inhaling as well as exhaling, and the other involves outbursts occurring during exhales, much like human grown-ups.

Humans begin to laugh at around 3 months of age with an infant’s laughter developing and reaching their full potential as they become older. Vocal tracts and social interactions have been thought to influence the advancement of these sounds. However, very little is known about a baby’s laughter. To uncover its secrets, a team from the American Psychological Association headed by Mariska Kret and colleagues scoured the internet for videos of 3–18-month-old babies laughing and asked speech sound specialists as well as novices to judge these laughter’s. 

After the analysis of dozens of audios clips it was discovered that young infants laughed as they exhaled and inhaled, meanwhile mature infants laughed more while exhaling. Amazingly, an infant’s laughter is more ape-like when they are younger. 

Participants of another trial mentioned that the adult-like laughs were more pleasing to the ear. This suggests that the shift in infant laughter could have occurred because of positive affirmations from their parents. Laughter during exhalation is louder and much clearer than inhalation, possible leading to the formation of stronger bonds between infants and parents.

The idea of social interactions impacting a babies’ laughter compliments similar observations in chimpanzees. It has been discovered that among chimpanzees within a variety of different social groups, laughter has varied sounds. Humans and chimpanzees modify their laughs based on the impressions that they receive from their peers.

While many individuals think that infants laugh quite frequently, babies are mostly making other sounds like squealing, babbling and raspberries. Therefore, the examples of laughter used in these studies may not have all been accurate and so researchers may have to expand their study to gain a greater understanding of infant vocalisation. 

Reading into laughter’s pleasantness may be problematic. What people rate as amusing may be tangled up with how they perceive children’s ages. For example, individuals could enjoy older infants’ laughs if they have a preference towards toddlers as opposed to younger infants. Nevertheless, this research provides a good indication into this area.