No Laughing Matter - Laughter Research by Laughter Lab

Anna and I met a few years ago as students of a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP). We shared a mutual interest in how laughter can be used as a source for greater psychological wellbeing and during our studies we also became certified Laughter Yoga Instructors. Since then Anna has developed her keen interest in the field of laughter research and has become an expert in understanding and interpreting work in this field. She has also gone on to become a Laughter Yoga Leader Trainer, studying with Dr. Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga in Bangalore in 2020.

For her MSc dissertation topic, Anna undertook her own research to understand the benefit experienced by laughter yoga practitioners, interviewing members of an existing laughter club. Her results indicated a strong connection between improved wellbeing from attending a laughter club only once a month for one hour, and how this unusual exercise took people from being sceptics through to advocates. So impressive was her research that Anna’s dissertation became a published research paper and underpins some of the key beliefs we have about Laughter Yoga here at Laughter Lab.

If you’d like to understand more about the experience and benefits of laughter yoga first hand, you can access the research paper, published in the European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology: No laughing matter: Qualitative study of the impact of laughter yoga suggests stress inoculation  here .

Jane

Hatchard, A., & Worth, P. (2021). No laughing matter: Qualitative study of the impact of laughter yoga suggests stress inoculation. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 5(2), 2397-7116.