Once the first laughter had been laughed by primitive man, with such apparently pleasurable effects all around, laughter began to take on an intrinsic value within the society of man. The person possessing the ability to communicate pleasure in a loud laugh began to enjoy social advantages over his more serious colleagues, he became a “good mixer” socially selected and liked by society. Thus the process of natural selection (the survival of the fittest) would tend to operate in favor of those able to express their pleasurable states in laugher, as compared with those not so able. Throughout the course of evolution, laughter would become established throughout the human species as a function of sociological and psychological value.
Thus laughter gradually became established as a capacity among virtually all human beings. In addition, laughter’s infections quality helped distribute it as a characteristic common to all mankind. Laughter was advantageous; therefore it survived.
