Laughter1—chuckles, chortles, giggles, and guffaws—is an innate and universal behavior. We start laughing almost as soon as we’re out of the womb, months before we learn to talk or sing.2 Even infants born blind and deaf, who can’t copy behaviors from their parents or siblings, instinctively know how to laugh.3 And while each culture develops its own distinct language and singing style, laughter sounds pretty much the same in every remote village and bursting metropolis on the planet. As they say, it needs no translation. Laughter is an involuntary behavior. It’s not something we actively
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