Laughter provides your audience with “social glue,” too. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that shared laughter brings people together—in ways that can help you as the person making them laugh. “For people who are laughing together,” says social psychologist and study coauthor Sara Algoe, “shared laughter signals that they see the world in the same way, and it momentarily boosts their sense of connection. Perceived similarity ends up being an important part of the story of relationships.”
