Why You Should Laugh to Learn More
By: Madison Estrella
Tags: Workplace Humor, Workplace Culture, Humor, Psychology, Learning

Why You Should Laugh to Learn More

Photo by Leon on Unsplash

Humor and laughter have a plethora of psychological, physiological, and social benefits ranging from reducing stress, improving trust and engagement, and even enhancing learning and memory. In fact, much of these benefits can be attributed to one happy hormone named “Dopamine”.

Dopamine is a well-known neurotransmitter that is released whenever we smile or laugh. Whether it’s because of a hilariously bad joke or a 2020 meme, the release of dopamine is associated with the feel-good sensation we feel afterward. As it turns out, this neurotransmitter plays an integral role in a number of pathways in our body. Not only does dopamine help relieve stress as a coregulator in our stress response pathway, but it also plays an active role in keeping us motivated by means of positive reinforcement.

The Dopamine Reward System

Dopamine, and the feel-good sensation associated with it, is quite addicting– literally. Because of our instinct to do things that will bring us pleasure, we are drawn to things we associate with the feel-good sensation that accompanies dopamine release. For instance, if we know we enjoy ice cream, we are likely to come back for more because of the satisfaction we know it gives us.

Even outside the realm of food, the idea of positive reinforcement is a matter of finding ways to draw our attention and link the things we enjoy with secondary behaviors. Through this means, improved learning and retention can be achieved through positive reinforcement- if we associate the process of learning with something we enjoy, we’re more likely to maintain a positive relationship with it.

The Correlation Between Humor and Learning Isn’t a Joke!

While learning may not be everyone’s favorite pastime, we can use this relationship between dopamine and positive reinforcement to train our brains to learn better with a little help from humor.

The satisfaction of getting a good chuckle can become associated with learning if the two are regularly presented with one another. In other words, if we can make learning enjoyable enough, through means of humor as our “reward,” we can train our brains to look forward to learning.

Moreover, it’s true that we tend to have an easier time remembering things we find funny. In fact, this trend is called the “Humor Effect” and it’s believed to work on the basis that humor is known to be associated with increased attention and rehearsal (recall that earlier bit about dopamine?). This idea has been explored in several studies within the university setting that have shown that students tend to learn better when content-related humor is incorporated into the lesson. Thus, as people that inherently find pleasure in humor, this bias allows us to easily recall things that are associated with it.

What Does This Mean for The Workplace?

Making space for humor in your team training and meeting sessions will help boost productivity by enhancing learning and retention. In addition to these cognitive hacks of humor, there are a multitude of associated social benefits that can also be achieved. Taking steps toward an open and welcoming team will be met with the rewards of dopamine, so don’t worry! Cultivating a culture of smiles and laughter will certainly pay off.