The relationship between familiarity, gender, disagreement, and status and bouts of solitary and joint laughter

Abstract The current research treated laughter as an indexical with two closely allied properties: to designate talk non-serious and serve a mode of address signalling preference for solidarity. These properties gave rise four discrete forms bout, solitary speaker, listener, speaker-initiated joint, listener-initiated joint laughter, which were examined using 55 same-gender pairs discussing three choice dilemma items. By exploring the associations between wider contextual factors familiarity, gender, disagreement status, frequencies each form bout within dyad, it was hoped establish whether related how participants modulated their social relationships. Neither familiarity nor had any effect on while females found demonstrate higher speaker than males. In unequal status pairs, high female staff joined in low student interlocutors less often reverse, finding comparable exchange other terms address, such second person pronouns European languages. It concluded that signal solidarity declared solidarity, but significance listener beyond acknowledgement speaker’s talk, remained clear. also noted norms associated setting topic interaction influential determining extent would be used modulate relationships interlocutors.