Jaak Panksepp of Washington State University woke up one morning and told his students: “let’s go tickle some rats.” Panksepp wondered whether the rat chirps his laboratory had been studying were actually a form of animal laughter. Panksepp recounts what he found in this video and in an account of his work by Jesse Bering in a chapter from Bering’s new book Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? . . . And Other Reflections on Being Human, published this year by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  The book chapter appeared in the July issue of Scientific American.

Source: Washington State University

8 Comments

1. 1. lamorpa 12:14 PM 6/22/12

   Actually, no.

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2. 2. A.V. Latus Rectum 02:45 PM 6/22/12

   Yes. I can finally sleep now.

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3. 3. vagnry 04:13 PM 6/22/12

   Well, not exactly about rats, most of my encounters with them have been unpleasant.
   
   But I have always thought, that a magpie that (apparently deliberately) teases a dove by landing next to it , flittering about, etc, until the dove flies away, a second later so does the magpie, must do it for fun/mischief.
   
   Otters gliding down slopes, crows that pick up a thing several times and glide down a snowcovered roof on the thing, etc, look like they are having fun.
   
   No reason why they shouldn't laugh (or show some other expression of joy) when having fun.

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4. 4. Joseph C Moore, Cpo USN Ret in reply to lamorpa 07:47 PM 6/28/12

   Lampora, I have never had that occasion of wonder, also.

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5. 5. Joseph C Moore, Cpo USN Ret 07:49 PM 6/28/12

   Correction: Lamorpa.

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6. 6. cccampbell38 07:40 PM 7/7/12

   Are they laughing or are they just pissed off at being mauled like that?

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7. 7. Colin den Ronden 10:23 PM 11/17/12

   Many years ago I used to breed white rats for the pet shops. My late wife kept one as her pet, and it became quite attached to her. She went away for a week, but when she phoned me she did not believe me when I told her the rat was missing her. When she came back it showed it the only way it knew how, running backwards and forwards on her shoulders and nuzzling up into her hair, so that she was convinced. Another trait about rats that people may not be familiar with, they jump nervously at the plosive 'P' sound. Hold one in your hand and say 'Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' and you will see what I mean. Probably if someone invented a machine that repeated that it would work more than those supposed electronic pest repellers.

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8. 8. Colin den Ronden 10:53 PM 11/17/12

   I think if you relate humour to play, most social animals indulge in play as a training for aggression/defence. Even verbal play in humans can be used aggressively, or cross the line into aggression. So I would not be surprised if such animals had a sense of humour. I was convinced of that when my cat used to playfully bat my head through the open outside steps if I happened to be doing something underneath. I think the question is not why they cannot laugh, but why we are compelled to make that peculiar sound when something amuses us?

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