Psychologist Donna Dawson tells us why flexing your chuckle muscle with your partner is so important. 

Relationships on Female First

Relationships on Female First

Humour makes large problems appear smaller  - laughing at problems diminishes their power to make us anxious, and helps them to appear more manageable.

Humour brings you closer together  - sharing the same sense of humour gives you a very important personality trait in common, as it encourages you both to view the world and deal with it in the same way.

Laughter releases feel-good hormones in the brain – namely, ‘serotonin’, which makes you feel calmer and happier. And if you feel better about yourself, you will feel better about your partner.

Humour leads to other positive feelings: such as admiration; we admire someone who can make us laugh, which in turn makes us think more highly of them.

Humour de-fuses stress – which in turn relaxes us, making us more amenable to  affection and romance.

Humour can deflect embarrassment – if we can make a joke about an embarrassing situation that we find ourselves in, we invite people to laugh at the ‘situation’ and not at ‘us’. It gives us back power in a seemingly powerless situation.

Humour can deflect anger – a humorous remark, if not sarcastic, can make a point in a more clever way than an angry remark can, causing the offending person to see things in a more objective, less personal way.

Humour is sexy – when our partner or date makes us laugh and changes our mood, it shows that they are in control of the situation – which, in turn, can act as a powerful aphrodisiac.

Humour creates secrets to share – finding things funny in public situations where you can’t openly express the humour creates a secret understanding between the two of you   – it’s “you two against the world”.

Laughter is contagious – when we share our wit and good humour with others around us, it can change the whole atmosphere and make everyone else feel as good as we do.

Inspired by Harvester's RibTicklers campaign.


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