Children and students will be pleased: Science provides reasons why fooling around and laughing helps with learning rather than disturbing it.
There has already been evidence in the past that we learn things better when we are Taught them in a humorous way.
Researchers at the University of Paris have now shown in a study that even babies learn faster when they laugh. In an experiment 53 Children aged one and a half years were taught how to pull a toy duck with a rake. One half of the children were taught by the scientists in the classical way, the other half by a funny show.
The result: Of the children who had much fun while Learning, all but one child had learned to pull the duck with the rake. Of the children taught in the classical way, only a quarter understood it.
Laughing makes you smart and keeps you healthy
Already in earlier studies, scientists came to the results that laughing and smiling reduces stress and reduce our sense of pain.
And it gets even better: Researchers have also found that laughter reduces the production of stress hormones and increases levels of natural killer cells (Hafen, Brent Q., et al. Mind/Body Health. p 550-560. MA: Simon & Schuster, 1996). Our immune system is thus strengthened and we are less susceptible to infections.
At the University of Maryland, it was also discovered that laughter promotes blood circulation, significantly reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis.
All in all, enough reasons to laugh more often!
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