Tickling rats and the dark side of laughter

I love this article on rat laughter and tickling. What a job to have! Scientific rat tickler!

I had no idea that a rat could play with a person like that! He tackles my hand, nibbles, licks, rolls over onto his back to expose his tummy to be tickled [that’s his favorite], and does bunny kicks when I wrestle with him. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, even though my family thought I had lost my mind until I showed them.

It has lots of fabulous diagrams! And then! The dark side! And the philosophy!

8. And the dark side of laughter
Of course there is a dark side to laughter that has not been emphasized here: the ‘‘sudden glory’’ that philosopher Thomas Hobbes saw as the heart of laughter that emerged from a ‘‘conception of some eminency in ourselves’’ (see Ref. [31]). Usually the children that prevail in play tend to laugh the most [9,98], suggesting that to some extent laughter may reflect a social dominance-seeking response, which may pave the way for laughter to stigmatize and degrade others through such behavior. All too often, espe- cially in children, laughter tends to become a psychological tool for teasing and taunting—the establishment of exclu-
sionary group identities that can set the stage for finding mirth in the misfortunes of others.