Top 10 Psych2go’s Facts
- Robert R. Provine, author of “Laughter:A Scientific Investigation” and a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, suggests that tickling serves no other purpose than as a mechanism for social bonding. In other words tickling is a means of bonding two people closer together. He backs up this assumption by explaining the observations he explored in his book; namely that laughter, specifically in response to tickling, begins after the first few months of life and serves as one of the first forms of communication between child and parent. As such, in this sense, tickling is seen as almost a means of positive reinforcement for the parent, who will continue to tickle their child as long as he or she is laughing. Furthermore, in being tickled the child is also learning to trust and have fun with his or her parent. Thus tickling, it would seem, is a means of bonding (Juan 2006).
References
Juan, Stephen. “What Is the Purpose of Tickling?” • The Register. N.p., 2006. Web. 24 Nov.
2014.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/01/the_odd_body_tickling/
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