Psychological experts break down why we break into laughter when nothing is funny

Most of us have been in a situation in which we were caught laughing when we probably shouldn’t have. Maybe it was during a funeral service when you feel like crying. Perhaps you gave a nervous giggle when you made a mistake in front of your boss. It could have been when you were all by yourself looking at a bill you can’t afford to pay; you laughed, even when you didn’t mean to. Why? Well, there are different reasons but, overall, experts agree that it’s your brain trying to prevent you from being overwhelmed from other emotions.

While many likely know that laughing while being nervous is common, it could also be a traumatic response or a sign of an incongruent affect in action. An incongruent affect is when a person’s verbal emotions don’t align with their physical expressions. One example is laughing when discussing the death of a loved one. While it’s not enough to diagnose anyone, an incongruent affect could be a sign of physical brain trauma or a mental health disorder, but it can also just be a learned behavior from childhood.

If we’re not taught as children by our parents how to express sadness, process anger, or properly grieve, we might choose to laugh past it without confronting those big emotions. It could be to protect ourselves or to delay confronting those emotions out of fear or not knowing what else to do.

The brain’s fire alarm

Commonly though, experts say we laugh during uncomfortable moments or in lieu of more appropriate emotions due to how powerful they are to us. Laughing inappropriately could be due to past trauma or how potently sad or upsetting the event or topic of conversation may be. It’s similar logic and reasoning of why we cry when we’re ridiculously happy.

Laughing when we’re hurt or overwhelmed could be your brain putting out an emotional fire. The act of laughing releases potent feel-good endorphins that are compared to painkilling opioids, according to doctors. It’s our brains looking at the current situation and saying, “Nope, can’t handle that negative emotional load, have this opioid to calm you down.”

However, if you are able to cite a specific topic, event, or reason that commonly triggers inappropriate laughter out of you, it might be something that needs to be addressed through therapy.

Laughter could be a cathartic career requirement

For some people, laughing during unfunny moments is just a part of the job. People who work in heavily stressful situations such as police officers and first responders often resort to "gallows humor" in the workplace to help alleviate the constant barrage of disturbing imagery or tragedy that often comes in those occupations. Prisoners even try to find comedy in their circumstances to survive through their sentences. Even so, there is still a limit to how and when laughter is tolerated in such locations and scenarios. The wrong laugh at the wrong time can lead to offense or worse.

While there are many reasons why we laugh inappropriately, it doesn’t happen without reason. If you find yourself laughing during an inappropriate time, it might be worth asking why. Depending on what you find, your next step might be consulting a professional to see what truly should be addressed and what a healthier, more effective response would look like. The worst case is that you end up with something to laugh about later.