Actively searching for counterexamples to the post’s danger+safety theory… What about when people who are in love with each other get giggly around each other? (As an example of laughter, not humor.) I mean the sickly-sweet they’re-in-their-own-world-together kind of giggling, not the nervous unsure-of-oneself laughter. Doesn’t seem like there’s danger.
Similarly, people laughing more when they’re on drugs such as weed. (Though that seems more open to alternative physiological explanations.)
Do the stoners and giggly lovers fit the sketch of a theory that I’m maybe building towards? There is playing around with frames in both of them, I think. People on drugs see things fresh, or from a different perspective from usual; lovers-in-their-own-world have stepped out of the default social framework for interacting with the social world into their own little world. There is definitely syncing on frames with the lovers, though often not with the people on drugs. And there’s an importance thing going on in the relationship, and a perception-of-importance thing with drug use. So mostly fits, except with an exception on the syncing bit.
Giggly lovers is a good example of why I maybe should have just used the term “physiological arousal” throughout, instead of the word “danger”. I think it’s just generally exciting / stimulating / etc. to be newly in love! There’s a lot of Ingredient (A) floating around, even if there isn’t really any “danger” in the normal sense of that word. (It’s high-stakes in regards to one’s reproductive prospects, I guess.)
Not sure about marijuana. Maybe I’d guess that the chemical somehow sets Ingredients (B) + (C) anomalously high, so that almost any physiological arousal triggers laughter, even things that would normally just be scary or exciting. Like laughing through an entire episode of Oz (true story, if I recall correctly from a very long time ago).
Actively searching for counterexamples to the post’s danger+safety theory… What about when people who are in love with each other get giggly around each other? (As an example of laughter, not humor.) I mean the sickly-sweet they’re-in-their-own-world-together kind of giggling, not the nervous unsure-of-oneself laughter. Doesn’t seem like there’s danger.
Similarly, people laughing more when they’re on drugs such as weed. (Though that seems more open to alternative physiological explanations.)
Do the stoners and giggly lovers fit the sketch of a theory that I’m maybe building towards? There is playing around with frames in both of them, I think. People on drugs see things fresh, or from a different perspective from usual; lovers-in-their-own-world have stepped out of the default social framework for interacting with the social world into their own little world. There is definitely syncing on frames with the lovers, though often not with the people on drugs. And there’s an importance thing going on in the relationship, and a perception-of-importance thing with drug use. So mostly fits, except with an exception on the syncing bit.
Giggly lovers is a good example of why I maybe should have just used the term “physiological arousal” throughout, instead of the word “danger”. I think it’s just generally exciting / stimulating / etc. to be newly in love! There’s a lot of Ingredient (A) floating around, even if there isn’t really any “danger” in the normal sense of that word. (It’s high-stakes in regards to one’s reproductive prospects, I guess.)
Not sure about marijuana. Maybe I’d guess that the chemical somehow sets Ingredients (B) + (C) anomalously high, so that almost any physiological arousal triggers laughter, even things that would normally just be scary or exciting. Like laughing through an entire episode of Oz (true story, if I recall correctly from a very long time ago).