My son doesn't laugh when others laugh - Theory of Mind

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There's plenty of research that demonstrates there is an automatic (empathetic) yawn or laughter that is triggered when there an individual is exposed to others doing these behaviours. The exact mechanism controlling these reactions is poorly understood but it's thought to be connected with empathetic tendencies. The cliché "laughter is contagious" is older than the science of modern psychology.

I assume since so many Aspies on this forum are unable to fathom "contagious" laughing or yawning it does point to the underlying reasons connected to empathy.

I believe you and accept the theory but for me it is difficult for me to fathom.

This really explains a lot and sheds some light about why NTs in America are so adamant and fanatical about positivity and having positive attitude.

I'm not going to do it whether you are supposed to or not. For me laughter is something that just comes naturally when I find something funny and I can't force it any more than I can force a sneeze. It just happens. Whether other people are laughing or not have nothing to do with it and when people laugh a lot for no reason (as far as I can tell) it doesn't make me want to laugh. It just makes me uncomfortable.

Another example of contagious behaviour is mass hysteria which is a form of conversion syndrome.

It classically occurs in girl's boarding houses or dorm rooms. For no apparent reason if one or two girls start screaming hysterically over (an apparently) unknown trigger it sets off the entire cohort or dorm screaming, pulling their hair and even self harm...basically all chaos breaks out. Afterward nobody remembers why they were hysterical in the first place.

Can you tell me if it matters to NTs whether you're with strangers or familiar people?

If I had been at the bus stop and an unfamiliar man began laughing, without something funny happening and without him reading something potentially funny, I would feel uncomfortable. That would be a red flag: This person isn't quite right. It certainly wouldn't make me laugh.

But around family or acquaintances I have experienced contagious laughter plenty of times, (been influenced by it myself, I mean), especially as a teenager.

All good questions. I think this is part of the dimension of this phenomena that really isn't well understood. Perhaps the likelihood of contagious response to laughter is a function of a) how well you know the individual/s? and b) how many people are present? c) the situation/environment and c) the subject matter people are laughing at - the relationship may not be linear, it may be multivariate in the way outside factors influence/contribute and interact.

I think it has more to do with situations than with familiarity with the laughing people - otherwise laugh tracks wouldn't work on TV. Just a guess.

Another positive Aspies get out of this phenomenon - resistance to (some) advertising. My mother was a specialist at this: we'd do those "free" timeshare-commercial vacations, and watch all the other families sign up for a timeshare...and my mother would simply say "no." Another example of how this kind of social sharing works against NTs - three-card-monty games using a shill; it wouldn't be out there if it didn't work.

i never laugh unless i find something funny. other people laughing is not funny to me, therefore i never laugh at people laughing. the only exception is when their laughter is seriously inappropriate.

i laugh at my own ideas that i craft for my own pleasure, and not many people share my "sense" of humor. i will often explode in a fit of laughter out of the blue when everyone else is serious, and people's puzzled expressions sometimes compounds my laughter and then it becomes exponentially more disabling until i feel that i am going to suffocate, and all the while i have a crowd of witnesses scratching their heads in concern about my mental state, and i have to escape or suffocate.

but i never find other people's jokes funny, and i never find situational comedy funny and i never laugh in concert with other people laughing. i do not laugh when i listen to a soundtrack of hyenas and i never laugh when when i hear kookaburras "laughing".

i find nothing to be infectious.
if someone else feels nothing, then i identify with them. they infect me with nothing.

I hate the timeshares. I would ask lots of questions and they would become pissed off. I keep telling them I need to be able to take the paperwork home with me and examine it myself.

Laugh tracks on TV are an excellent example. I think the concept stems from Vaudeville and theatre where a man holding a sign saying "clap" would get the audience to clap/cheer. The reality is we tend to laugh less at comedies where there is no laugh machine.

On the other hand Aspie/Autie kids are equally suckers for advertising...what attracts my daughter to commercial products is often the use of brand labels that make use of Disney or Pixar characters to label the packaging.

You mean like if she saw a box of pop tarts and they had a Disney character on it, she would want it?

Well she hates pop tarts and is a fussy eater but yeah! anything else with a Disney character and she'll ask us to buy it

britney spears is a pop tart.

I agree - it's interesting, my son is that way, too. I think it is that he is MORE suceptible to branding - seeing the pattern repeated over and over. There are some aspects of advertising that can work on people with AS - for instance, if an ad says something, it doesn't occur to DS to question it.

He also struggles with the "not lying but not telling the whole truth" parts of advertising - however, we recently read the book Made You Look and he was horrified by all the manipulation. Once learning that, he's a little more skeptical - manipulation, especially verbal manipulation, really pushes his buttons.

However, I can see where sales pitches rely on social cueing - and my mother just didn't follow social cueing unless it went where she wanted. I guess it depends on the individual wiring of the person in question.

I don't think I have ever been a sucker at food about it, I was only a sucker if the food looked good to have. That is what advertising does. it makes you want to get it because you think "Oh that looks so cool, I want to try it."

Parents have blamed childhood obesity on food products because they put characters on it like Shrek and I said about that "There is such thing as the word "no"" and parents were trying to get those products banned and blame it on food companies for obesity. I figure the parents don't want to go through the tantrums and them trying to be manipulated to get their way or because they don't want to be the bag guys at saying "no."

My parents used the word, they should to.