The delayed laugh

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One of my favorite math professors wrote all the major topics of that day's lecture on the board as he spoke. This made it easy to takes notes and listen. During one of the more complex lectures on discrete versus continuous distributions, he a told a joke. Guess what, the joke was written on the board.

Most of the class chuckled when he told the joke. A few seconds later, after he wrote it on the board, a couple of other people chuckled.

This example helps me understand the conversations about recognizing emotions in other people. There is a consensus that when focused we are good at it. When distracted, we are terrible at it. The noisy world makes processing the emotion slow and difficult. Eventually, we come up with an acceptable response.

Unfortunately, by that time it is too late and our response seems odd.

There has been significant brain science research into emotional processing. One conclusion is that a calm mind improves the speed and accuracy of identifying emotions. Score another on for mindfulness.

The issue is creating a calm environment where the brain is not over stimulates and already totally focused on the topic being discussed.

trying to switch the mind to the joke is difficult, especially as the joke is usually out of context with the actual topic - often we only know it is a joke when others react, by then it becomes difficult to join it without being looked at as different.

Often why the new sitcoms have studio audiences being told when to laugh so it does not make the jokes look bad - having a sign up saying "laugh" allows everyone to know that it is time to laugh!!

Thanks, having my own personal studio sign to tell me when to laugh would be grand

Having that in life would be of great benefit.

Laugh
Smile
Look sad
Be happy......

You forgot "Run Away"