ArticlePloS one2020
Does laughing have a stress-buffering effect in daily life? An intensive longitudinal study.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gratitude and savoring interventions for older adults: a narrative review.The Gerontologist · 2026Review
- The association between positive parent-child interaction and mental health outcomes in children aged 1-11 years in Canada.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Empowered listening: Self-selected music's role in uplifting emotions during stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Laughing During Conversations, But Not in Response to Digital Media, Is Associated With Less Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Social Withdrawal: A Cross-Sectional Study of German Adults in 2023.Health science reports · 2025Article
- How is the Beginning and End of Frequent Laughter Associated With Changes in Loneliness Amongst Older People in Japan? A JAGES Longitudinal Study.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Comedy on Health-Related Quality of Life and Oxidative Stress in Cancer Survivors.Cureus · 2023Article
- A survey about laughter upon viewing functional seizures.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Positive affect is associated with alleviating mental and physiological stress responses. As laughter is a common physiological operationalization of positive affect, we investigated whether the effects of experiencing a stressful event on stress symptoms is lessened by frequency and intensity of daily laughter. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we ambulatory assessed the self-reported experience of stressful events, stress symptoms and the frequency as well as the intensity of laughter in university students' daily lives. Our hierarchical ecological momentary assessment data were analyzed with multilevel models. The results support the stress-buffering model of positive affect: We found that the frequency of laughter attenuated the association between stressful events and subsequent stress symptoms. The level of intensity of laughter, however, was found to have no significant effect. Future studies should use additional psychophysiological indicators of stress and straighten out the differential contributions of frequency and intensity of daily laughter.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.