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MethodologyPurposeThe purpose of the study was to investigate factors affecting the laughter expressed at the sight things people find funny. The research has helped to better delve into the field of laughter which has been relatively unexplored. The study was designed to invoke laughter through the use of pictures and videos.Research QuestionsWhat is the correlation of how funny somebody thinks something is and how much of a reaction they will they show?Will pictures or videos cause more outward expression?SampleThe sample consisted of twenty-one high school juniors. Students were chosen because it was thought that conducting the study with teens would be the most interesting, because they are the most influenced my media and peer pressure, and they would be the least likely to hide their emotions . InstrumentsThe instruments that were used to obtain the results were a 10-picture survey(Appendix A) and two videos that were found on “YouTube”. The videos were found to not only be age appropriate but also to have the potential to invoke laughter for two different reasons: derision and slapstick. Each participant was also observed to document his/her reaction to the pictures and videos. This was done by standing in the testing room with each participant and covertly observing their reaction to the video and pictures. This type of survey has been used in similar studies and this study it was used in the survey, for the participants to rate the pictures, and again when their reactions to the pictures and the videos were observed. The pictures used were found by searching funny images on the internet.ProcedureThe procedure that was used was to give a group of juniors the survey and to gauge his/her reactions. They were taken out of class one at a time and then taken into Dr. Huff’s office, to give them the survey and to have his/her reactions. He/she will be given the survey and asked to take it seriously. After they took the survey they were shown the two videos that were being shown. As he/she took the survey observations were made of his/her reactions on a sheet of paper. Before each junior left he/she was asked not to discuss it to anybody else until all of the juniors who volunteered had been surveyed. Data AnalysisThe data was examined to see what pictures and videos caused the most laughter and which picture was funniest. To do this the scores for each picture were calculated and the mean was found for each to find which pictures were found the funniest. The information was put into a spreadsheet to better analyze the data. After the calculations for each picture and video has been completed, the data was checked to see what types of pictures and videos were found funniest and what participants liked what types of pictures and videos the most. ResultsOf the 28 students that had planned to participate only 21 were able to complete the task because of time constraints and scheduling conflicts. The participants were each taken into a room one at a time to participate in the survey. This was done over a three-day period in the morning; no work was done on the second day. The survey consisted of three parts, some done simultaneously. The first part of the experiment was a 10-picture survey, with each participant being asked to rate how funny he/she found each picture. They had the option of rating the picture anywhere from a 0; which was deemed “not funny”, to a “10” which was deemed very funny. There was only one instance that a participant did not rate a picture. Participants’ ratings were usually above a 5, with an 8 being the most common rating, and there were a total of six ratings of 10. The second part of the experiment involved the participants watching two videos they were not told to do anything else while watching them. The third part of the experiment involved the researchers observing the rating the level of their outward expression of humor (smiling, laughing, etc.) participants and. They were rated on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 meaning that “they had no response consisting of or similar to laughter” and a “10” was rolling on the floor laughing and or it took the participant a great deal of time to stop laughing heavily. The participants generally found that videos were funnier than the pictures in most cases. Most of the people’s responses for the pictures were rated a “1” due to their lack of reaction; however, there were also small number of 4’s a 3 and a multitude of 2’s. With regard to the videos, the ratings of the participants’ responses increased by a substantial amount. The highest rating given to a participant’s response to a video was an 8 there was also a 7 a 6 and several smaller numbers. There were also only two 1’s given during the observations. Results showed no significant correlation between participants and observer ratings, indicating no correlation between one’s perception of humor and outward verbalized and said perception.DiscussionThe study contained 21 individuals. They were shown pictures and videos in an attempt to discover what is thought to be funny. Outwardly they found the pictures to be funnier than the pictures. Though they still thought inwardly that the pictures were funny, some thought they were very funny.When the participants were shown the 10 picture survey they gave the pictures a variety of ratings. Some participants seemed not to understand what the picture was about. While one participant in particular seemed to either not care about the experiment or found none of the pictures wee particularly funny, because he/she gave all of the pictures a “3” except for which was rated even lower. Another participant seems to have either missed or ignored one of the pictures on the survey. The second part of the experiment was the participants being showed two videos and their reactions were observed and noted. They participants obviously found that not showing their laughter or mirth towards the videos openly. This was likely because the videos were more immersive than the pictures. Therefore it was more obvious that they liked watching the videos. It was interesting because the videos did not just involve people getting hurt or doing something stupid, but also animals doing funny and sometimes harmless things on camera. One participant wheeled the chair he was sitting in backwards while watching one of the videos due to how hard he was laughing and how funny he thought the video was. Many of the participants seemed to have sympathized with people who got hurt in the videos.The final part of the experiment was the observation of the participants during the other two parts of the experiment. The participants were covertly being observed while they took the survey and watched the videos. It was noticed that during the survey the participants were pretty much straight-faced. While some of the participants were looking straight down for at least part of the time making observing their expressions difficult to impossible. Overall the observation process was the most telling part of the experiment because even if somebody finds something is funny it does not mean they will laugh.Appendix Instructions: Using the scale of 1 through 10, with 1 being not funny and 10 being extremely funny, rate each of the following pictures.Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Not FunnyExtremely Funny 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Not FunnyExtremely Funny1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Thank You for Participating! ................
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