How joking around with your brothers and sisters shapes your sense of humour

Amy Paine, The Conversation

Two siblings are playing on the living room floor. The girl, aged six, looks at her brother, and smiling, sings: “A, B, C, D, E, F – R!” Her older brother, aged seven, grins and joins in with: “H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, PEE! Get it? Pee! Pee-pee!” Both fall about laughing.

You may remember similar silly exchanges with your own brother or sister when you were growing up. Research has shown that sibling relationships play an important role in child development. It is one of the most enduring relationships and is characterised by closeness, cooperation, conflict and play. Now our research has taken us a step closer to finding out just how important sharing humour with a sibling may be.

Humour is a universal part of the human experience. But although it has long been of interest to philosophers and psychologists, relatively few studies have explored the types of humour young children produce in their close relationships.

From the research that has been done, we know that from a young age, children take delight in unexpected or surprising events. In infancy, they are amused by peekaboo and clowning around with their caregivers. As toddlers, children demonstrate an increasingly advanced and varied repertoire of humorous incongruities (a conflict between what is expected and an absurd reality). They misuse and mislabel objects, play with sound, push the rules, and playfully tease others. Beyond the preschool years, children begin to play with words in more complex ways. They make up and tell riddles and jokes (with punchlines of varying success).

Researchers have proposed that the production of humour involves considerable cognitive and social skill. Telling a successful joke requires language skills and timing, the ability to understand the minds and emotions of others (or, having a theory of mind), being able to think in creative and fast-paced ways.

But we don’t tell jokes and do funny things just to make people smile – the production of humour is thought to serve many important functions. Not only does it make us laugh, but it also promotes friendships, relieves tension, and helps us cope with stress and anxiety. So it is surprising that so little work has focused on humour within one of the most important childhood relationships, between siblings.