
Jo-Anne Bachorowski on Laughter
Vanderbilt psychologist Jo-Anne Bachorowski discusses her research on laughter in this installment of Yale's Experts in Emotion series, hosted by June Gruber. Bachorowski explains what drew her to the study of vocal emotional expression and walks through the central findings of her work, including how acoustic features of laughter reveal social and emotional information distinct from what people consciously intend to signal. She discusses spontaneous versus voluntary laughter and what these different forms tell researchers about the evolutionary and social functions of nonverbal vocal behavior. The conversation moves from her early motivations into what she considers the most promising open questions in the field, then closes with practical advice for students hoping to enter emotion research. Filmed as a seated interview with chapter markers, it runs under fifteen minutes and functions as a compact overview of one researcher's career and findings rather than a full course lecture.