You’ve probably seen it before: the boss tells a crummy joke — a joke so undeserving of laughter that it barely qualifies as one — and some poor underling starts cackling like a madman. It’s irritating, sure, but maybe there’s just a little flicker of sympathy deep in your cynical soul. That poor bastard. Having to feign amusment at some godawful jape, just because his job’s on the line. Well, maybe, he’s not faking:

Occasionally we’re surprised into laughing at something funny, but most laughter has little to do with humor. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It’s not about getting the joke. It’s about getting along.

To put it another way: humans are more likely to laugh at jokes made by somebody who appears to have a higher social status. At least, according to a study by Robert R. Provine, anyway.

It’s not news to us that people are more likely to laugh at the jokes made by their bosses; it is somewhat disconcerting that this behavior may be hard-wired into the human brain, making us all willing to move the conversation along with what we had once considered disingenous laughter.

Link via Gawker