Tickling Study #5: "Science and Technology Week"

Science and Technology Week was a TV series that aired from 1985 to 2001 in the United States. It was broadcast in English and presented in color. The show featured anchors Patrick Greenlaw, Ann Kellan, and Miles O’Brien. It focused on news related to science and technology and won one award with another nomination during its run. This series contained episodes delivering news and updates in the field of science and technology.

An episode (1994) focuses on the mystery of tickling: why do we laugh when most people dislike it? The program shows various people who, despite claiming to hate tickling, start laughing and squirming when they are tickled.

Tickle Science e Technology Week CNN 1994 1

Tickle Science e Technology Week CNN 1994

Christine Harris, from the University of California – San Diego, is conducting an experiment on the nature of laughter. The experiment first analyzes the laughter of a woman who is first tickled on the feet with hands and under the armpits and then shown some comedy sketches.

The experiment then assesses whether the response to tickling differs depending on whether it is performed by a human being or a machine. Two women are blindfolded and tickled. They are told that the first time they will be tickled by a person and the next time by a robotic hand.
However, despite the noise, it is always a human hand that tickles their feet. The two women laugh loudly in the same way.

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Researchers hypothesize that we laugh when tickled as a form of bonding between infants and their mothers: but, ultimately, these are only assumptions, and we do not know the nature of this fascinating phenomenon.