{"id":35000,"date":"2026-10-22T15:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=35000"},"modified":"2026-10-22T09:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T13:31:01","slug":"hearing-laughter-may-cause-orangutans-to-value-rewards-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/10\/hearing-laughter-may-cause-orangutans-to-value-rewards-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing laughter may cause orangutans to value rewards more"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new study from Indiana University shows that being in a positive mood leads orangutans to value what they learned more strongly. The study comes from the lab of Erica Cartmill, professor of animal behavior, anthropology and cognitive science in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, and was led by Daan Lam\u00e9ris, a postdoctoral researcher at IU.<\/p>\n

Scientists have long acknowledged that in humans, positive moods enhance learning<\/strong> and make experiences more memorable. However, the evolutionary origins of this trait haven\u2019t been studied in other great ape species.<\/p>\n

Lam\u00e9ris and Cartmill hypothesized that if orangutans heard laughter while learning how to find a reward, they might value that reward more. Lam\u00e9ris designed a study that took place over five consecutive days to test this hypothesis.<\/p>\n

The power of laughter<\/h2>\n

In the study, the orangutans were presented with two bowls containing different materials they had to dig through to find a food reward. On days one and three, food was always hidden under one material (e.g., wood chips) and never under the other (e.g., paper towels).<\/p>\n

On days two and four, the same unrewarded material was presented, alongside a new material (e.g., yarn) that now covered the reward. On the fifth day, the researchers brought back the two materials that had previously hidden rewards to see which one the orangutans preferred.<\/p>\n

The orangutans had learned that food rewards were hidden under both wood chips and yarn, so they shouldn\u2019t prefer one over the other when looking for the reward.<\/p>\n

However, the important difference was that the researchers had played the sound of orangutan laughter<\/strong> when the orangutans were searching in one material, and a control sound when the orangutans were searching in the other.<\/p>\n

When given a choice between both hiding places, orangutans preferred the material that they dug through when listening to laughter.<\/p>\n

Because laughter is contagious for all great ape species, it can impact mood positively. Cartmill and Lam\u00e9ris concluded that hearing laughter puts orangutans in a more positive mood and causes them to value a reward more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is surprising to find these effects with orangutans, because they are the least social of all the great apes,\u201d said Lam\u00e9ris, who conducted the majority of the orangutan study at ZOO Planckendael in Mechelen, Belgium. \u201cSo even among relatively non-social animals, laughter is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartmill likens this to something that happens with humans: You might like your grandma\u2019s pancakes the best not because they are objectively the greatest pancakes ever made, but because you have positive associations with eating that food at a loved one\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve shown in this study is that we can measure the value of laughter, and we can measure how much mood is valued,\u201d Cartmill said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a better mood, the memories you form are remembered more positively and have more value to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thriving, not just surviving<\/h2>\n

Cartmill wanted to study positive emotions like joy in animals because she said the scientific scales tend to be tipped toward studying fear, grief and loss in animals, contributing to a narrative that nonhuman animal life is only about competition and survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of this project was to ask, \u2018What are the moments that help shape the lives of the animal<\/strong>s we share a planet with?,\u2019\u201d Cartmill said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t just about surviving to reproduce, but it\u2019s actually about creating a narrative that also involves friendships and memories and building toward the things that give life meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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JOURNAL<\/h4>\n

Biology Letters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study from Indiana University shows that being in a positive mood leads orangutans to value what they learned more strongly. The study comes from the lab of Erica Cartmill, professor of animal behavior, anthropology and cognitive science in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, and was led by Daan Lam\u00e9ris,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1111,5,808,1319,1314,1179,915,777],"tags":[208,1321,1323,31,1320,917,1322],"class_list":["post-35000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-emotions","category-food","category-fun","category-laughter","category-mental-health","category-nature","category-play","tag-food","tag-fun","tag-hunt","tag-mood","tag-orangoutans","tag-sounds","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35001,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35000\/revisions\/35001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}