"Funny or die" has a whole new meaning, thanks to a study. Women with a strong sense of humor were found to live longer, although they had some illnesses such as heart problems and infection (感染). Happy men seemed to be protected against infection.
The researchers reported the findings from a 15-year study among 53, 556 women and men in their country. The study was mainly about the connection between the sense of humor and death. The team studied the influence(影响) of humor on people's ways of thinking and social skills. Besides, they studied death under different conditions: heart problems, infection and other health problems.
The findings showed that for women, those who had high scores on a humorous way of thinking had 48% less risk(风险) of death from all causes. These women also had 73% lower risk of death from heart problems and 83% lower risk of death from infection. For men, a connection was found only for the risk of death from infection - those with high humor scores had 74% less risk. There searchers said the differences between women and men could be caused by a small fall in humors cores as the men grew older. No connection was found for the influence of humor on social skills.
"The humorous way of thinking may influence the way people deal with things, "said the co-researcher Sven Svebak." It may help reduce fighting in people's daily life. "Although the sense of humor is natural, it can also be developed through social activities.
"I think that children whose parents have no sense of humor arc less likely to develop their sense of humor when they grow up, "Sven Svebak said. "But if you had a humorless childhood, never fear - studies show people can learn to be humorous at any age."
