Book contents
- Habits
- Habits
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- The Pragmatist Reappraisal of Habit in Contemporary Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Social Theory: Introductory Essay
- Part 1 The Sensorimotor Embodiment of Habits
- 1 Habit Formation, Inference, and Anticipation
- 2 Habits and Self
- 3 Emotional Mirroring Promotes Social Bonding and Social Habits
- 4 Emotions, Habits, and Skills
- 5 What the Situation Affords
- 6 Swim or Sink
- Part II The Enactment of Habits in Mind and World
- Part III Socially Embeddded and Culturally Extended Habits
- Index
- References
3 - Emotional Mirroring Promotes Social Bonding and Social Habits
An Insight from Laughter
from Part 1 - The Sensorimotor Embodiment of Habits
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2020
- Habits
- Habits
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- The Pragmatist Reappraisal of Habit in Contemporary Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Social Theory: Introductory Essay
- Part 1 The Sensorimotor Embodiment of Habits
- 1 Habit Formation, Inference, and Anticipation
- 2 Habits and Self
- 3 Emotional Mirroring Promotes Social Bonding and Social Habits
- 4 Emotions, Habits, and Skills
- 5 What the Situation Affords
- 6 Swim or Sink
- Part II The Enactment of Habits in Mind and World
- Part III Socially Embeddded and Culturally Extended Habits
- Index
- References
Summary
In the first part of the chapter, I review evidence showing that the same centers controlling laughter are also involved in generating the affective aspect accompanying laughter, in line with pragmatists’ theories of emotion. Subsequently, I discuss new data showing that these centers can be activated by the passive observation of others’ laughter, hence a “mirror mechanism” for laughter. Inspired by James’ assumption that “the whole function of thinking is but one step in the production of habits of action”, I argue that this mechanism boosts two distinct sets of “habits of actions”, at different timescales. First, laughter mirroring underpins behavioral phenomena such as facial mimicry and laughter contagion that, in turn, play a crucial social function in boosting social bonding. Second, the consequences of laughter mirroring impact on social customs, traditions, and habits which, in turn, impacts on individual brains and emotions – in line with theories on the social genesis of self, advanced by all classic pragmatists.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- HabitsPragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Social Theory, pp. 79 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020