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The Purpose of Tickling (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Many of history’s greatest thinkers have pondered the mysteries of the tickle response, including Plato, Francis Bacon, Galileo and Charles Darwin.[7] Many scientists have followed in their footsteps and have ventured opinions and hypotheses that attempt to explain the nearly ubiquitous nature of the tickle response.

One hypothesis, as mentioned above, is that tickling serves as a pleasant bonding experience between parent and child.[7] However, this hypothesis does not adequately explain why many children and adults find tickling to be an unpleasant experience. Another view maintained is that tickling develops as a prenatal response and that the development of sensitive areas on the fetus helps to orient the fetus into favourable positions while in the womb.[16]

It is unknown why certain people find areas of the body to be more ticklish than others; additionally, studies have shown that there is no significant difference in ticklishness between the genders.[17] In 1924 J.C. Gregory proposed that the most ticklish places on the body were also those areas that were the most vulnerable during hand-to-hand combat. He posited that ticklishness might confer an evolutionary advantage by enticing the individual to protect these areas. Consistent with this idea, University of Iowa psychiatrist, Donald W. Black observed that most ticklish spots are found in the same places as the protective reflexes.[18]

A third, hybrid hypothesis, has suggested that tickling encourages the development of combat skills.[7] Most tickling is done by parents, siblings and friends and is often a type of rough-and-tumble play, during which time children often develop valuable defensive and combat moves. Although people generally make movements to get away from, and report disliking, being tickled, laughter encourages the tickler to continue. If the facial expressions induced by tickle were less pleasant the tickler would be less likely to continue, thus diminishing the frequency of these valuable combat lessons.

To understand how much of the tickle response is dependent on the interpersonal relationship of the parties involved, Christenfeld and Harris presented subjects with a “mechanical tickle machine”. They found that the subjects laughed just as much when they believed they were being tickled by a machine as when they thought they were being tickled by a person.[19] Harris goes on to suggest that the tickle response is reflex, similar to the startle reflex, that is contingent upon the element of surprise.[7]

References

7. Harris, Christine R. The mystery of ticklish laughter. American Scientist. July-August 1999 v87 i4 p344(8).
16. Simpson JY. On the attitude of the fetus in utero. Obstetric Memoirs, vol ii. Philadelphia: Lippincott; 1855-1856.
17. Weinstein, S. 1968. Intensive and extensive aspects of tactile sensitivity as a function of body part, sex, and laterality. In The Skin Senses, ed. D. R. Kenshalo. Springfield, Ill.: Thomas. pp. 195-222.
18. Black DW (1984). “Laughter”. JAMA 252 (21): 2995–8.
19. Harris, C. R., and N. Christenfeld. In press. Can a machine tickle? Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

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