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# Laughing With Us
- URL: https://gliszen.ghost.io/laughing-with-us/
- Published: 2026-02-27T13:02:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-24T21:19:38.000Z
- Description: How New Research Validates Humor as a Therapeutic Resource for Autistic People
- Author: Rachelle P. Goldenberg, LCSW
- Tags: Community, Substack-Moved, Therapy, Social, Self Care, Self Help, Neurodivergence, Autism, neuroaffirmativity, Newsletter, #Migrated-1784927624346, #Import 2026-07-24 21:18

Here’s a thing most people don’t talk about enough: laughter heals. Not in a vague, inspirational-poster kind of way. In a real, measurable, your-brain-chemistry-actually-shifts kind of way. And for autistic people, who navigate a world that wasn’t designed for them, that healing potential is both deeply personal and wildly underexplored.

![smiling woman in white turtleneck sweater](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1619537139015-a8b26a07f849?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyMTN8fGxhdWdodGVyfGVufDB8fHx8MTc3MjE5NjcwMXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)

Photo by [tabitha turner](https://unsplash.com/@tabithaturnervisuals?ref=gliszen.ghost.io) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?ref=gliszen.ghost.io)

A new narrative review published in Frontiers in Psychiatry “**Humour as emotion regulation and resource in autism: a narrative review”** (Manfredi, Laulan, & Samson, 2026) digs into something that a lot of autistic people and the clinicians who work alongside them have sensed for a long time: humor matters. It’s not just a social nicety. It’s a legitimate emotion regulation strategy, a character strength, and—when used in ways that respect neurodivergent experiences—a genuine therapeutic tool.

And honestly? It’s about time the research caught up.

# What the Research Actually Found

The review synthesized studies on humor across both neurotypical and autistic populations, looking at how humor functions as an emotion regulation strategy. In the general population, the evidence is pretty clear: humor works through cognitive reappraisal (reframing a stressful situation with a lighter lens), distraction (the mental effort of processing something funny pulls your attention away from distress), and positive affect (the good feelings humor generates buffer against stress and negativity).

What’s fascinating is that humorous reappraisal—taking something painful and finding a way to see it differently through humor—actually outperformed “serious” reappraisal in studies. People who used humor to reframe negative images reported fewer negative emotions and more positive ones. And here’s the kicker: the reduction in negative emotions was still detectable a full week later. That’s not a fleeting mood boost. That’s a real shift in how the brain processes difficult experiences.

Neuroimaging backed this up. Researchers found that humorous reappraisal activates distinct brain networks—a hippocampus-thalamus-prefrontal circuit linked to that “aha” moment of cognitive reframing, alongside amygdala-cerebellum circuits associated with emotional release and laughter. The brain is literally doing two things at once: thinking differently and feeling better.

![Laugh neon signage](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1527224857830-43a7acc85260?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxicmFpbiUyMG9uJTIwaHVtb3J8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzcyMTk2NzQyfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)

Photo by [Tim Mossholder](https://unsplash.com/@timmossholder?ref=gliszen.ghost.io) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?ref=gliszen.ghost.io)

# So Where Does Autism Fit In?

Autistic people face real and specific challenges with emotion regulation. The review walks through these using Gross’s extended process model, and the picture is nuanced. Many autistic individuals experience difficulty recognizing their own emotions—often connected to alexithymia, which is significantly more prevalent in autistic populations. During the strategy selection phase, there’s a tendency toward behavioral strategies like avoidance rather than cognitively demanding approaches like reappraisal.

But—and this is the part that matters—the research also shows that when autistic people are given guidance and practice, they absolutely can learn to use cognitive reappraisal strategies. They might use different neural pathways to get there, but they get there. The capacity is present. It just needs the right support and environment to flourish.

The review found that humor processing in autism follows qualitatively different patterns compared to neurotypical profiles. Autistic people showed relative strengths in certain types of humor while experiencing more difficulty with others. This isn’t a deficit. It’s a difference. And that distinction is everything when we’re talking about building therapeutic approaches that actually work.

![grayscale photo of man wearing knit cap](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1520690174339-f1db1ce939a0?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxOTN8fHNlbGYlMjBjb25zY2lvdXN8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzcyMTk2ODQyfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080)

Photo by [Alexandre Debiève](https://unsplash.com/@alexkixa?ref=gliszen.ghost.io) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?ref=gliszen.ghost.io)

# The “Gelotophobia” Problem

Oh, and a new word for me - “Gletophobia”. One of the most striking findings in the review is the prevalence of gelotophobia—the fear of being laughed at—in autistic populations. Studies found that anywhere from 72% to 87% of autistic adults met the threshold for gelotophobia, compared to roughly 22–25% of neurotypical adults.

Sit with that for a second. The vast majority of autistic adults carry a fear of being laughed at.

This isn’t irrational anxiety. It comes from somewhere real. It’s rooted in years of social experiences—bullying, teasing, misunderstanding, and the chronic exhaustion of navigating social spaces that weren’t built with you in mind. When laughter has been weaponized against you, of course you’re going to flinch when you hear it.

And that has huge implications for therapy. If we want to use humor as a therapeutic resource for autistic people, we can’t just hand someone a joke book. We have to first address the very real pain that’s been layered onto the experience of laughter itself. We need spaces where autistic people feel safe to laugh—where the laughter is with them, never at them.

# Humor as a Character Strength

The review also explores humor through the lens of positive psychology’s Values in Action (VIA) framework, which identifies character strengths that contribute to a meaningful life. In general populations, humor as a character strength is consistently linked to life satisfaction, resilience, and effective stress management.

In autistic populations, humor was endorsed less frequently as a top character strength. But the research also showed something hopeful: when autistic adults participated in a structured “Three Funny Things” exercise—documenting three humorous experiences each day for a week—they showed a modest reduction in depressive symptoms. That’s a low-intensity, accessible intervention producing real results.

This tells us something important. The fact that humor isn’t always the first tool an autistic person reaches for doesn’t mean it can’t be cultivated. It doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. It means we haven’t always created the conditions for it to thrive.

# Why a Comedy Show Might Be the Best Medicine

![man using microphone](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2f/0c/2f0c8843-4e19-4a64-82b3-1d14728eb05b/content/images/2026/07/9fe55d3d-14e4-41b0-a840-99435b6d2954_1080x834-jpeg.jpg)

Photo by [Cool FM 96.9](https://unsplash.com/@coolfm969?ref=gliszen.ghost.io) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?ref=gliszen.ghost.io)

So here’s where I want to take this beyond the research papers and into the messy, beautiful reality of actual human life.

If humor works as emotion regulation through reappraisal, distraction, and positive affect—and if autistic people can absolutely access those mechanisms with the right support—then what does a therapeutic humor experience actually look like in practice?

**I’d argue it looks a lot like going to a comedy show. Yes, a comedy show, but…the right kind.**

Think about what a good comedy show does. A skilled comedian takes the painful, absurd, contradictory parts of being alive and reframes them. They give you permission to laugh at the hard stuff. They create a shared space where everyone in the room is feeling the same thing at the same time—and for someone who often feels out of sync with the people around them, that synchrony is powerful. It’s co-regulation through collective joy.

For autistic people specifically, a comedy show—especially one that’s neurodiversity-affirming, or even better, performed by neurodivergent comedians—offers something that traditional therapy often can’t. It’s not clinical. It’s not structured around what you can’t do. It’s built around connection, recognition, and the deeply human experience of laughing until your face hurts because someone just described your exact life and made it hilarious.

That’s not a lesser form of therapy. That’s therapy at its most human.

# The Case for Personalizing Therapy With Human Connection

What this research really reinforces is something that the neurodiversity movement has been saying for years: one size does not fit all, and clinical approaches need to meet people where they are.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2f/0c/2f0c8843-4e19-4a64-82b3-1d14728eb05b/content/images/2026/07/9af58d43-f9d6-48fc-a7ab-b60f916e679e_1152x2048-jpeg.jpg)

…this is just me, doing what I do - being me.

The review specifically highlights that interventions developed within neurodiversity-affirming frameworks showed the most promise for strengthening emotional and social functioning in autistic people. That’s not a coincidence. When you build interventions that respect how someone actually experiences the world—rather than trying to make them experience it like a neurotypical person—the outcomes are better. People engage more. They trust the process. They show up as themselves.

Humor-based approaches fit naturally into this. They’re inherently relational. They require attunement. A therapist who uses humor well isn’t performing—they’re connecting. They’re saying, “I see you. I get it. And we can hold the hard stuff together without drowning in it.”

This is what personalized therapy looks like. It’s not a rigid protocol. It’s a human being sitting with another human being and using every available resource—including laughter—to help them regulate, cope, connect, and grow. For some autistic clients, that might mean integrating humor into CBT sessions. For others, it might mean recommending a comedy podcast, attending a live show together as a therapeutic outing, or building a “funny things” journal practice into their weekly routine.

The point is that the therapeutic relationship itself is the vehicle, and humor is one of the most natural fuels for it.

# What This Means Going Forward

Manfredi, Laulan, and Samson’s review is a narrative review, which means it’s a synthesis of existing research rather than a systematic meta-analysis. The authors are upfront about its limitations: the studies vary widely in design, participant characteristics, assessment tools, and cultural contexts. There’s still a lot we don’t know.

But what we do know is encouraging. Humor is a legitimate emotion regulation strategy with measurable effects on both brain activity and psychological well-being. Autistic people engage with humor in ways that are different but meaningful. Gelotophobia is widespread and needs to be addressed as part of any humor-based intervention. And neurodiversity-affirming frameworks produce the best outcomes.

The research gives clinicians, educators, and support professionals permission to do something they may have already been doing instinctively: bring more joy, more laughter, and more genuine human connection into their work with autistic people.

Because at the end of the day, therapy isn’t just about managing symptoms. It’s about living a full, rich, connected life. And laughter—real, shared, safe laughter—is one of the most powerful ways humans have ever found to do that.

So yeah. **Go to the comedy show.** Recommend the comedy show. Maybe even make the comedy show part of the treatment plan.

Your brain will thank you for it!!  

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2f/0c/2f0c8843-4e19-4a64-82b3-1d14728eb05b/content/images/2026/07/be2ec1da-0579-4696-b5c9-3621f09a05d3_1024x608-png.jpg)

Your brain on comedy!

**Want to read more? Check out the journal article … brand new research - it’s quite interesting!**

Manfredi, M., Laulan, P., & Samson, A. C. (2026). Humour as emotion regulation and resource in autism: A narrative review. *Frontiers in Psychiatry, 17*, 1770298\. [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1770298](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1770298?ref=gliszen.ghost.io)