Why canned laughter work?

It was the summer of 2010, I had completed high school. I had 4 months before my college started. So, an ample amount of time to play, travel and do something new. I thought of start watching a sitcom show that everyone was raving about in social media. My brother recommended it too. I had never watched a TV series, and that too one in English before. The show was “The Big Bang Theory”. I was a little confused at the beginning. I thought it was a documentary on the big bang and universe. The show’s title track indicated something similar. But five minutes into the show a pretty lady shows up. Oops, it’s definitely not a documentary on the big bang. My ability to predict and understand anything related to that show ended right there. 

I don’t know about you, but I could never follow the dialogues without subtitles. The practise continues even today. The show didn’t help either. There was sarcasm, references to American movies and comics culture, actors, and physics!! All these were a bouncer so high I was not even trying to duck. SITCOM - Situational Comedy. I understood neither the situation nor the comedy in it. But did I show it on the outside? No way! I laughed out loud sometimes to prove to my brother “You see, I got this. VERYYYY Funnyyy. HA HA HA”. And shamelessly commented on tweets and Facebook posts on the show from my friends.

How was I able to identify the right moments to laugh? I had help, from none other than the show itself. Show creators pay a bunch of people just to laugh. To laugh at the opportune moments during the show, to serve as a cue for the audience. They call this canned laughter. Why do they do this? First, experiments have shown, the audience laughs more and longer. And they rate the show high on humour. Second, to save poor non-native speaker like me from embarrassment. A big thank you from my side creators. The second reason might sound way out of the line. But you know Americans rule the world through Hollywood and their TV series. They know their movies and series have an audience outside the US. So creators pretty much know they had to help others by providing a cue. 

But why canned laughter work? We humans decide our actions or behaviours based on what others around us or like us does. Especially in situations where we are uncertain about what to do, we tend to look at what other people are doing. And we generally tend to follow them. In the sitcom story above, I was not sure when and what to laugh at. The paid canned laughter was the cue that helped me identify the right moments to laugh. Robert Cialdini termed this psychological phenomenon - social proof in his book Influence. Before buying a product online, we check for reviews of others who have already tried the product. We are uncertain and we check for what others had to say about the product and only buy if the reviews are positive. We are looking for proof from people who had bought the product before us - Social Proof. Same goes for booking hotel rooms.