Why is that? What is the psychological mechanism?
Uneasy-ness?
Why do kids laugh when a sibling gets in trouble? A sort of “glad it’s not me” feeling of relief. Though I’m of the opinion a mature adult doesn’t laugh in such situations, and I sure don’t. A friend of mine is horrible about this - any sort of misfortune cracks him up, from seeing someone fall and hurt themselves to car accidents. He says I’ve got no sense of humor, I say he lacks empathy.
Release of anxiety.
Do bystanders tend to laugh when seeing other people arguing? In my experience they tend to embarrassedly pretend not to notice.
I’ll agree with naita. People usually avoid people who are actively arguing, even averting their gaze and walking faster to get away. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone laughing at them.
ETA Unless they are part of the same group. I would laugh at my friends if they were arguing.
Yeah, “awkwardly ignore” is the only reaction I’ve ever seen.
I might smile or chuckle if I saw a kid having a tantrum; I was a tantrum-y kid myself. But adults fighting? Definitely I’d try to ignore it.
I laugh. Loudly. Whether it’s friends or strangers.
It’s probably a control-my-environment-for-safety thing. I do it to mock/belittle/judge them. Whatever they’re arguing about, it’s stupid and beneath me.
I’m never successful, but it’s my instant physiological response.
This. Especially at a University, in a busy public place. I always think to myself: “Grow up, what kind of argument can’t wait until you’re in private and needs to be broadcasted to everyone within earshot?”
Isn’t it the same reason we laugh at sitcoms?
I’ve seen that in two movies where people want to walk by (customs?) unnoticed. Either argue loudly about intimate marital problems or …
David Mamet movie I can’t remember title with Steve Martin cast against type, spoiler, sort of:
Watch out for arguing Japanese tourists.
Once in a while, I see someone who does seem to be deriving actual humor out of the situation, but often that person is not high in the social pecking order and is not well liked by the peer group. It does seem to be a sign of lack of empathy, and I don’t think it’s the “normal” human response, in an adaptive sense.
I think it’s also possible that it’s a miscalibration of the more normal response: More often, I see laughter as bystanders look at each other in disbelief, shake their heads a bit and give a nervous twitter of some sort.
My theory is that it’s an unconscious strategy to determine who’s on your “side” should the monkeys start flinging poo and you get dragged into the fight. It’s recruitment and tribalism. In other words, anxiety.