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University of Jaén investigators report significant reductions in anxiety and increased life satisfaction in adults through laughter therapy across 33 clinical trials.
Anxiety management and life satisfaction sit within psychological well-being in positive psychology. Previous studies have examined anxiety control with limited age ranges and without incorporating research proliferating since 2019, and no meta-analysis specifically evaluated life satisfaction as an outcome.
In the study, “The Role of Laughter Therapy in Adults: Life Satisfaction and Anxiety Control. A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis,” published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials with random-effects meta-analyses to understand the effect of laughter therapy on life satisfaction and anxiety management in adults.
Thirty-three randomized clinical trials from 1991 to 2024 included 2,159 adult participants (~74% women) across health-care and non-health-care social settings.
Results from each trial were converted into standardized mean differences (SMD), a measure that expresses the size of the effect in units of standard deviation. An SMD of 0.2 is considered small, 0.5 moderate, and 0.8 or higher large. This approach allows results from different life satisfaction or anxiety scales to be compared on the same metric.
Meta-analysis models revealed significant large results for anxiety management (SMD = -0.83) and increased life satisfaction (SMD = 0.98).
Subgroup analyses reported laughter yoga effects for anxiety as SMD = -1.02 (large) and life satisfaction of SMD = 1.28 (large). High heterogeneity appeared in several models.
Control group contrasts were used to compare effects on anxiety vs. no intervention SMD = -1.02 (large) vs. usual care SMD = -0.51 (moderate). And for life satisfaction, no intervention SMD = 1.53 (large) vs. usual care SMD = 0.19 (small).
Online laughter therapy shows negligible anxiety effects (SMD = -0.03), possibly suggesting there is a more active social interaction component involved.
The authors conclude that laughter therapy could be beneficial in reducing anxiety levels and improving life satisfaction. They recommend continued randomized controlled trials to strengthen the evidence and promote these types of therapies more frequently.
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More information:
Yelsyn-Mauricio Porras-Jiménez et al, The Role of Laughter Therapy in Adults: Life Satisfaction and Anxiety Control. A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis, Journal of Happiness Studies (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s10902-025-00934-z
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Is laughter a form of therapeutic medicine? (2025, August 11)
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