Why can’t scientists laugh?

A Recently published survey From more than 500 scientific conference presentations over a two-year period, it was determined whether scientists were funny, which is funny in itself, if not the most productive use of time. The results were about what you might expect: two-thirds of attempts at humor garnered either polite chuckles or complete silence, and only 9% succeeded well enough to elicit laughter from most attendees. Also unsurprisingly, the biggest laughs came from technical hiccups, such as slide malfunctions and microphones being cut off. (Nothing brings an audience together faster than watching something go wrong for someone else.)

Anyone who has attended a conference on any topic, anywhere, knows that scientists do not have a monopoly on bombing. It’s hard to deliver humor in front of any audience that isn’t warmed up. SNL even calls the opening segment the “cold open” — the audience hasn’t laughed at anything yet, making the first laugh the hardest.

Nearly 40% of conversations avoided humor altogether, which is safe but probably makes the afternoon longer. What’s even more interesting – according to science – is that it makes conversations less memorable. “Despite the enormous wealth of interesting content at conferences, it can be difficult to stay engaged. And by engaged I mean awake,” one physician-scientist said. Nature saidwho also spoke with one of the study’s eight (!) co-authors.