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Why our brains make us laugh

From a Tufts term paper to a new book on the cognitive origins of humor

By Chris Berdik

 |   

  November 20, 2011

Matthew Hurley was an undergraduate at Tufts when he asked a vital question: Why is the human brain equipped with a sense of humor? The answer he proposed became the basis for a new book, “Inside Jokes,” written with Daniel Dennett and Reginald Adams, Jr. A conversation about why humor is useful to the species.

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