The dual pathway model posits that spontaneous and volitional laughter are voiced using distinct production systems, and perceivers rely upon these system-related cues to make accurate judgments about relationship status. Yet, to our knowledge, no empirical work has examined whether raters can differentiate laughter directed at friends and romantic partners and the cues driving this accuracy. In Study 1, raters (N = 50), who listened to 52 segments of laughter, identified conversational partner (friend versus romantic partner) with greater than chance accuracy (M = 0.57) and rated laughs directed at friends to be more pleasant-sounding than laughs directed at romantic partners. Study 2, which involved 58 raters, revealed that prototypical friendship laughter sounded more spontaneous (e.g., natural) and less “vulnerable” (e.g., submissive) than prototypical romantic laughter. Study 3 replicated the findings of the first two studies using a large cross-cultural sample (N = 252). Implications for the importance of laughter as a subtle relational signal of affiliation are discussed.

双路径模型假设自发和有意识的笑声是使用不同的生产系统发出的，并且感知者依靠这些与系统相关的线索来对关系状态做出准确的判断。然而，据我们所知，没有实证研究检验评估者是否可以区分针对朋友和浪漫伴侣的笑声以及推动这种准确性的线索。在研究 1 中，听了 52 段笑声的评分者（N  = 50）以高于偶然的准确度（M = 0.57) 并认为针对朋友的笑声比针对浪漫伴侣的笑声听起来更悦耳。涉及 58 名评估者的研究 2 显示，与典型的浪漫笑声相比，典型的友谊笑声听起来更自发（例如，自然）且不那么“脆弱”（例如，顺从）。研究 3 使用大型跨文化样本 ( N  = 252) 复制了前两项研究的结果。讨论了笑声作为一种微妙的关系信号的重要性的含义。