  Here I propose a novel theory in which humor is the feeling of Rapid Anxiety
Reduction (RAR). According to RAR, humor can be expressed in a simple formula:
-d(A)/dt. RAR has strong correspondences with False Alarm Theory, Benign
Violation Theory, and Cognitive Debugging Theory, all of which represent either
special cases or partial descriptions at alternative levels of analysis. Some
evidence for RAR includes physiological similarities between hyperventilation
and laughter and the fact that smiles often indicate negative affect in
non-human primates (e.g. fear grimaces where teeth are exposed as a kind of
inhibited threat display). In accordance with Benign Violation Theory, if humor
reliably indicates both a) anxiety induction, b) anxiety reduction, and c) the
time-course over which anxiety is reduced, then the intersection of these
conditions productively constrains inference spaces over latent mental states
with respect to the values and capacities of the persons experiencing humor. In
this way, humor is a powerful cypher for understanding persons in both
individual and social contexts, with far-reaching implications. Finally, if
humor can be expressed in such a simple formula with clear ties to
phenomenology, and yet this discovery regarding such an essential part of the
human experience has remained undiscovered for this long, then this is an
extremely surprising state of affairs worthy of further investigation. Towards
this end, I propose an analogy can be found with consciousness studies, where
in addition to the "Hard problem" of trying to explain humor, we would do well
to consider a "Meta-Problem" of why humor seems so difficult to explain, and
why relatively simple explanations may have eluded us for this long. (Please
note: RAR was conceived in 2008, and last majorly updated in 2012.)
