How to Tell That the Laughter is Dismissive in this Scene from the Movie Beautiful Girls?
Lucio advised that this laughter is dismissive in the movie Beautiful Girls:
However, I find this instance quite challenging to discern.
How do you tell if it is
- A genuine laughter
- A dismissive laughter
- A submissive laughter
Sounds like the perfect question for "social intuition".
To answer it in more analytical terms, I should think about it more deeply.
But this is exactly what emotional/social intelligence addresses.
My Recent Example
I encountered laughter from a woman recently when collecting my repaired laptop at the counter.
I wasn't sure what kind of laughter it was.
Her: (looks at name on paper)
(struggles to pronounce name)Me: Matthew
Her: Just needed to turn the paper around to see the name properly
Me: I can't expect you to pronounce everyone's names correctly
(I wanted to say something like she sees hundreds of people a day so it's not even fair to expect her to pronounce all names correctly)Her: (laughs)
Thank you for your understanding.
Then, I wasn't sure whether the laughter was friendly or dismissive.
Definitely not submissive in my opinion.
Beautiful Girls Example
Him: So what part of Chicago are you from?
Her: Do you know Chicago?
Him: (stumbles upon the answer) Yeah, I know like Soldier's field.
Her: That's a football field. (laughs)
I think her tone is a bit judgemental and sarcastic when she said "That's a football field.".
The elongated syllabuses and upward inflections on the words.
And she had the big-eye, incredulous look on her face.
A bit like the look Stephen Colbert gave Barrack Obama.
I'm thinking that one way to possibly help people recognize which is which is to think:
What words could have one used to replace that laughter?
In this case, words that go along well with Thurman's laughter, could have been:
Are you serious? That's a football field
Or:
That's a football field, what are you talking about?
Or:
That's a football people, people don't usually live inside football fields you know?
I think that helps a lot!
I'm also thinking if one can tell purely from the sound of the laughter.
Never analysed laughter before so brainstorming here:
Sarcastic, Dismissive, Snarky Laughter: Expelling a big puff of air or sneering sound
Social Blunder: Laught at the Wrong Times - 3 Examples
Dominant Laughter: Laughs loudly without restrain like Elon Musk against reporter's question on competitor BYD
Or Jeff Bezos during interviews
Submissive Laughter: Sounds stifled like the man against Judge Judy
Genuine Laughter: High-pitched "hahahaha", usually easiest to tell from facial expression
I think that social intuition product is going to be amazing 🙂
In large part to your examples and analyses! Thanks a lot 🙂