Make Me Laugh 1 Running head: MAKE ME LAUGH Make Me Laugh: The Effects of Laughter and Power on Social Impressions

I would like to thank Dr. Mark Sibicky for being my advisor throughout this process. His patience and advice have been the backbone of this experience. I appreciate his willingness to read similar revisions over and over, to make countless corrections, and to offer encouraging words just when I needed them the most. I would also like to thank Dr. Jennifer McCabe and Dr. Alicia Doerflinger for giving advice and suggestions for the experimental design and for assisting in final editing. Finally, I would like to thank Leigh Sites and Erin Boyle for putting in endless hours as my confederates. I could not have completed this without their help and dedication. Make Me Laugh 4 Laughter is an innate and universal expression that serves social functions. The current study was conducted to investigate the social implication of laughter in varying power situations. Previous research suggests that subordinate laughter increases when an authority figure is present, but little is known concerning why. It was hypothesized that high-power participants would more positively evaluate the confederate who laughed during the activity than the confederate wh