Why is there tickling?

January 13, 2005 4:27 PM

How and why did tickling evolve?
posted by moooshy to Human Relations (5 answers total)

"Why you can't tickle yourself" (PDF)

...though I can't vouch if giving yourself The Stranger counts.
posted by Loser at 4:48 PM on January 13, 2005

Howstuffworks has a good article with links.
posted by saladin at 4:55 PM on January 13, 2005

Suggestion and the unknown.
posted by sled at 5:13 PM on January 13, 2005

So being that tickling illicits a panic response, when we're tickled by another person it fits very nicely that the response is to laugh, since a lot of people theorize laughter is a response to a threat or tension that turns out to be harmless.
posted by abcde at 6:44 PM on January 13, 2005

There's a Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda about this.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:15 PM on January 13, 2005