Why My Twin Friends' Laughter is so Loud and high pitched

The twins wanted to remain anonymous so I will refer to them as Lior and Lioz (I just took my name and substituted the ‘r’ to a ‘z’ – this manipulation should give you no clue to what their real names are).

Lior and Lioz have an unusually loud and high-pitched laughter. I have observed this phenomenon for quite some time, and aside from being mildly annoyed, I have also been dumbfounded by the cause of such laughter. Finally, I have found the answer to this puzzle.

Before I share my answer, I must first point out another phenomenon in laughter. Does your laughter ever start to sound like your friends’ laughter? This happens a lot to people because laughter evolved as a social behavior. To those who are skeptical, I will ask you this: when have you laughed the most, by yourself or with people? Why do people laugh when others are laughing for no reason?

Because we laugh when people are around, we are likely to subconsciously mimic their laughter. I don’t know if there is an explanation to this, but it makes sense. One possible explanation is that it establishes conformity between the people. If I make a joke and laugh hysterically and you just chuckle, then that makes an awkward social situation. If you hang out with friends long enough, through different reinforcements your laughs my start sounding alike.

Now back to Lior and Lioz. These twins are constantly with each other and this could explain why their laughter is the same, however, it still doesn’t explain why its loud and high pitched. Because these twins are with each other so much, their mimicking alternates. For example: Lior doesn’t always mimic Lioz, sometimes Lioz mimics Lior, it alternates.

I believe that Lior and Lioz have normal laughter! It is just because the alternate mimicking happens so fast that the only laughter we hear is a high-pitched noise. This is similar to a feedback loop with a microphone and an amplifier. If you hold the microphone too close to the amplifier, you will hear a high-pitched noise as loud as the amplifiers can go. Similarly to this feedback loop, Lior and Lioz have learned to mimic each other’s laughter at a slightly higher pitch. In an instant, their laughter crescendos into loud high-pitched noise that is only limited by the noise their bodies allow them to project.

You might be wondering why they need this kind of social support from each other. You must know that they have shock humor, similar to that of Borat. It is easy for them to get in awkward social situations if nobody laughs at their jokes. Lior might say a joke and Lioz will support him back. Not to make Lioz feel like a loner, Lior will laugh with him. Lioz will continue to laugh to stay in the loop.

Side Note* When they are separated they don’t have the same high pitched laughter, like when a microphone is far away from it’s amplifier there is not feedback loop.