Adults rule. Because we rule, we get to do mischievous things to our kids. Like tickling them. It’s one of life’s small pleasures to sneak up behind a guileless child, tackle him or her to the ground in an affectionate, roughhouse, big-lug kind of way, then attack armpits, ribs, or neck with wiggly fingers.
The little moppets just love it, too. When I pounce on my son or nephews, they howl in laughter. They curl into a fetal position. They beg me to stop.
Turns out they aren’t kidding. They really want me to stop. At least that’s the conclusion Christine Harris, a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology at the University of California at San Diego, has come to after conducting two studies on tickle. (Not, please note, tickling. Dropping the suffix, I think we can all agree, gives the topic of tickle a more serious air, one more worthy ...
