laughter and altruism

Evidence that laughter makes us more altruistic towards strangers (Uni of Kent and Liverpool, Vugt, Hardy, Stow and Dunbar).

This has big implications. I am wondering about the effects upon my interviewees in my investigation of lecturer perspectives of dyslexic students - will their responses be different if I begin with a joke? Will they be more generous? The way I approach the interview/ behave...etc must be so crucial to the conversation we have - how can I separate my input from the experiences I elicit? I probably can't. What does this say about the usefulness of interview data? I am not sure.