Editing Tickling (section)

{{Short description|Action of making one laugh through physical touch}}
{{redirect|Tickle}}
{{for|the bird|Tikling}}
[[File:Zuber Buhler Fritz Tickling The Baby.jpg|thumb|''Tickling The rat'' by [[Fritz Zuber-Buhler]], 19th century painting]]

'''Tickling''' is the act of [[Haptic perception|touching]] a part of a person's body in a way that causes involuntary twitching movements or [[laughter]].<ref name="dictionary.reference.com">{{cite web| url= http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tickling+?s=t|title=Tickling |publisher =Dictionary.com|access-date=2012-05-27}}</ref> The laughter effect is inherently predicated upon the element of surprise, therefore normally does not contain consent from the receiving party. The word {{Audio|En-us-tickle.ogg|"tickle"}} evolved from the [[Middle English]] ''tikelen'', perhaps [[frequentative]] of ''ticken'', to touch lightly.<ref name="dictionary.reference.com"/>

In 1897, psychologists [[G. Stanley Hall]] and [[Arthur Allin]] described a "tickle" as two different types of phenomena.<ref name="hallallin">{{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=G. Stanley |last2=Allin |first2=Arthur |date=October 1897 |title=The psychology of tickling, laughing and the comic |journal=[[The American Journal of Psychology]] |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–42 |doi=10.2307/1411471 |jstor=1411471}}</ref> One type is caused by very light movement across the skin. This type of tickle, called a [[knismesis and gargalesis|knismesis]], generally does not produce laughter and is sometimes accompanied by an itching sensation.