1 Published in O. Akpoghomeh (Ed.), Ikogho: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Education, Social Sciences, Humanities and Management Sciences, 2016, Volume 1& 2, pp. 635 – 643. Laughter as Conflict Avoidance Strategy: A Politeness Study of Conversations of Undergraduates in Southwest Nigeria Khabyr Alowonle Fasasi (PhD) Department of English Language and Literature Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri E-mail: khabyrfasasi@yahoo.com Abstract Research works on conflict and politeness abound. However in the Nigerian context, there is a paucity of works on the relationships among laughter, politeness and conflict. This work examines the relationship between politeness and laughter in conversations of undergraduates with special focus on how laughter is deployed by interactants as a conflict avoidance strategy. Utilising Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory and Burton’s (1990) human needstheory of social conflict, recorded conversations of undergraduates from six state universities in southwest Nigeria were subjected to descriptive analysis. Analysis revealed that laughter performs a number of supportive functions to the utterances around it, as laughter carries semantico-pragmatic force only in relation to those utterances. Laughter performs such supportive roles as mitigating face-threats to hearer’s negative face (face-saving), enhancing hearer and speaker’s positive face and, enhancing the face of the conversation. The paper concludes that laughter, among the undergraduates, functions as conflict avoidance strategy by saving interactants’ face and by enhancing conversations. Key words: Laughter, conflict avoidance, politeness, face, undergraduates, southwest Nigeria. 1.0 Introduction Laughter in interactions has been widely studied. Some of such studies include Partington (2006), Billig (2005), Osvaldsson (2004), Glenn (2003), Haakana (2001), Hay (2000), Provine (2000) and Stewart (1995). Research works have varied along several lines such as laughter and medicine (Scholl, 2007; Haakana, 2001), laughter and gender (Glenn, 2000; 2003, Hay, 2000), laughter and ethnicity (Gundelach, 2000; Stewart, 1995), laughter and intimacy (Coates, 2007; Fraley & Aron, 2004), laughter and politeness (Holmes, 2000; Saunders, 1998), etc. Consequently, several theories of laughter have emerged and, laughter has been viewed from different perspectives.