Facebook‬ users express e-laughter in different ways, depending on location, age and gender, according to a study conducted by the company. 

Based on the report, which Facebook released recently, most people prefer to use "haha" to express laughter followed by various emojis. A number of users tend to use "hehe" and surprisingly "lol" is not the most common expression of e-laughter nowadays.

For purposes of the study, the researchers matched de-identified posts and comments having at least one string of characters indicating laughter, that have been posted on Facebook within the last week of May, with regular expressions of laughter in the text, namely "haha," "hehe," emoji, and "lol," along with their numerous corresponding variants like "hahaha," 'hehhhee," "lolz," and so forth.

About 15 percent of the people studied that week were found to have included laughter in a post or comment. Most of them also preferred to use a single type of e-laughter expression. Of these people, the social media giant said the vast majority are "haha-ers" (51.4 percent), followed by the emoji users (33. percent), then by the "hehe-ers" (12.7 percent), then finally, by the "lol-ers" (1.9 percent).

The authors of the research work - Udi Weinsberg, Lada Adamic and Mike Develin - also found that around 46 percent of the people included in the study have posted only a single laugh during the week, and that 85 percent have posted fewer than five laughs within the same period.

Moreover, 52 percent of them have used a single type of e-laughter expression, while about 20 percent have used two different types. Looking at the lengths of laughs by type, the authors also discovered that the most common are the four letter "hahas" and "hehes".

They said the six letter "hahaha" is also relatively common, and that in general, the haha-er's use longer laughter. The "haha-ers," they said, are also slightly more open than the "hehe-ers" to using odd number of letters, as in the case of the occasional "hahaas" and "hhhhaaahhhaas". The "lol," as with the emoji, is almost always used in singular form.

The study then analyzed the correlation between the four types of e-laughters with age groups, gender and geographic location. They found that across all age groups, from 13 to 70, the most common laughs are still "haha," "hahaha," "hahahaha," then followed by "hehe."

But the median person that uses emoji is apparently, "slightly younger" than the median person using "haha" and both of them are younger than the people who use "hehes" and "lols." With respect to gender, the authors said both male and female prefer "hahas" and emoji, then "hehes" and "lols" next.

The "hahas" and to some extent, the "hehes," are more preferred by men, though, while more women tend to express laughter using emoji. There are also relatively more women than men who still seem to use the "lols."

As for correlation with geographical location, the authors presented a set of maps showing broadly that the use of "haha" and the "hehe" "are more popular on the west coast." On the other hand, the emoji is more preferred in the midwest, and the "lol" is still being widely used in the southern states.