And while many studies have confirmed the rather obvious idea that laughter is contagious, Provine effectively undercut the "conformity" idea with an experiment.

The ridiculousness of this situation works to "effectively undercut their characters' dignity and status."

But the piecemeal efforts of its millions of Chinese members have at the very least created a nationwide web of like-minded people that effectively undercuts the government ban.

The system proposed by the Administration would effectively undercut any increase in the general wage, he said.

The tax break effectively undercut the proposed tobacco settlement reached between the industry and state attorneys general and perverted an otherwise laudatory effort by Congress to help needy children.

Providing instant information can effectively undercut propaganda efforts by a less technologically sophisticated enemy.

Here they effectively undercut the story's superficiality and allow more intimate glimpses of its characters than a more polished approach would have permitted.

So Mr. Rumsfeld retaliated by naming General Shinseki's successor more than a year before his scheduled retirement, effectively undercutting his authority.

That decision could open the door to discussions about essentially the same kind of guidance system expertise under investigation in the 1996 case, effectively undercutting the Justice Department investigation.

Another proposed mechanism for epileptogenesis in TBI is that damage to white matter causes hyperexcitability by effectively undercutting the cerebral cortex.