I agree with Alox that it has to do with viewpoint. I tried to write an answer yesterday, but it quickly became too long, so I didn't post it. I'm trying to make it shorter this time. Some information are already covered by Alox's answer, so I would repeat it again.
In conclusion, in some situations, both Japanese and English tend to avoid choosing human as the subject. But Japanese tends to use passive while English tends to use causative.
Japanese tends to take the viewpoint of human beings. I think it's also true form other languages. It just that different languages use different ways to express it.
笑う is a kind of unintentional emotional activity. In Japanese, there are several patterns that are used to express such kind of things.
[something]が [someone]に [action]される (maybe more literally: that something is done happens to somebody)
This applies to many verbs, but mainly verbs expressing emotions
成功が待たれる
対応が急がれる
挙動が不審に思える
[something]が [someone]には [action]しい
結論は疑わしい
[someone]が [reason]に [action]する
This applies to a limited number of verb, include 笑う, 驚く, etc.
アメリカの軍事力には驚いた
これには笑った
[someone]が[something]を [action]させられる
This generally works for all verbs
彼の話には笑わされた
私は、この『○○』を読んで、考えさせられた
[something]が[action]させられる
その映画は考えさせられる
[something]を[action]させる[something]
(読者に)深く考えさせる作品
[something]を[action]させられる[something]
深く考えさせられる作品
[something]が[potential verb]
笑える話
泣ける映画
I'm not good at English, but I also noticed several patterns, which can't be literally translated into Chinese (and Japanese).
It seems that, English tends to say
[something] makes [somebody] [do]
it makes me think/laugh...
[something] [affects] [somebody]
it reminds me
[somebody] is [affected by] [something]
I'm amused
[something] is [affect]-ing
It's interesting
[something] is [do]-able
It's questionable
[something] [does] [somebody]
it sounds good
It becomes clear that, Japanese tends to use passive while English tends to use causative.
I think it's not because of the animate/inanimate distinction, just that Japanese tends to say [for some reason] [something] [is changed] while English tends to say [some reason makes something to change]
風で窓が開いた
I think most people here don't read Chinese, so I won't write much about Chinese.
Chinese is a little similar to English. In Chinese, we tend to say [something] makes me [do]. But we don't use dummy subject. So we will not say something like "it makes laugh", instead, we say "I laugh".
There are also some 可～s in Classical Chinese, e.g. 可笑, 可嘆, etc.
大曽 美恵子（2001）『感情を表わす動詞・形容詞に関する一考察』
いい論文を見つけました。ぜひ読んで頂きたいと思います。
興味深いことに、Chocolateさんが、無生物を主語とする使役文が好まれないため、あまり使わない(normally you don't say it this way in Japanese, because the Japanese language tends to avoid using 無生物主語(inanimate subject) , especially in verbal/casual communication. )と判断された「物が人を～させる」構文は、この論文によると、まったく問題ない文になります。
なお大曽は、「通常、日本語の使役文の主体は[…]有生物であって、無生物を主語とする使役文[…]は成り立たない」「無生物を主体として取る感情動詞の使役文は日本語では特殊であると言える」などと述べています。
あのドラマは大人を楽しませてくれた
音楽は人を楽しませる
酒は今日も私を悲しくさせる
などなど
私は、修飾語に使われている「[something]を[action]させる[something]」の文型として、「深く考えさせる作品」の例を挙げましたが、「[something]が[somebody]に[action]させる」ような文型については書いていません。少なくとも、「られる」のほうが普通かなと思っています。
また、大曽は、「ヲ格をとる感情動詞が[…]使役受身文にならない[…]」とし、次の例を挙げています。
（５７）＊父は兄の出世に喜ばされた。（←兄の出世は父を喜ばせた。）
（５８）＊大人はあのドラマに楽しまされた。
感情動詞でない場合なら、私は、「考えさせられた」の例を挙げているので、問題ないと思います。
ご参考までに
