Exposure to Feminist Humor and the Proclivity to Collective Action for Gender Equality: The Role of Message Format and Feminist Identification

Abstract

Previous research has pointed out that feminist humor or subversive humor against sexism is an important precursor to collective action for gender equality. This effect has been found contrasting subversive humor with neutral humor, however, to date, no study has explored the impact of the message format. Thus, we conducted two experiments to analyze the effect of exposure to a subversive humorous vignette against sexism (vs. subversive serious information against sexism and neutral humorous vignette) on involvement in collective action for gender equality, considering participants’ feminist identification. In Study 1 (n = 135 men and n = 198 women), participants with lower feminist identification reported a greater proclivity toward collective action after being exposure to both a subversive humorous vignette and subversive serious vignette (vs. neutral humorous vignette). In Study 2 (n = 157 men and 188 women), we replaced the subversive serious vignette with a subversive serious discourse. The results revealed that exposure to a subversive humorous vignette (vs. subversive serious discourse and neutral humorous vignette) increased participants’ collective action proclivity, but only in participants with weaker feminist identification. Both studies highlight a new pathway to motivate collective action for gender equality, as well as the potential effect of humor to promote a change in attitudes.