Humor style differences across four English-speaking countries

Abstract

AbstractUsing three archival data sets, mean differences in the four humor styles of affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating were assessed for adults (n = 6404) across four English-speaking countries: Canada (n = 339), the USA (n = 165), the United Kingdom (n = 4012), and Australia (n = 1888). As age and sex varied greatly across the samples and had significant relationships with the humor styles (men scored higher on each scale, younger people scored higher on affiliative, aggressive, and self-defeating humor, and older people scored higher on self-enhancing humor), age and sex were regressed out of the humor style scores and the standardized residuals were examined. Significant differences were found for the four humor styles. Specifically, the Americans were the highest in affiliative and self-enhancing humor, and the British were the highest in both aggressive and self-defeating humor. As humor styles are an insight into human social interactions, the results provide a glimpse into the differences found between these countries.