Political Humor Appreciation and Political Dogmatism: The Role of Benign, Subversive, Undermining, and Supportive Humor Types

Abstract

Humor has become a tool to ease social interactions as well as a way of presenting liberating thought to an audience. Regarding the context of humor in the political setting, humor can be used as a means of increasing morale and hope for individuals who feel discontent with the current political climate. Poking fun at politics has become even more widespread with the help of the Internet, which provides a medium in which different varieties of political humor are more easily accessible to the public. This study investigates the role of political humor appreciation types in predicting political dogmatism. The predictive-correlational design was conducted on 128 university students (67 males, 61 females; Mean of Age = 22.27 years old; Standard Deviation of Age = 3.33 years) in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia, recruited through convenience sampling technique. Multiple linear regression results showed that appreciation of the benign humor type has an inverse predictive relationship with political dogmatism. In contrast, appreciation of the subversive and undermining humor types can predict dogmatism in positive directions. Appreciation of the supportive humor type does not play a role in the dynamic of political dogmatism. The practical implication of this study is that the strategic use of each type of political humor needs to be carefully arranged so as not to be counterproductive.