Sex-Related Attitudes toward Humor among High-School and College Students

Abstract

This exploratory study describes comparisons of high-school and college men and women regarding attitudes toward the “importance” of humor in their lives. 45 high-school students and 33 college students volunteered to complete Vitulli's Humor Rating Scale. This Likert-type scale has 12 items dealing with varying opinions regarding the importance of humor for men and women. Four subscales measured general humor appreciation, male-oriented humor, female-oriented humor, and differentiation of humor by sex, respectively. Results from a 2 × 2 × 4 factorial (mixed) design yielded a significant difference between high-school and college groups. Scheffé tests of multiple comparisons gave significant differences between high-school males and college males regarding male-oriented humor and between high-school males and high-school females regarding male-oriented humor. There were no significant differences between college males and college females regarding male- or female-oriented humor. These data are explained in terms of “androgynous” social conditioning.