Abstract
Basic personality traits (e.g., extraversion) have been found to be associated with the humor styles that individuals employ. In the present study, we were interested in determining whether pathological personality traits were also associated with humor styles. We examined the associations between the pathological personality traits captured by the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5) and humor styles in a sample of college students (N = 594). Negative affectivity and detachment were negatively associated with the affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles. Antagonism was positively associated with the aggressive humor style but negatively associated with the affiliative humor style. Disinhibition was positively associated with the aggressive humor style, whereas disinhibition and psychoticism were both positively associated with the self-defeating humor style. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings and how they can expand our understanding of the connections between the darker aspects of personality and humor.
Highlights
Researchers have approached the study of humor in a wide variety of ways
The present study examined the associations that the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5) pathological personality traits had with the humor styles identified by Martin et al (2003)
The results from this study revealed that pathological personality traits were associated with specific humor styles
Summary
Researchers have approached the study of humor in a wide variety of ways. For example, classic psychodynamic perspectives concerning humor usually suggested that people employ humor as a defense mechanism to deal with feelings of anxiety or express unconscious desires (e.g., Freud, 1928), whereas more recent theories have suggested that humor serves a variety of intrapsychic and interpersonal functions (see Martin, 2007, for a review). The framework developed by Martin et al (2003) suggests that there are two underlying dimensions that are essential for understanding humor. The first of these dimensions concerns the fact that humor can take either a benign or an injurious form. The second dimension reflects the target of enhancement such that humor is believed to either enhance relationships with others or enhance the self These two underlying humor dimensions combine to form four distinct humor styles that are referred to as affiliative humor (benign humor that is used to enhance relationships with others), self-enhancing humor (benign humor that is used to enhance the self), aggressive humor (injurious humor that is used to enhance the self), and self-defeating humor (injurious humor that is used to enhance relationships with others)
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