Abstract
In this paper we investigate the socio-emotional functions of verbal irony. Specifically, we use eye-tracking while reading to assess moment-to-moment processing of a character’s emotional response to ironic versus literal criticism. In Experiment 1, participants read stories describing a character being upset following criticism from another character. Results showed that participants initially more easily integrated a hurt response following ironic criticism; but later found it easier to integrate a hurt response following literal criticism. In Experiment 2, characters were instead described as having an amused response, which participants ultimately integrated more easily following ironic criticism. From this we propose a two-stage process of emotional responding to irony: Whilst readers may initially expect a character to be more hurt by ironic than literal criticism, they ultimately rationalise ironic criticism as being less hurtful, and more amusing.
Highlights
Irony is a form of indirect language, used when the speaker or writer expresses one thing, but implies another
Data for each region were subjected to two 2 type of criticism  2 perspective ANOVAs, one treating participants (F1) and one treating items (F2) as random variables
Critical region There was a main effect of type of criticism in first-pass, F1(1, 27) = 4.34, p < .05, gp2 = 0.14; F2(1, 31) = 3.21, p = .08, gp2 = 0.09, and regression path reading times, F1(1, 27) = 6.36, p < .05, gp2 = 0.19; F2(1, 31) = 6.09, p < .05, gp2 = 0.16, with shorter reading times for the critical emotion word following ironic than literal criticism
Summary
Irony is a form of indirect language, used when the speaker or writer expresses one thing, but implies another (usually the opposite, e.g., Grice, 1975). To allow for a detailed examination of the moment-to-moment inferences regarding a character’s emotional response that might be expected following ironic compared to literal criticism, from both the victim’s and protagonist’s perspective, we will monitor participants’ eye movements while they are reading a series of short stories (see Table 1 for example scenarios).
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