Humor Appreciation Research Articles

Humor and Gender: Males and Females’ Understanding and Appreciation of Humor in Memes and Written Jokes: A Case Study of 3rd Year Students of English at Frères Mentouri Constantine 1 University

Humor and Gender: Males and Females’ Understanding and Appreciation of Humor in Memes and Written Jokes: A Case Study of 3rd Year Students of English at Frères Mentouri Constantine 1 University

Developing the humour repertoire concept to guide future tourism-humour research

The central interest in this study is to develop and position the humour repertoire concept for tourism and leisure research. The term humour repertoire encompasses the totality of a person’s abilities and skills to both appreciate and produce humour. Such skills include the individual’s humorous (travel) stories, jokes from their life and travels, and the ability to see travel and leisure situations as amusing. A framework outlining the role of the humour repertoire is presented and an online empirical study is reported to address select components of the conceptual scheme. The results show a weak association between humour appreciation and production, indicating that researchers examining humour in tourism need to be careful in building generic implications from select work. Attention is then given to the multiple social and contextual factors beyond the individual level that need to be considered when assessing humour in diverse tourism contexts. Fresh research directions are indicated by considering the richness of the repertoire framework and links to cognitive schema research.

Where is the humour in tourism promotion? An investigation of the “Spain Marks” campaign

This paper discusses humour and tourism, with a focus on “Spain Marks”, an international campaign used to promote Spain as a tourism destination. The importance of this relationship suggests that the use of humour in marketing works as an engagement and loyalty strategy, as well to portray the uniqueness of a destination. The “Spain Marks” campaign was innovative in its use of humour because it offered a fresh and a contemporary image of Spain as a tourism destination. This campaign has been specially selected for its exceptional ironic character. The study aims to understand the humour appreciation of this specific advertisement using an online survey that was completed by 40 participants. The results indicate that the use of humour is a difficult task because what is perceived as fun, attractive and ironic in any tourism campaign is highly subjective.

The development of children’s comprehension and appreciation of riddles

Humor appreciation and understanding is important for children’s social relationships. The current study examined the associations among riddle comprehension, riddle appreciation, and smiling/laughter in children from a wide age range (4–11 years) as well as how cognitive processing style relates to riddle comprehension. Style was distinguished between local and global language processing at the sentence level. The results showed that only children age 8 years or older showed a reliable relationship between humor comprehension and smiling/laughter. These findings show that laughter should not be taken as an automatic indicator of explicit understanding. In addition, higher vocabulary ability was independently associated with better humor comprehension. This demonstrates a separable role of language proficiency in humor comprehension and suggests avenues for future research in atypical populations known to have difficulties in this area.

On the dimensionality of humorous conduct and associations with humor traits and behaviors

AbstractThe aim of the present study is to explore higher-order dimensions of humorous conduct derived from 100 non-redundant and comprehensive statements. These dimensions are validated in self- and other-reports and their criterion validity is assessed by relating them to other humor concepts (temperamental basis of the sense of humor, attitudes towards laughter and being laughed at, humor appreciation and creation). Four broad dimensions (mean-spirited/earthy, entertaining, inept, and reflective/benign) were supported in self- and other-reports, and two narrower dimensions (laughter and canned) were found in self-reports. These dimensions covered affective, cognitive, and dysfunctional aspects of humorous conduct and spanned across humorous temperament, attitudes towards laughter and being laughed at as well as humor appreciation and creation. These six dimensions can serve as a reference framework and higher-order categories to which humor scales could be assigned. Future studies need to test the comprehensiveness of these dimensions and conduct further validation studies.

Laughter is in the air: involvement of key nodes of the emotional motor system in the anticipation of tickling.

In analogy to the appreciation of humor, that of tickling is based upon the re-interpretation of an anticipated emotional situation. Hence, the anticipation of tickling contributes to the final outburst of ticklish laughter. To localize the neuronal substrates of this process, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted on 31 healthy volunteers. The state of anticipation was simulated by generating an uncertainty respecting the onset of manual foot tickling. Anticipation was characterized by an augmented fMRI signal in the anterior insula, the hypothalamus, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area, as well as by an attenuated one in the internal globus pallidus. Furthermore, anticipatory activity in the anterior insula correlated positively with the degree of laughter that was produced during tickling. These findings are consistent with an encoding of the expected emotional consequences of tickling and suggest that early regulatory mechanisms influence, automatically, the laughter circuitry at the level of affective and sensory processing. Tickling activated not only those regions of the brain that were involved during anticipation, but also the posterior insula, the anterior cingulate cortex and the periaqueductal gray matter. Sequential or combined anticipatory and tickling-related neuronal activities may adjust emotional and sensorimotor pathways in preparation for the impending laughter response.

Addressing Evidence Linking Secondary Alexithymia to Aberrant Humor Processing.

In this review, we explore current literature and assess evidence linking secondary (acquired) alexithymia to aberrant humor processing, in terms of their neurobiological underpinnings. In addition, we suggest a possible common neuropathological substrate between secondary alexithymia and deficits in humor appreciation, by drawing on neurophysiologic and neuroradiological evidence, as well as on a recent and unique single-case study showing the cooccurrence of secondary alexithymia and deficit in humor appreciation. In summary, what emerges from the literature is that the cortical midline structures, in particular the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the insular cortex, seem to play a crucial role in the expression of both alexithymia and defective humor processing, while though to a lesser extent, a right hemisphere and bilateral frontoparietal contribution becomes evident. Neurobiological evidence of secondary alexithymia and aberrant humor processing points to the putative role of ACC/mPFC and the insular cortex in representing crucial processing nodes whose damage may produce both the above clinical conditions. We believe that the association of secondary alexithymia and aberrant humor processing, especially humor appreciation deficit, and their correlation with specific brain regions, mainly ACG/mPFC, as emerged from the literature, may be of some heuristic importance. Increased awareness on this topic may be of aid for neurosurgeons when accessing emotion-relevant structures, as well as for neuropsychologists to intensify their efforts to plan evidence-based neurorehabilitative interventions to alleviate the deleterious effects of such interpersonal communication deficits.

Playfulness in Online Marketing

This article explores different challenges and opportunities of using humour and playfulness in online marketing. Humour has been investigated intensively in marketing, especially in advertising, yet there is little knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in online marketing faced by practitioners. This study analyses key studies conducted in the context of a unique case: a Finnish research project exploring humour as a strategic tool for companies. These studies can provide emerging insights of humour in online marketing which are relevant for practitioners: humour as a transformational appeal, individual differences related to humour appreciation, role of storytelling and playfulness in blogging and challenges related to use of humour such as credibility.

Comic styles and their relation to the sense of humor, humor appreciation, acceptability of prejudice, humorous self-image and happiness

AbstractThe present study investigates the relationships of eight comic styles (fun, benevolent humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) with acceptability of prejudice (laughing at different groups and topics), humorous self-image (funniness and frequency of laughter), humor appreciation (funniness and aversiveness of cartoons with different structures and contents), and happiness. A representative Chilean adult sample (N=857, 60.8% women; age M=40.50, SD=17.28) was recruited in face-to-face interviews and online surveys. They completed self-reports of all variables as well as a humor appreciation test. Most of the comic styles related to finding the cartoons funnier. Furthermore, the darker styles were more strongly related to laughing at a variety of topics and groups. Also, happiness was positively related to fun and benevolent humor and negatively to cynicism. This study provides evidence of the criterion validity of the Comic Style Markers in Latin-American cultures and highlights differences between lighter and darker styles.

Being funny is not enough: the influence of perceived humor and negative emotional reactions on brand attitudes

Humor is a common goal of marketing communications, yet humorous advertisements do not always improve consumer attitudes towards the advertised brand. By investigating a potential downside of attempting to be humorous, our inquiry helps explain why humorous ads can fail to improve and potentially even hurt, brand attitudes. We show that advertisements intended to be humorous also risk causing negative emotions independent of humor appreciation. We investigate the link between humor appreciation, negative emotional reactions and brand attitudes using four samples of advertisements. We find that attitudes towards an advertised brand depend less on the degree to which the ad seems funny and more on the degree to which the ad triggers negative emotional reactions. Consequently, whether an advertisement helps or hurts brand attitudes depends on whether the ad decreases or increases consumers’ negative feelings independent of perceived humor.

Between cant and Kant: Christie Davies and the (im?)possibility of seriousness in humor studies

AbstractThis paper discusses Christie Davies’ recommendation for seriousness in the investigation of jokes and contrasts it with several instances of humorous discourse in his own writings. After arguing that a taste for both the production and the appreciation of humor played an important role in Davies’ research, and that humor can be used productively in humor research, the article raises the question of whether the need for a separation between humor as a subject of study and as a style of discourse about it has not been overstated in humor studies.

Being Funny is Not Enough: The Influence of Perceived Humor and Negative Emotional Reactions on Brand Attitudes

Humor is a common goal of marketing communications, yet humorous advertisements do not always improve consumer attitudes towards the advertised brand. By investigating a potential downside of attempting to be humorous, our inquiry helps explain why humorous ads can fail to improve, and potentially even hurt, brand attitudes. We show that advertisements intended to be humorous also risk causing negative emotions independent of humor appreciation. We investigate the link between humor appreciation, negative emotional reactions, and brand attitudes using four samples of advertisements. We find that attitudes toward an advertised brand depend less on the degree to which the ad seems funny and more on the degree to which the ad triggers negative emotional reactions. Consequently, whether an advertisement helps or hurts brand attitudes depends on whether the ad decreases or increases consumers’ negative feelings independent of perceived humor.

Humor production in long-term romantic relationships: What the lack of moderation by sex reveals about humor’s role in mating

AbstractThis manuscript explores whether the associations between partner humor production and relationship satisfaction and humor’s importance in romantic relationships are moderated by sex. Study 1 reports a meta-analysis (k = 10;N = 2,167) of the association between partner humor production (i.e., perceived; partner effects) and relationship satisfaction, and whether associations were moderated by participant sex. Contrary to predictions, partner humor production was more strongly associated to men’s relationship satisfaction than women’s satisfaction. Study 2 surveyed pairs of romantic partners (N = 246) regarding their production of humor, their appreciation of partner humor, and the importance of humor in their relationship. Results indicated no moderations by sex in the association between partner humor production and humor’s importance in the relationship.

Humour processing deficits in individuals with social anhedonia

Humour processing comprises the humour comprehension and the humour appreciation phases. Patients with schizophrenia have impaired humour processing. However, it is unclear whether such deficits affect subclinical populations such as individuals with social anhedonia. Our study recruited forty-eight individuals with high levels of social anhedonia (HSA, screened by the Revised Chapman Social Anhedonia Scale) and 50 individuals with low levels of social anhedonia (LSA). Participants completed behavioural tasks which tapped into humour comprehension and appreciation, and a set of questionnaires assessing their sense of humour, humour styles and subjective experiential pleasure. Using signal detection theory analysis, the d’ and β values were generated to measure the detection of humour signal in the comprehension phase and the inner criteria of the humour appreciation respectively. The results showed that the HSA and LSA groups did not differ in humour signal detection (d’) but the HSA group had significantly higher inner criteria of humour appreciation (β) than the LSA group. The β value was correlated with experiential anticipatory pleasure in all participants. The HSA group had significantly lower within-group coherence than the LSA group when processing humour. Our findings suggested that individuals with social anhedonia have impaired humour processing.

Psychology, political ideology, and humor appreciation: Why is satire so liberal?

Psychology, political ideology, and humor appreciation: Why is satire so liberal?

Locating eight comic styles in basic and broad concepts of humor: Findings from self-reports and behavior tests

The aim of the present study is to locate eight comic styles in basic and broad concepts of humor, namely the temperamental basis of the sense of humor, humor appreciation, and humor creation. The comic styles represent individual differences in how people display humor, differentiating between fun, (benevolent) humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism. Two samples of 234 and 223 German-speaking adults completed the Comic Style Markers, the standard self-report measure to assess the eight comic styles, as well as self-reports of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood (Sample 1) or behavior tests of humor appreciation (funniness and aversiveness of incongruity-resolution, nonsense, and sexual humor) and humor creation quantity and quality (Sample 2). The results showed that the comic styles could be uniquely and meaningfully located in these basic and broad humor concepts. Specifically, the comic styles spanned the affective component of the temperamental basis of the sense of humor, from cheerfulness to bad mood. Furthermore, the findings supported the convergent validity of the nonsense and wit scales of the Comic Style Markers, as they related to behavior tests of the appreciation of nonsense humor and the quantity and quality of humor creation, respectively. This study thus contributes to the growing field of the psychology of humor by extending the nomological network of the comic styles to the general tendency to enjoy and engage in humor and by providing a behavioral validation of the Comic Style Markers.

What is the difference between irony and sarcasm? An fMRI study

Verbal irony is a figure of speech that communicates the opposite of what is said, while sarcasm is a form of irony that is directed at a person, with the intent to criticise. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the aim of mapping the neural networks involved in the processing of sarcastic and non-sarcastic irony. Participants read short texts describing an interaction between two characters, which ended in either a literal, sarcastic, or non-sarcastic ironic comment. Results showed that the mentalising network (mPFC) and semantic network (IFG) were more activated for non-sarcastic irony than for literal controls. This would suggest that interpreting this kind of language involves understanding that the speaker does not mean what they literally say, as well as processes involved in conflict detection and resolution. Sarcastic irony recruited more of the semantic network, as well as areas associated with humour appreciation and subcortical structures, indicating that more complex neural mechanisms underlie the comprehension of sarcastic versus non-sarcastic irony.

Savage or satire: Individual differences in perceptions of disparaging and subversive racial humor

Subversive racial humor intends to confront and challenge racist beliefs to subvert traditional status hierarchies. However, because of its racial content, such humor can be misconstrued as disparaging. To understand why, we examined how individual differences relate to perceptions of disparaging and subversive racial humor. In three studies (Ns = 204, 134, and 200), college students and MTurk workers completed established measures of individual differences in tendencies to perceive racial prejudice (Studies 1–3), motivations to suppress racial prejudice (Study 3), and modern racism (Study 3), and responded to examples of disparaging or subversive racial humor. General tendencies to perceive racial prejudice were associated with more negative reactions to disparaging humor (e.g., perceiving it as less funny and more racist) and more positive reactions to subversive humor (e.g., perceiving it as more funny and more antiracist). Individual differences in motivations to suppress racial prejudice showed similar patterns, and modern racism showed opposite patterns. In general, our findings suggest that although subversive racial humor can be misconstrued, believing racial prejudice is pervasive and problematic is associated with a greater understanding and appreciation of subversive racial humor, an increasingly prevalent social phenomenon that requires further empirical attention.

The traits of autism spectrum disorder in the general population influence humor appreciation: Using the autism-spectrum quotient and HSPS-J19

AbstractPrevious studies show differences in humor appreciation between individuals with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing individuals; however, the relationship between humor appre...

Laughing Matters: ELLs’ Comprehension and Perceptions of Humor

Humor is probably one of the few features applicable to virtually all people in the world, but the perception and appreciation of humor can be circumstantial and culture-dependent. Although the potential role of humor in language classrooms has been the topic of research over the last years, limited research has been conducted on cross-cultural variability in humor perception and appreciation. The current study, seeking to address this gap, was conducted with a multicultural group of English language learners (ELLs). One hundred and six ELLs consisting of three main groups (i.e., Turkish, Asian and European) took part in this study. After completing a language background questionnaire, participants rated 6 humorous scenarios and then completed a 25-item humor perception questionnaire. Further, participants answered three open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire. The results indicated that learners generally assigned more positive scores to universal jokes when compared to linguistic and cultural jokes. As for the perception of humor use in English classrooms, Asian group held slightly less positive attitudes towards the use of humor whereas Turkish group was the one most interested in the employment of humor. In addition, the results indicated that humor was linked to several benefits such as lowering affective barriers to English language learning, increasing ELLs’ attentiveness in the classroom and improving teacher-student rapport.