Humor Appreciation Research Articles

Does a stronger moral identity lead to a more reserved sense of humor? The influence of moral identity on sense of humor and its underlying psychological mechanisms.

Three studies were conducted to examine the influence of moral identity on sense of humor, employing the benign violation theory (BVT) as a theoretical framework. Study 1 (n = 350), a questionnaire-based survey, aimed to establish a preliminary exploration of the relationship between moral identity and sense of humor. Studies 2 (n = 172) and 3 (n = 172) jointly examined the impact of activated moral identity on sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) through the recollection and writing task. The results of these studies indicated that the effects of (activated) moral identity on the sense of humor (humor appreciation, humor sharing) were moderated by the type of humor and social distance of the target. On the one hand, high levels of (or activated) moral identity can significantly and positively predict sense of humor (humor appreciation, sharing); on the other hand, when there is a moral violation in the humor, and the target involved is at a close social distance, activated moral identity decreases the humor appreciation and humor sharing, where benign judgment plays a mediating role. These findings enrich the understanding of the complex relationship between moral identity and sense of humor, and have significant theoretical and practical implications.

Influence of emotional states on incongruity-resolution and nonsense humour processing.

Humour processing is complex and may be influenced by an individual's emotional state. This study explores the differences in incongruity-resolution and nonsense joke humour processing between three groups with different emotional states (positive, neutral and negative). Each group consisted of 32 participants. The positive and negative emotion groups were asked to elicit positive and negative emotions, respectively, through autobiographical recall. In contrast, the neutral emotion group was asked to answer questions unrelated to emotions. Participants were also asked to rate their emotional valence, arousal and conformity with the provided emotion words. Subsequently, they were directed to rate their humour appreciation, humour comprehension and level of surprise at the jokes. The results indicate that these variables interacted with the level of amusement derived from the two humour types. The positive emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as funnier than the negative emotion group, while the negative emotion group perceived nonsense jokes as less amusing than incongruity-resolution jokes. No significant difference was found between the three emotion groups in terms of humour comprehension and surprise at the jokes. The results deepen the understanding of the correlation between emotional states and processing of different humour types.

The power of laughter: a study on humor and creativity in undergraduate nursing education in Egypt

BackgroundCreativity in nursing education is crucial for developing practical problem-solving skills, and humor is a valuable tool for stress management and fostering a positive learning environment. This study explored the relationship between creativity and humor among nursing students.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted with 265 convenient undergraduate nursing students aged 20 to 25. The Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS) and the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) were used to measure creativity and various aspects of humor.ResultsShowed a significant positive correlation between humor and creativity (r = 0.238, p < 0.001). Positive correlations were found between Humor Production, Coping or Adaptive Humor, and Appreciation of Humor with creativity (r = 0.254, 0.230, and 0.461, p < 0.001, respectively). In contrast, Attitudes Toward Humor and Humorous People were negatively correlated with creativity (r=-0.343, p < 0.05). Humor accounted for 16.2% of the variance in creativity.ConclusionThe study concluded a strong link between humor and creativity, with positive correlations observed between creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity with different aspects of humor. The study recommends the incorporation of humor into nursing education and healthcare settings to encourage creative problem-solving and reduce burnout among students and staff.

Do We Know Whether to Laugh or Cry? User Responses to @Ukraine’s Dark-humour Meme

This study investigates international users’ reception of a dark-humour meme tweeted by Ukraine’s governmental Twitter (X) account on 7 December 2021 as part of its exceptional cultural practice of posting humorous memes. Tweeters’ responses to the ‘headaches meme’ are examined through a discourse-analytic lens. An emphasis is placed on the appreciation of the humour (emanating from the meme or its contextual embedding) and other forms of humour support demonstrated by its online indicators. The overarching aim is to distil and compare user reactions to the meme in two sociopolitical contexts—before and after the invasion of Ukraine that Russia mounted on 24 February 2022—based on two equal quote tweet samples. While the findings reveal a relative decrease in humour appreciation after the invasion, the same diversified reactions encompassing humour support or its lack and politically polarised discourses making for participatory digital warfare are detected in both parts of the dataset.

Establishing the Roles of the Dorsal and Ventral Striatum in Humor Comprehension and Appreciation with fMRI.

Humor comprehension (i.e., getting a joke) and humor appreciation (i.e., enjoying a joke) are distinct, cognitively complex processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations have identified several key cortical regions but have overlooked subcortical structures that have theoretical importance in humor processing. The dorsal striatum (DS) contributes to working memory, ambiguity processing, and cognitive flexibility, cognitive functions that are required to accurately recognize humorous stimuli. The ventral striatum (VS) is critical in reward processing and enjoyment. We hypothesized that the DS and VS play important roles in humor comprehension and appreciation, respectively. We investigated the engagement of these regions in these distinct processes using fMRI. Twenty-six healthy young male and female human adults completed two humor-elicitation tasks during a 3 tesla fMRI scan consisting of a traditional behavior-based joke task and a naturalistic audiovisual sitcom paradigm (i.e., Seinfeld viewing task). Across both humor-elicitation methods, whole-brain analyses revealed cortical activation in the inferior frontal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, and the middle temporal gyrus for humor comprehension, and the temporal cortex for humor appreciation. Additionally, with region of interest analyses, we specifically examined whether DS and VS activation correlated with these processes. Across both tasks, we demonstrated that humor comprehension implicates both the DS and the VS, whereas humor appreciation only engages the VS. These results establish the role of the DS in humor comprehension, which has been previously overlooked, and emphasize the role of the VS in humor processing more generally.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humorous stimuli are processed by the brain in at least two distinct stages. First, humor comprehension involves understanding humorous intent through cognitive and problem-solving mechanisms. Second, humor appreciation involves enjoyment, mirth, and laughter in response to a joke. The roles of smaller subcortical brain regions in humor processing, such as the DS and VS, have been overlooked in previous investigations. However, these regions are involved in functions that support humor comprehension (e.g., working memory ambiguity resolution, and cognitive flexibility) and humor appreciation (e.g., reward processing, pleasure, and enjoyment). In this study, we used neuroimaging to demonstrate that the DS and VS play important roles in humor comprehension and appreciation, respectively, across two different humor-elicitation tasks.

Humor appreciation can be predicted with machine learning techniques

Humor research is supposed to predict whether something is funny. According to its theories and observations, amusement should be predictable based on a wide variety of variables. We test the practical value of humor appreciation research in terms of prediction accuracy. We find that machine learning methods (boosted decision trees) can indeed predict humor appreciation with an accuracy close to its theoretical ceiling. However, individual demographic and psychological variables, while replicating previous statistical findings, offer only negligible gains in accuracy. Successful predictions require previous ratings by the same rater, unless highly specific interactions between rater and joke content can be assessed. We discuss implications for humor research, and offer advice for practitioners designing content recommendations engines or entertainment platforms, as well as other research fields aiming to review their practical usefulness.

The cognitive architecture of verbal humor in schizophrenia

Previous literature showed that people with schizophrenia have difficulties in humor comprehension and might differ from controls in the appreciation of humor, i.e., in perceived funniness. However, the cognitive architecture that underlies humor impairment in this population remains unclear, with humorous items sometimes assessed in the context of the communicative-pragmatic profiling and sometimes included in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. Here we enrolled 116 people with schizophrenia and 116 healthy controls, who were administered a task including jokes based on sound aspects and jokes based on mental aspects (Phonological and Mental Jokes task). Both comprehension accuracy (ability to select the funny ending of the joke) and appreciation (ratings of funniness) were evaluated, together with other linguistic, cognitive, and clinical measures. Results highlighted a diffuse impairment in humor comprehension in schizophrenia compared to controls, with mental jokes being more difficult for both groups. Humor comprehension was robustly associated with the patients’ global pragmatic and linguistic profile, while the association with ToM was negligible. Another remarkable finding was the increased appreciation of humor in individuals with schizophrenia, who rated jokes (both correctly and incorrectly completed) as funnier than controls did. Funniness ratings were not predicted by any measure, pointing to a dimension untied from cognition or psychopathology. Overall, this study offers evidence – on a considerably large sample – of altered humor understanding and appreciation in schizophrenia, sketching a cognitive architecture where humor impairment stands together with communicative impairment, rather than with social cognition. This has implications not only for the assessment of humor but also for how to treat it in patients to improve their ability to navigate the social world.

The differential processing of verbal jokes by neural substrates in indigenous and Han Chinese populations: An fMRI study

Limited research has been conducted on humor among the Taiwanese indigenous (IND) population. This study attempted to identify the differential neural correlates of humor comprehension and appreciation between IND and Han Chinese (HAN) populations. Each participant was presented with jokes and non-jokes. IND participants when encountered with jokes displayed a greater activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system, including the amygdala, midbrain, and nucleus accumbens than HAN participants. This suggests a more pleasurable response and appreciation of humor. The IND group also displayed greater activation in the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) than HAN, suggesting that the IND group may experience a greater sense of novelty and be more involved in social understanding, thus exhibiting greater humor appreciation. In terms of humor comprehension, both IND and HAN showed greater activation in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). IND exhibited greater activation in the anterior STG (aSTG), while HAN showed greater activation in the posterior STG (pSTG). This suggests that the IND tends to integrate emotional messages, whereas the HAN focuses on comprehending semantic cognitive information. Interestingly, HAN did not show any greater activation than IND in terms of appreciation of humor. These group disparities have substantial implications for advancing our knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying humor comprehension and appreciation.

Preschool Teachers' Sense of Humor and Children's Appreciation of Humor

This study, which was conducted with 364 preschool children and 47 preschool teachers in order to determine the relationship between preschool teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of the value of humor in their classrooms, is a relational survey model. The data of the study were collected with "Personal Information Form", "Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale- Updated Turkish Form" used to determine teachers' sense of humor, "Humor Observation Form'' prepared by the researcher to determine children's appreciation of the value of humor, and "Humor Observation Form" and used with a 5-minute video with examples suitable for the stages in Paul McGhee's humor development theory. It was determined that preschool teachers' sense of humor was at a good level, and there was no significant difference between teachers' sense of humor and teachers' age, class size, and age of children in their classes. It was determined that the sense of humor of teachers with a seniority of 11-15 years was significantly higher than those with a seniority of 16 years and above. It was determined that children's appreciation of the value of humor was at a moderate level, and there was no significant difference between the gender of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the ages of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. 61-72 month old children's levels of appreciating the value of humor and finding the video funny were higher than 48-60 month old children. It was determined that there was no significant relationship between teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of humor.

Humor, hypnosis and kids

ABSTRACT Bertrand Russell, philosopher and Nobel prize winner said “Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine.” Humor as medicine may be just what the doctor ordered to keep us emotionally, mentally and physically fit. Children are not only wonderful hypnotic subjects, they love laughter and silliness. The therapeutic effectiveness of hypnotherapy with children and adolescents can be enhanced when humor is incorporated into the session. Laughter is fun and free and can be used to strengthen rapport and the therapeutic alliance between the clinician and the child. The neuro-psychological development in children necessary for the appreciation and development of humor will be discussed along with how and why humor and hypnosis can be combined to increase therapeutic effectiveness.

Appreciation of Slapstick Humour and Expressivity in Response to Amusing Stimuli in Individuals with Williams Syndrome

ObjectivesPrevious studies on the comprehension and appreciation of humour in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have only included complex types of humour that required complex cognitive abilities. Additionally, although individuals with WS have been described as having a bias towards positive emotions, no study has investigated their expressive responses to humour.MethodsThe present study examined basic humour processing skills, as well as expressive responses to simple humorous and non-humorous stimuli in individuals with WS (N = 8) compared to mental-age matched typically developing (TD) children (N = 9). Participants were shown short funny and non-funny excerpts of the movies “Ice Age” and “Madagascar” and were asked to rate their level of amusement. Their expressive responses, namely smiles and laughs, were coded and analysed.ResultsIndividuals with WS seem to be able to discriminate between humorous and non-humorous conditions and appreciate simple humorous content as much as TD individuals. As such, they are equally able to process simple types of humour as their mental-age matched counterparts. Additionally, and in line with their positivity bias, individuals with WS expressed more frequent and more intense laughter than the control group.ConclusionIndividuals with WS appreciate simple humour as much as TD individuals, and they seem to display a particularly high expressivity in response to humorous stimuli.

Intracranial study in humans: Neural spectral changes during watching comedy movie of Charlie Chaplin

Humor plays a prominent role in our lives. Thus, understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms of humor is particularly important. Previous studies that investigated neural substrates of humor used functional MRI and to a lesser extent EEG. In the present study, we conducted intracranial recording in human patients, enabling us to obtain the signal with high temporal precision from within specific brain locations. Our analysis focused on the temporal lobe and the surrounding areas, the temporal lobe was most densely covered in our recording. Thirteen patients watched a fragment of a Charlie Chaplin movie. An independent group of healthy participants rated the same movie fragment, helping us to identify the most funny and the least funny frames of the movie. We compared neural activity occurring during the most funny and least funny frames across frequencies in the range of 1–170 Hz. The most funny compared to least funny parts of the movie were associated with activity modulation in the broadband high-gamma (70−170 Hz; mostly activation) and to a lesser extent gamma band (40−69Hz; activation) and low frequencies (1−12 Hz, delta, theta, alpha bands; mostly deactivation). With regard to regional specificity, we found three types of brain areas: (I) temporal pole, middle and inferior temporal gyrus (both anterior and posterior) in which there was both activation in the high-gamma/gamma bands and deactivation in low frequencies; (II) ventral part of the temporal lobe such as the fusiform gyrus, in which there was mostly deactivation the low frequencies; (III) posterior temporal cortex and its environment, such as the middle occipital and the temporo-parietal junction, in which there was activation in the high-gamma/gamma band. Overall, our results suggest that humor appreciation might be achieved by neural activity across the frequency spectrum.

Differential effects of affective arousal and valence on humor appreciation in female university students

Abstract The aim of this experimental study was to clarify whether affective states with different arousal and valence levels influence the perceived funniness and aversiveness shown as a response to humor stimuli. We used the International Affective Picture System, IAPS (Lang, Peter J., Margaret M. Bradley &amp; Bruce N. Cuthbert. 1999. International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Technical manual and affective ratings. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida) and followed a mixed factorial design. Affective state differed between four groups: 1) neutral group; 2) negative valence-moderate arousal group; 3) positive valence-moderate arousal group; and 4) negative valence-high arousal group. We measured pre- and post-perceived funniness and aversiveness in response to humorous material. Participants were 80 psychology students who were randomly assigned to one of four induction conditions. The results showed that, regardless of the type of valence, affective states with moderate arousal levels did not affect humor appreciation. However, the perceived funniness response was significantly lower in the negative valence-high arousal group. Perceived aversiveness responses were not affected by valence or arousal level. Results are discussed in relation to several current theories on the role of affective state in humor appreciation.

Introduction to the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch”

Abstract This introduction to the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch” outlines his impressive achievements in humor research, especially in the areas of measurement, individual differences as well as models and theories. Though mostly focusing on the psychology of humor and the sense of humor, Willibald also pioneered interdisciplinary and cross-cultural humor studies. This Festschrift comprises seven invited commentaries and eight articles, which expand areas of research that Willibald significantly shaped and advanced, including humor appreciation, comprehension and production, cheerfulness, dispositions towards laughter and being laughed at, as well as comic styles and humor dimensions.

Did you get the joke? Physiological, subjective and behavioral responses to mirth.

Mirth is elicited by the perception of humor, which requires the resolution of an incongruity in an unexpected and playful manner. Previous psychophysiological research using affective pictures is scarce, and did not elucidate the cognitive and affective components of the humor process. In this study, the passive viewing paradigm is applied to mirthful, incongruent, neutral and erotic pictures to characterize the emotional response of mirth. Physiological (zygomaticus major [ZM] activity, skin conductance response [SCR] and heart rate [HR]), behavioral (free viewing time) and subjective responses (mirthful ratings) were recorded from 63 participants. The presence of an inflection change in the ZM response and mirthfulness ratings were used as markers of humor comprehension. Participants showed the greatest ZM and HR in response to mirthful compared to incongruent, erotic and neutral pictures, as well as a stronger SCR response to mirthful compared to incongruent and neutral pictures. The overall results shed light on the temporal course of the humor process, suggesting that humor comprehension (cognitive component) occurred around 1000-1500 ms after picture onset, according to the ZM and SCR responses; and the humor appreciation stage (emotional component) occurred at around 3500 ms after stimulus onset, according to the HR and SCR changes. Moreover, marked interindividual variability was observed in the number of smiles, and in the pictures that provoked them. This points to the complexity of the humor process, and suggests the need to develop methods to elicit mirth and elucidate the factors potentially underlying individual differences in humor.

Humor comprehension and appreciation: an analysis of Italian jokes

Abstract Humor comprehension and appreciation are two basic domains of humor research and central stages in humor processing. In the present study, 238 Italian adults rated 20 jokes to investigate how a humor comprehension task influences subsequent funniness ratings. Additionally, the relationships between humor comprehension and funniness were investigated for the total set of jokes, for individual jokes, and for jokes with different contents (neutral or tendentious) and difficulty (elementary or advanced). Comparing participants who performed only the funniness ratings with participants who first performed a humor comprehension task showed that funniness scores were reduced in the humor comprehension condition. Humor comprehension and funniness were positively related at the level of individual jokes, while these effects were less pronounced in the analyses across jokes. Overall, advanced-neutral jokes showed the most pronounced differences. The study thus showed that the level of analysis (individual jokes vs. aggregating across jokes), content and difficulty of jokes should be taken into account when relating humor comprehension and appreciation. Additionally, it should be considered that humor comprehension tasks can bias humor appreciation ratings. Hence, the measurement and interplay between these humor domains deserves more attention in research.

Children's Sense of Humor and Humor in The Classroom

The purpose of this study is to identify the lesson in which primary school students laugh the most and why they laugh in this lesson. For this purpose, the study was carried out according to the parallel design (Quantitative Data [Collection + Analysis] + Qualitative Data [Collection + Analysis]  Association  Interpretation) which was one of the mixed method research designs. The study group consisted of 227 primary school students (2-4th grade). The quantitative data of the study were collected through the “A Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale for School-Aged Children” and the qualitative data were collected through open-ended questions such as “In which lesson do school-aged students laugh the most? Why do they laugh so much in this lesson?”. The analysis of the quantitative data of the study was implemented with the SPSS 22 package program. The qualitative data were analyzed and interpreted through the thematic coding. According to the results of the study, the students' humor levels were moderate; there was no difference by the grade level in terms of humor score averages; the highest sub-dimension mean score was in the humor appreciation sub-dimension; there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the 3rd and 4th grades in favor of the 4th grade in terms of the mean scores of the humor creation sub-dimension; students laughed the most in the physical education lessons and they laughed the most in this lesson because there were funny, humorous and entertaining things in it.

Effective connectivity of the amygdala during the consumption of erotic, sexual humor, and monetary rewards with a DCM-PEB approach.

While a large body of research exists on the processing of monetary rewards, less is known about sexual reward processing. This study aimed to identify effective connectivity for the consumption of sexual (erotic and sexual humor) and non-sexual (monetary) rewards, using dynamic causal modeling and parametric empirical Bayes with subjective hedonic ratings included. Our results support the importance of the amygdala for sexual humor amusement, the nucleus accumbens (NAc) for monetary rewards, and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) for erotic pleasure. The amygdala, NAc, and lOFC are major dopaminergic targets with known roles in the reward circuitry. Appreciating sexual humor was associated with ventral tegmental area (VTA) to amygdala connectivity. Enjoying monetary gains was associated with VTA-to-NAc and amygdala-to-NAc connectivity. The mesolimbic dopamine system originates in the VTA and sends major projections to the amygdala and NAc. Specifically, sexual humor appreciation was associated with effective connectivity from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to the amygdala, suggesting that subjective pleasure triggers activation of the vmPFC which exerts an excitatory influence on the amygdala. Unexpectedly, processing pleasure from monetary gains was linked to VTA-to-vmPFC connectivity, rather than the expected vmPFC-to-NAc connectivity. Importantly, we identified core roles for the amygdala. Sexual humor appreciation was associated with VTA-to-amygdala and vmPFC-to-amygdala effective connectivity, while we found amygdala-to-lOFC connectivity for erotic pleasure and amygdala-to-NAc connectivity for pleasure from monetary gains. Our findings represent an important step in understanding how effective connectivity in the mesocorticolimbic-amygdala circuitry differs for processing the consumption of sexual and monetary rewards.

AN AGE-RELATED POSITIVITY EFFECT IN HUMOR: AN ASIAN CONTEXT

Abstract Humor plays a pivotal role in our interaction with people. According to the age-related positivity effect, older adults (OA) demonstrate more positive emotions and are better able to modulate negative emotions than younger adults (YA), suggesting an increase in humor appreciation with age. However, given the heterogeneity and complexity of humor, it is unknown if this effect holds across various types of humor in a culture with ambivalent attitudes toward humor (Yue, 2016). We explored age-related effects in the perception of four types of humor with Asian adults: incongruity-resolution/benign humor, aggressive humor, local-slang humor, and self-vs.-other-deprecating humor. Fifty-six Singaporean-Chinese OA (n=26;M=64.33) and YA (n=30;M=22.48) watched four short videos depicting the four types of humor in a randomized order. Participants rated how funny each video was (from a scale of 1-not funny-at-all to 5-very-funny), ranked them in the order of most-to-least-entertaining and answered questions on Future-Time-Perspective-scale and self-rated humor.Repeated-measures ANOVA found significant main effects of age, F(1,59)=6.60, p=.013, where OA gave higher ratings than YA (M=3.00 vs. 2.47), and humor-type, F(3,177)=26.87, p&amp;lt;.001. There was a significant linear contrast in humor-type where aggressive and benign humor had the lowest ratings while self-vs.-others-deprecating humor had the highest ratings. Ranking analyses revealed that OA preferred local-slang and others-deprecating humor while YA preferred other-deprecating humor significantly above chance. Interestingly, there was no relationship between self-rated humor and future time perspective with age. Overall, OA displayed a greater appreciation of humor than YA, supporting an age-related positivity effect in an Asian context, despite preference differences. We would like to thank Prof Suzanne Flynn, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, for her guidance, and the MOE Tier 2 Academic Research Fund Tier 2 (T2MOE2005) and SUTD Growth Plan Grant for Healthcare (SGPHCRS1902) awarded to the last author.

The Role of Intersubjectivity in the Production and Appreciation of Humor

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of intersubjectivity in the production and appreciation of humor. Intersubjectivity is a concept in the phenomenological philosophy that explains the connection of humans to each other. Intersubjectivity can be used to explain the nature and way of humor works; supplementing the three existing theories of humor namely incongruity theory, superiority theory, and relief theory. This study is a literature review which data were obtained from 30 scientific articles related to humor, intersubjectivity, and the link between the two. Data were excavated using the https://www.connectedpapers.com software. The research stages taken in accordance with the stages of literature review include design, provision of literature (conduct), analysis, and presentation. The result showed that intersubjectivity has a role because it connects humor makers and connoisseurs through knowledge, feelings, awareness, and even mutual unconsciousness. Funny experiences can arise because makers and connoisseurs can access a “shared world” that allows a certain stimulation to bring out funny feelings that spark laughter. In the production and appreciation of humor intersubjectivity plays a role of (1) providing shared knowledge, (2) asserting the existence of emotions, and (3) directing the meaning of actions.