Self-defeating Humor Research Articles

Troll story: The dark tetrad and online trolling revisited with a glance at humor.

Internet trolling is considered a negative form of online interaction that can have detrimental effects on people's well-being. This pre-registered, experimental study had three aims: first, to replicate the association between internet users' online trolling behavior and the Dark Tetrad of personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism) established in prior research; second, to investigate the effect of experiencing social exclusion on people's motivation to engage in trolling behavior; and third, to explore the link between humor styles and trolling behavior. In this online study, participants were initially assessed on their personality, humor styles, and global trolling behavior. Next, respondents were randomly assigned to a social inclusion or exclusion condition. Thereafter, we measured participants' immediate trolling motivation. Results drawn from 1,026 German-speaking participants indicate a clear correlation between global trolling and all facets of the Dark Tetrad as well as with aggressive and self-defeating humor styles. However, no significant relationship between experiencing exclusion/inclusion and trolling motivation emerged. Our quantile regression findings suggest that psychopathy and sadism scores have a significant positive effect on immediate trolling motivation after the experimental manipulation, whereas Machiavellianism and narcissism did not explain variation in trolling motivation. Moreover, being socially excluded had generally no effect on immediate trolling motivation, apart from participants with higher immediate trolling motivation, for whom the experience of social exclusion actually reduced trolling motivation. We show that not all facets of the Dark Tetrad are of equal importance for predicting immediate trolling motivation and that research should perhaps focus more on psychopathy and sadism. Moreover, our results emphasize the relevance of quantile regression in personality research and suggest that even psychopathy and sadism may not be suitable predictors for low levels of trolling behavior.

A joke for you, a status-boost for men: Men's tendency to tell affiliative jokes is related to their self-promotion style

A sense of humor is a desirable characteristic in both romantic and platonic relationships, and people communicate their sense of humor by telling jokes. However, there are sex differences in joking, so men tell jokes more often than women. Men’s benefits from joking correspond with such fundamental social motives, as mate seeking and mate retention, affiliation, and self-protection. However, less is known about the relation between tendency to tell jokes and more general styles of self-presentation, that is, tactical ways of behaving that can be used in many social interactions. In our study (N = 139 Polish men aged 18 to 60 [M = 29.94, SD = 11.66]), we wanted to examine the relationships between self-presentation styles (e.g., self-promotion and self-depreciation), humor styles (e.g., affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating), and tendency to tell jokes in adult men. We found that men focused on self-promotion produced humor more often and their humor styles contained more affiliative and self-enhancement aspects. Moreover, men's use of affiliative humor completely mediated the relationship between their self-promotion and their tendency to joke. We also found that men oriented on self-depreciation use more self-defeating humor, but their self-defeating motivation does not correlate with their tendency to joke. Our results suggest that men may tell jokes, especially those involving affiliative humor, to tactically achieve their self-promotion goals.

Workplace humour, compassion, and professional quality of life among medical staff

ABSTRACT Background: Professional quality of life pertains to the balance between compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. In recent years, there was an increase in compassion fatigue among medical staff due to the pandemic, all over the world, while compassion satisfaction was reported at a moderate level. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between workplace humour and professional quality of life among medical staff, as well as the moderating role of compassion in this relationship. Method: The sample consisted of 189 participants (Mage = 41.01; SD = 9.58). Of the total sample, 57.1% are physicians, 32.3% are nurses and 6.9% are clinical psychologists. The participants completed scales measuring compassion, workplace humour, and professional quality of life. Results: The results showed that self-enhancing and affiliative humour were positively related, while self-defeating humour was negatively related to compassion satisfaction. Burnout and secondary traumatic stress were negatively related to self-enhancing humour and positively related to self-defeating humour. Compassion moderated the relationship between affiliative humour and secondary traumatic stress. Conclusions: Encouraging coping strategies based on adaptive humour (i.e. affiliative humour, self-enhancing) and raising awareness about negative humour strategies (i.e. self-defeating) could contribute to an increase of quality of life among healthcare providers. Another conclusion derived from the present study sustains that compassion is a valuable personal resource positively related to compassion satisfaction. Compassion also facilitates the relationship between affiliative humour and low secondary traumatic stress. Thus, encouraging compassionate skills could be beneficial for the optimal professional quality of life.

Validation of the humour styles questionnaire in healthcare professionals.

The aim of this study is to determine the reliability and validity of the Humour Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) in a sample of Spanish healthcare professionals. A cross-sectional study. The version of HSQ translated into Spanish by Cayssials and Pérez was used to validate on a sample of healthcare professionals (N=250). The reliability analysed the Crombach's α coefficient and Pearson's correlation coefficient between the factors and the total scale score. The Exploratory Factor Analysis was carried out with Kaiser's criteria for the extraction of factors with Varimax rotation. HSQ in this study sample reproduced the similar structure of the original version with four factors (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating humour). These factors explained 44.46% of the total variance and Cronbach's ranged from 0.64-0.79. Global HSQ scale reliability was 0.82. The HSQ is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing humour in healthcare professionals.

Humor Styles Are Related to Loneliness Across 15 Countries.

The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower self-enhancing, and higher self-defeating humor style scores had higher loneliness scores. The results suggest that although national mean differences may be present, the pattern of relationships between humor styles and loneliness is consistent across these diverse samples, providing some suggestions for mental health promotion among lonely individuals.

Evaluation of The Relationship Between Drone Pilots and Humour in Türkiye

This study aims to analyse the sense of humour of drone pilots depending on the amount of time they have used the drones, the sort of instruction they have gotten, and their educational levels. The study covers 148 male drone pilots with drone education backgrounds. The Humour Styles Questionnaire is used to collect data for this study. The specified statistics, reliability analysis and MANOVA analyses were employed to analyse the collected data.As a consequence of these analyses, there was no significant statistical difference between the humour questionnaire sub-dimensions of participative humour, self-developing humour, aggressive humour, and self-destructing humour. Participatory humour, self-enhancing humour, offensive humour, and self-defeating humour sub-dimensions were not significantly different by income level. There was no statistically significant difference in the sub-dimensions of the humour scale according to education level: participative humour, self-enhancing humour, offensive humour and self-defeating humour. As a result, the sense of humour of drone pilots does not differ based on the type of schooling, income level, or education level within the contents of this study.

Humor Styles and Forgiveness of the Students Who Are in a Dating Relationship

One way to reduce or minimize conflict in a dating relationship is forgiveness. One of the factors of forgiveness is the positive attribution of the victim to the perpetrator, which can be facilitated by perspective-taking empathy. Previous research has shown that a style of humor correlates with perspective-taking empathy and forgiveness. This study aims to further develop previous research by finding out whether humor style can predict forgiveness and focusing more on the dependent variable to be forgiveness for a partner in college students who are in a dating relationship. This study uses a quantitative approach with correlational design and multiple linear regression. The independent variable is humor styles, consisting of affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, and self-defeating humor. Otherwise, the dependent variable is forgiveness for a partner. The measuring instrument in this study used the adaptation of the Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ) and the Forgiveness for Partner Scale (FPS). This study involved 177 students of the FPPsi State University of Malang who were in a dating relationship. The results showed that the humor style could simultaneously predict forgiveness for the partner, but only aggressive humor has a significant effect.
 Keywords: humor styles, forgiveness for partner, dating relationship, college students.

EFFECT OF HUMOR LEADERSHIP ON INVENTIVENESS OF EMPLOYEES AND ADMINISTRATIVE RELIABILITY. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE'S MODERATING IMPACT

The purpose of this research is to examine how humor leadership styles affect innovation and productivity in Pakistan's mobile telecommunications industry in the south Punjab area. It examines how emotional intelligence may be used by leaders to boost organisational performance. This research demonstrates the impact that emotional intelligence has on innovation and productivity in the telecommunications industry in this area. This research uses information from a highly regarded mobile telecommunications industry in the South Punjab area of Pakistan. This article explores a variety of perspectives on leadership. In various settings, these theories argue, leaders act in certain ways. For them, the ultimate success of their businesses depends on continuing the current trend of development and productivity. This research also discusses the many leadership styles used by successful business owners and managers to foster an environment where innovation and productivity thrive. The information for this research was gathered by use of questionnaires. The study's statistical analysis and findings corroborate the link between hilarious leadership and employee innovation, which in turn boosts organisational effectiveness. Humorous leadership is seen to have a beneficial influence on employees' ability to think beyond the box. A leader should keep the office lighthearted to foster an environment conducive to innovation.
 KEYWORDS: Organizational effectiveness, emotional acuity, self-defeating humour, self-enhancing comedy, mobile communications, and staff creativity are all boosted by humour that fosters social connections and competition.

The relationship between humor and women’s body image concerns and eating behaviors

Abstract Humor is considered a coping strategy that is associated with well-being and positive self-esteem. The role of humor in relation to body image and eating behaviors has rarely been investigated. This cross-sectional study (n = 216) examined the relationship between general coping humor and humor styles targeting the self, namely self-enhancing and self-defeating humor, and body image and eating behaviors. Results showed that adaptive self-enhancing humor was associated with body appreciation and compassion, whilst maladaptive self-defeating humor was related to body criticism, drive for thinness, and emotional eating. General coping humor played almost no role. We also examined humor clusters and found that body appreciation and body kindness were higher in self-enhancers than self-defeaters and higher in humor endorsers than humor deniers. Further, self-defeaters reported more body criticism and emotional eating than self-enhancers, and emotional eating was higher in humor deniers than humor endorsers. This study shows that humor referring to the self is key in the understanding of body image and eating behaviors. Whilst the use of self-enhancing humor can have positive effects on body image, self-defeating humor can play a detrimental role.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF HUMOR STYLES IN THE RELATION BETWEEN EARLY MALADAPTIVE SCHEMA DOMAINS AND THE SEVERITY OF DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS

This study aimed to explore the indirect associations of the early maladaptive schema domains with the severity of depression symptoms through humor styles (i.e., self-enhancing, affiliative, self-defeating, and aggressive humor styles) in Turkish culture. Data were collected from 373 university students via demographic information form and the Turkish versions of Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form-3, Humor Styles Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory. Using Hayes Macro, five separate mediation analyses were performed for testing the indirect associations, one for each schema domain. The results generally revealed that humor styles partially mediated the relationships between the schema domains and depression symptoms. Particularly, self-defeating humor style was found to be the most consistent mediator between the relationship the early maladaptive schema domains with the severity of depression symptoms. Also, the findings showed for the first time that aggressive style (partially) mediated the relations between some of the schema domains and depression symptoms and was negatively associated with these symptoms. Moving from these findings, it can be suggested that humor styles may serve as coping strategies for early maladaptive schemas. Thus, measuring and addressing humor styles in the treatment of depression symptoms may be beneficial in increasing the effectiveness of treatments. In addition, the current finding on aggressive humor style suggests that there may be cultural differences in the use of humor. However, cross-cultural studies are needed to conclude that cultural factors change the mediating role of humor styles in the relationship between schema domains and depression symptoms.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE HUMOUR STYLES IN BEKTASHI ANECDOTES

Anecdotes are literary products that contain different humour styles. Martin and colleagues stated that individuals use four humour styles, namely, affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and selfdefeating humour styles. Two of these humour styles are positive and two are negative. People perform different functions in interpersonal relationships by using different humour styles. Anecdote is one of the most important elements of humour. One of the most important types of anecdotes in Turkish culture is Bektashi anecdotes. These anecdotes, which are formed within the Bektashi culture, have local and universal values. The most important situation that causes laughter in these jokes is disharmony. There are certain types in Bektashi anecdotes. There are certain behaviours that these types represent. In this study, it is aimed to examine Bektashi anecdotes with positive and negative humour styles. This study was carried out with the document analysis technique. In the examination, it was observed that different humour styles were used in different jokes. There are many themes related to affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating humour styles in Bektashi anecdotes. In Bektashi anecdotes in which affiliative humour is used, it is aimed to develop interpersonal relations. Using this humour style, Bektashi type interacts with people who have different beliefs and thoughts. With the self-enhancing humour style in Bektashi jokes, the individual develops in a positive way. Bektashi often uses this style when he comes into contact with himself. Bektashi ridicules and criticizes others by using aggressive humour. Themes related to positive humour styles are more common in Bektashi jokes. This situation highlights the function of Bektashi anecdotes to support personal development and social interaction. On the other hand, it is seen that the themes in the jokes associated with aggressive and self-defeating humour styles are appeared to be moderate. This shows that Bektashi anecdotes have a humanitarian basis.

Humor Styles, Bullying Victimization and Psychological School Adjustment: Mediation, Moderation and Person-Oriented Analyses.

Humor can be both adaptive and maladaptive and plays a role in bullying victimization and school adjustment. It was hypothesized that humor styles decrease or increase victimization, which in turn affects school adjustment. Furthermore, humor might moderate effects of victimization on school adjustment. Moreover, a person-oriented approach could improve our understanding of group differences in these variables. An online questionnaire retrospectively surveyed emerging adults (N = 172; 77.2% female; mean age: 22.7 years) with respect to humor style use, bullying victimization and school adjustment. Mediation and moderation analyses were computed, and two sets of person-oriented analyses compared victims, bully-victims and noninvolved students on humor styles and school adjustment, and three latent humor-related groups (overall-high, adaptive-high and adaptive-low) on victimization and school adjustment. Victimization fully mediated the positive effect of affiliative humor and partially mediated the negative effect of self-defeating humor on school adjustment. The negative effect of victimization on school adjustment was magnified by self-defeating humor and attenuated by aggressive humor. Bully-victims used both aggressive and self-defeating humor more frequently, and victims used aggressive and affiliative humor less frequently. Furthermore, both victims and bully-victims showed lower school adjustment. Finally, the adaptive-high humor group showed lower victimization and higher school adjustment. Implications for school interventions are discussed.

The Psychology of Comedy

The Psychology of Comedy

Big Five Traits Based Profiles and Humor Styles in Preadolescents

Abstract. The present study investigated the relationship between Big Five traits-based profiles and humor styles in a sample of 426 Greek preadolescents. Latent Profile Analysis yielded three distinct personality profiles: resilients, average, and undercontrollers. These profiles exhibited significant group differences in humor styles. The resilient profile displayed the highest scores on the two benign humor styles and the lowest on the two malign styles. On the contrary, the under controllers scored lowest on the two benign humor styles and highest on self-defeating humor. Findings showed that the patterns identified in the extant literature between humor, personality, and adjustment generalize to preadolescents. These are discussed with reference to prior work and relevant theoretical implications.

Not so funny after all! Humor, parents, peers, and their link with cyberbullying experiences

Cyberbullying represents repeated and intentional aggression through digital devices and implies multiple roles: cyberbullying perpetrators, cyber-victims, active witnesses (cyber-defending), and cyber-passive bystanders. The present study aimed to assess the predictive function of personal (e.g., humor style) and social factors (e.g., peer norms, parental education about Internet use) concerning the four roles in cyberbullying phenomenon: cyberbullying perpetration, cyber-victimization, cyber-defending, and cyber-passive bystander behavior. A sample of 601 adolescents (289 boys, Mage = 12.18 years, SD = 1.21) was included in the study. The participants completed scales measuring their cyberbullying experiences, humor style, peer norms, and parental education regarding their online activity. The results showed that aggressive humor positively predicted cyberbullying perpetration and negatively predicted cyber-defending. Furthermore, self-defeating humor positively predicted all four roles involved in cyberbullying. Affiliative humor positively predicted cyber-defending, while self-enhancing humor negatively predicted cyber-victimization. Finally, peer norms predicted all four roles involved in cyberbullying, while parental education about Internet use did not prove to be a significant predictor in our analyses. The practical implications of these findings for prevention and interventions are discussed.

“Do they fit together like the Joker and Harley Quinn?”: Joking, laughing, humor styles, and dyadic adjustment among people in long-term romantic relationships

While people value a good sense of humor in their potential romantic partners, we know comparatively less about the function of humor in long-term relationships. Using the survey method, we measured the production, appreciation, and quality of humor along with humor styles and dyadic adjustment in long-term relationships among 149 heterosexual couples. Men produced more jokes than women, but the sexes responded to their partners' jokes at the same frequency. Men also rated their jokes as funnier than the jokes of their partners. Partners were matched in aggressive and self-defeating humor styles. Laughing and humor quality ratings as well as humor styles had effects for men's and women's dyadic adjustment. We conclude that in long-term, romantic relationships, a sense of humor is part of the mechanisms involved in building relationships.

Adaptive and maladaptive humor styles are closely associated with burnout and professional fulfillment in members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (356)

<b>Objectives:</b> Individual differences in humor styles (adaptive: affiliative, self-enhancing; maladaptive: aggressive, self-defeating) are associated with numerous mental health measures. Burnout (BO) and professional fulfillment (PF) are two distinct measures that affect personal and professional well-being. This study examined the relationship of humor styles with PF and BO among Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) members. <b>Methods:</b> SGO members were surveyed in November 2020. The survey included 64 questions (32-item Humor Styles Questionnaire, 16-item Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index, and 16-item demographic and practice characteristics). Differences among faculty physicians (FAC), physician trainees (Res/Fel), and advanced practice providers (APP) were compared using two-tailed t-tests for continuous variables and Chi-square tests for categorical variables. Multivariable linear regression adjusted the association of humor styles with BO and PF for possible confounders. <b>Results:</b> Of 1982 SGO members invited to participate, 321 (16.2%) returned surveys, including 222 (69.4%) FAC, 75 (23.4%) Res/Fel, and 23 (7.2%) APP. All categories of respondents scored highest for affiliative humor and lowest for aggressive humor. There were no significant differences between provider types in the use of adaptive humor styles. For maladaptive styles, Res/Fel were significantly more likely to employ both aggressive (FAC vs Res/Fel, p=0.017; Res/Fel vs APP, p=0.011) and self-defeating (FAC vs Res/Fel, p=0.011; Res/Fel vs APP, p=0.004) styles than FAC and APP. Ninety-five (29.7%) respondents met the criteria for BO, and 163 (50.9%) had professional fulfillment. There were no differences in BO among provider types. FAC was significantly more fulfilled than Res/Fel (2.83±0.88 vs 2.59±0.83, p=0.038). For adjusted BO analyses, BO was negatively associated with self-enhancing humor and positively associated with self-defeating humor (Table 1). Further, being a trainee (p=0.010) and being >55 years old (p=0.008) were protective for BO, whereas working >60 hours per week was led to higher BO (p=0.008). In adjusted analyses, PF was positively associated with self-enhancing humor and negatively associated with self-defeating humor (Table 1). Spending over 10% of work hours on non-patient care activities was negatively associated with PF (p=0.008). Table 1 <b>Conclusions:</b> Among SGO respondents, 29.7% were burned out, and 50.9% were fulfilled. Beyond advocating for less working hours and less administrative duties, humor-based interventions focused on increasing the use of self-enhancing and reducing the use of selfdefeating humor may lead to less BO and greater PF in SGO members, especially among trainees.

Covariation between formidability inferences and perceptions of men's preferred humor styles

Individuals infer men's formidability through various facial and bodily features. Such inferences covary with perceptions of men's personalities and motivational states, potentially informing subsequent affiliative decisions. Within these inferences could be an implicit understanding of men's preferred humor styles. Across four studies, this research considered perceptions of men's proclivity to employ four humor styles through different formidability cues: upper body strength (Study 1), muscularity (Study 2), facial width-to-height ratio (Study 3), and neck musculature (Study 4). A relatively consistent perception emerged of formidable men as more likely to use aggressive humor. Conversely, an absence of formidability cues elicited perceptions of increased likelihood to use self-defeating humor. We interpret results from an evolutionary perspective for how individuals can identify behavioral strategies through morphological features.

Adaptive and maladaptive humor styles are closely associated with burnout and professional fulfillment in members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology

Differences in individual humor styles (adaptive: affiliative, self-enhancing; maladaptive: aggressive, self-defeating) are associated with various wellness measures. This study examines the association of humor styles with professional fulfillment (PF) and burnout (BO) among Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) members. SGO members were surveyed in 11/2020. The survey included 64 questions (32-item Humor Styles Questionnaire, 16-item Professional Fulfillment Index, and 16-item demographic and practice characteristics). Differences among faculty physicians (FAC), physician trainees (Res/Fel), and advanced practice providers (APP) were compared. Multivariable linear regression adjusted the association of humor styles with BO and PF for possible confounders. Of 1982 members invited to participate, 320 (16.1%) returned completed surveys (69.4% FAC, 23.4% Res/Fel, and 7.2% APP). All provider types scored highest for affiliative and lowest for aggressive humor. Res/Fel were more likely to employ aggressive and self-defeating humor styles than FAC and APP. One-third of respondents met criteria for BO and half experienced PF. FAC were more fulfilled than Res/Fel (p = 0.038). BO was negatively associated with self-enhancing and positively associated with self-defeating humor. Working > 60 h/week was associated with increased BO (p = 0.008) while trainee status (p = 0.010) and age > 55 (p = 0.008) were associated with decreased BO. PF was positively associated with self-enhancing and negatively associated with self-defeating humor. Spending > 10% of work hours on administrative duties led to lower PF (p = 0.008). Beyond advocating for less working hours and administrative duties, humor-based interventions to increase self-enhancing and reducing self-defeating humor use may lead to less BO and greater PF in SGO members, especially among trainees.

Gaya Humor dan Perilaku Cyberbullying pada Remaja

This study aims to determine the relationship between humor style and cyberbullying behavior among adolescents in Makassar City. The research population is the age range of 15-19 years. Respondents 420 SMP, SMA, and SMK students were obtained through the distribution of online questionnaires using google-form with the help of their school counselors. The humor style questionnaire was arranged based on the humor style dimensions of Martin (2003), namely self-enhancing, aggressive, affiliative, and self-defeating, while the cyberbullying behavior questionnaire was arranged based on three aspects of cyberbullying behavior by Lee, Abell, and, Holmes (2015), namely verbal/written bullying, visual/sexual bullying, and social exclusion.&#x0D; The results showed that there are two styles of humor that have a significant relationship with cyberbullying behavior in adolescents around Makassar City, namely the affialitive humor style and the aggressive humor style. Affiliative humor style has a significant negative relationship with cyberbullying behavior, aggressive humor style has a significant positive relationship with cyberbullying behavior. While the other two styles of humor, namely self-enhancing humor and self-defeating humor, did not show a significant relationship with cyberbullying behavior.