Use Of Aggressive Humor Research Articles

Personality and humor in groups: implications for collective emotional intelligence, psychological safety and satisfaction

PurposeThis study aims to explore the role of team personality and leader’s humor style on the use of humor in group communication and the extent to which group humor mediates the association between team personality on the one hand, psychological safety, collective emotional intelligence and group satisfaction on the other hand.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a survey to collect data from 304 employees nested in 83 groups working in organizations from various sectors in Romania.FindingsThe study results show that extraversion is positively associated with group affiliative humor, while neuroticism has a positive association with group aggressive humor. The leader’s affiliative humor style had a significant positive effect on group affiliative humor, while the effect of leader’s aggressive humor style on the use of aggressive humor in groups was not significant. Furthermore, the authors examined the mediation role of group humor in the relationship between team personality and team emergent states and satisfaction. The authors found that group aggressive humor mediates the association between neuroticism and group emotional intelligence, psychological safety and satisfaction, while affiliative humor mediates the association between extraversion and emotional intelligence and team satisfaction.Originality/valueThe study reports one of the first attempts to explore the multilevel interplay of team personality and humor in groups as they relate to emergent states.

Humor usage by sellers: effects of aggressive and constructive humor types on perceptions of Machiavellianism and relational outcomes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct effects of aggressive and constructive humor on perceptions of Machiavellianism, relationship quality and willingness-to-switch (WTS).Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis includes a first replication study with 138 business-to-business buyers and a second study with 175 business-to-business buyers that aims to test the theoretical model. The Process macro is used to test the study’s hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate that aggressive and constructive humor types have distinct effects on relationship quality and subsequent buyers’ WTS. Specifically, and contrary to constructive humor, aggressive humor from sellers increases buyers’ perceptions of Machiavellianism, which reveals detrimental to relationship quality and subsequently increases buyers’ WTS.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the results about the effects of humor on relationship quality were obtained from actual buyers and consistent across the two studies, they were obtained from two cross-sectional designs, which limits the causality of the effects being observed.Practical implicationsSellers may benefit from getting deep understanding of how usage humor may impact their relationship with buyers. In particular, this research makes clear for sellers that as long as the type of humor that they use when dealing with a buyer is constructive, no negative outcome might emerge. However, if the humor is aggressive, then the stereotype of Machiavellianism might emerge, leading to lower relationship quality and an increase in WTS from the buyer.Originality/valueWhile research on humor as a communication technique for sellers has increased lately, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this research is the first to examine the effects of the distinct types of aggressive and constructive humor and to provide empirical evidence for the different effects of these two types of humor. This research also contributes to the literature on stereotypes associated with sellers, by presenting insights into how the negative stereotype of Machiavellianism is prompted by the use of aggressive humor.

The motive of competition but not courtship positively correlates with self-reported use of aggressive humor: A critical test of the contests- vs. mate-choice hypotheses.

The use of aggressive humor (e.g., teasing, schadenfreude, and sarcasm) is a spiteful behavior because it inflicts costs on both others and the self. To explain the existence of this spiteful behavior, two hypotheses derived from sexual selection theory-namely Mate-Choice and Contests-posit that the use of aggressive humor helps one attract mates or repel competitors. Both hypotheses have merit, but extant data are unable to discriminate between them. We critically tested those two hypotheses with a survey study that measured 509 U.S. MTurkers' self-reported tendencies to use aggressive (and other types of) humor, the motives to engage in competition and courtship, and the Dark-Triad personality traits. The final sample was N = 439. We found that (1) the motive of competition but not courtship positively and significantly correlated with the self-reported tendency to use aggressive humor. (2) Subclinical psychopathy-a personality trait positively associated with competition-mediated the correlation between the motive of competition and self-reported use of aggressive humor. These results were held in both female and male respondents. Our findings favored the Contests Hypothesis and helped reveal the psychological mechanism that generates the use of aggressive humor as a form of verbal aggression and spiteful behavior.

Linking Leaders’ Humor Styles and Employees’ Organizational Creativity: Moderating Role of Organizational Tenure

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between the positive (self-enhancing, affiliative) and negative (self-defeating, aggressive) use of humor of leaders and the organizational creativity of employees. The moderating role of organizational tenure in the relationship between humor styles and organizational creativity is also examined. The data used in the research are gathered by questionnaire from 335 employees working in different organizations. Research hypotheses are tested by hierarchical regression analysis. As a result of the research, a positive relationship is determined between the use of self-enhancing and affiliative humor of leaders and organizational creativity, and a negative relationship is determined between the use of aggressive humor and organizational creativity. The findings also indicate that organizational tenure has a moderation role in the relationship between affiliative humor and organizational creativity and between aggressive humor and organizational creativity.

Humor in the sky: the use of affiliative and aggressive humor in cabin crews facing passenger misconduct

PurposeThe authors present a fist attempt to test the mediating role of humor in the relation between unruly passenger behavior and occupational stress in cabin crews.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an experience sampling design to investigate the relationship between a frequent job hassle in air service provision, namely unruly passenger behavior (UPB), and the stress experienced by flight attendants.FindingsThe results of multilevel analyses show that UPB is positively related to the use of aggressive humor and negatively related to the use of affiliative humor in cabin crews. Moreover, humor mediates the relationship between unruly passenger behavior and stress. In addition the results show that general self-efficacy as a personal resource buffers the association between passenger misconduct and the use of aggressive humor.Originality/valueThis study is among the first empirical attempts to explore the role of humor as a mediator between uncivil customer behavior and stress in air service employee.

“Laughing Matters”: The Relationship between Humor and Self-Esteem in School-going Indian Children

Humor is an appropriate tool for enhancing well-being in children through its impact on self-esteem. It is a comprehensive, complex and multi-dimensional construct. Humor affects psychological well-being and coping whereas self-esteem forms an important prelude to personality processes. Research has rarely focused on the relationship of humor styles and self-esteem in younger children. Keeping this in background, the present study aimed to explore the association between various humor styles and self esteem among school going students in India. A total of 100 participants from a school in Uttar Pradesh were selected through convenience sampling (52 girls, 48 boys). Appropriate informed consent was obtained from their parents. The participants were aged between 9-12 years and were studying in 5th, 6th and 7th grades belonging to the upper middle-class strata of the society. Humor Styles Questionnaire and Self-Esteem Inventory were used to collect data. Correlation and regression analyses were done. Gender differences in both the constructs were also studied. Analyses revealed that the relationship between overall humor styles and self esteem is not significant in both boys and girls. The use of aggressive humor is significantly related to self -esteem of girls. The findings imply that the use of adaptive humor styles should be encouraged as they foster self-esteem in the Indian children. The findings are discussed in the Indian socio-cultural context. Understanding the association between these two important constructs in younger children, will help parenting and also school-related interventions directed towards their personal growth. Humor is well-known to be a coping mechanism in distressing situations but possibly, it is yet to find a direct role on influencing self-esteem especially of young boys and girls. Systematic mixed-method studies are warranted in varied socio-cultural and ethnic populations.

Gerotranscendence and humor styles: the mediating role of generativity and wisdom

AbstractThe goal of the present study was to investigate whether generativity and wisdom played a mediating role in the relationships between gerotranscendence and humor styles among people in late adulthood. The study included 399 participants aged 60–85 years. The following measures were used: Gerotranscendence Scale Type 2 (GST2), Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS), and the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS). The analyses revealed that generativity and wisdom, taken together, were mediators in the relationship between gerotranscendence and the four styles of humor in late adulthood. The results of the survey show that gerotranscendence is a factor that protects individuals against the use of aggressive humor, at the same time predisposing them to using humor that expresses self-acceptance and strengthens interpersonal relations. An interesting result was obtained for self-defeating humor. It was shown that gerotranscendence, by increasing generativity and wisdom, increases the tendency to poke fun at oneself and to talk about one’s own weaknesses or mistakes. This tendency, as suggested by the specific character of the relationships observed, does not have to be non-adaptive. Our results demonstrate that the processes related to the shaping of humor among people in late adulthood have a unique nature.

Relationships between everyday use of humor and daily experience

Abstract Each day for two weeks participants described how often they had used four types of humor that day: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating humor. Each day, participants also described the events that occurred in their lives (positive and negative crossed with social and achievement), and they provided measures of their well-being. Multilevel analyses (days nested within persons) found that the daily use of affiliative and self-enhancing humor was positively related to daily positive events (social and achievement) and was negatively related to daily negative events (social and achievement). In contrast, the use of self-defeating humor was positively related to the occurrence of all types of events. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor was positively related to positively valent measures of well-being (e.g., self-esteem), and were negatively related to negatively valent measures of well-being (e.g., rumination). In contrast, relationships between well-being and the use of self-defeating humor were the mirror image of these relationships. The use of aggressive humor was unrelated to well-being. These results suggest that the use of humor is cued by the events that occur in people’s daily lives, social and achievement and good and bad, and that the use of humor is related to well-being, both positively and negatively.

Gender differences in the associations of reappraisal and humor styles

AbstractReappraisal is an effective emotion regulation strategy that draws on cognitive processes–like changing one’s thoughts to change one’s feelings–that are similar to those implicated in humor. Yet, very little is known about the links between the dispositional tendency to use reappraisal and individuals’ humor styles (e. g. aggressive, affiliative, self-deprecating, self-enhancing). Importantly, there are gender differences both in emotion regulatory processes and in the use of humor styles. We examined gender differences in reported use of humor styles, the associations between reappraisal and humor styles, and whether gender moderated those associations. Participants (N=250) were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk and self-reported their dispositional use of reappraisal and four humor styles. Men reported greater use of aggressive humor compared to women. Dispositional use of reappraisal was positively associated with self-enhancing humor. In addition, reappraisal use was positively related to greater use of affiliative humor, and this association was stronger for men than women. For men, greater use of reappraisal was associated with greater use of self-defeating humor, but reappraisal was negatively associated with self-defeating humor for women. Findings extend insight from prior work and suggest that both reappraisal and specific ways of using humor draw on aspects of self-regulatory competence rooted in cognitive change abilities, and the patterns of association differ in interesting ways for men and women.

Relationship between the use of humor and life satisfaction in Secondary School students

Secondary school students (N=1304) and 12-17 years old, were evaluated and mood styles and their satisfaction with life were analyzed. The results show a moderately satisfied with their lives teenagers and humor styles are used in this order: affiliative, self-improvement, aggressive and self-destructive. The life satisfaction correlated with positive styles of humor (affiliative and self-improvement) and inversely with the use of aggressive humor. Just a 25.85% of adolescents in the sample, make good use of humor (greater use of positive and less negative styles) and good levels of satisfaction with life. In addition, although men make more use of humor, both positive and negative, being a woman increases life satisfaction by 0.85 points from being male, being gender variable greater weight in predicting the score life satisfaction, self-improvement followed humor, aggressive humor and affiliative humor. In conclusion, stating that the research data provide a profile of moderately satisfied with his life teenagers, with greater use of the styles of positive humor, as well as evidence of the relationship between the use of humor and life satisfaction.

Maladaptive Humor Styles as Mediators of the Relationship Between Attachment Insecurity and Emotion Regulation

Abstract Although theory and research evidence indicate that less securely attached persons are more likely than their secure peers to experience emotion regulation difficulties, this is not necessarily a pre-ordained outcome. Emotion regulation difficulties may be more proximally predicted by individuals’ maladaptive psychological defenses such as humor styles. This study explored the interrelationships between adult attachment orientations (attachment anxiety and avoidance) and perceived bonds with parents (perceived levels of parental care and control), emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), and maladaptive humor styles (aggressive and self-defeating humor). Attachment anxiety, avoidance, and maternal care and overprotection were associated in expected directions with aggressive and self-defeating humor, but paternal care and overprotection were not. Additionally, aggressive and self-defeating humor were positively associated with expressive suppression and negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal. Self-defeating humor partially mediated the relationship between a number of attachment predictors (attachment anxiety, avoidance, maternal care, and maternal control) and expressive suppression. For example, attachment anxiety predicted higher use of self-defeating humor, which in turn predicted higher levels of expressive suppression. Finally, aggressive humor partially mediated the relationship between avoidance and cognitive reappraisal. Avoidance predicted higher use of aggressive humor, which in turn predicted lower levels of reappraisal. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

The Humor Styles Questionnaire in Italy: Psychometric Properties and Relationships With Psychological Well-Being

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the relation between humor and psychological well-being within the context of Italy. A total of 293 (178 females, 115 males) Italian high school and undergraduate university students – whose ages ranged from 14 to 25 years – completed the Italian versions of the HSQ and the Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being scales (RPWB). The HSQ scale reliabilities were generally acceptable, and intercorrelations among the scales were rather low; the confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor structure. Males reported significantly more use of Aggressive humor than did females; no differences were found between adolescents and young adults in the use of humor styles. Affiliative and Self-enhancing humor styles were positively associated with the six dimensions of the RPWB, whereas Self-defeating humor was negatively correlated with the RPWB scales. SEM analysis showed a significant and positive relationship between humor as measured by the HSQ and psychological well-being as assessed by the RPWB. Overall, the findings supported the theoretical structure and usefulness of the HSQ in an Italian context and the differential role of humor components in the various dimensions of psychological well-being.

The Impact of Violent Humor on Advertising Success: A Gender Perspective

Recent academic research has focused on the use of novelty and shock in advertising executions. One manifestation of this approach in American television advertising is the use of aggressive humor; a dramatic change in the way humor has historically been employed. This investigation examines two studies of the responses of men and women to violence in humorous advertising. The results of both studies reveal differences in the responses of men and women suggesting there may be a risk in coupling humor with high physical violence in ads targeted toward female audiences. The second study examines in a path model the role of perceived violations of social norms and perceived humor on the attitudes of men and women toward the ad and the brand. The poor response of women to more violence with humor ads is closely related to their perceived violations of social norms; for men, their more positive response to such ads is related to their perception of humor in the ads with humor and stronger violence.

Attachment orientations and reactivity to humor in a social support context

In this behavioral observation study, we tested how individuals’ use of affiliative and aggressive humor (observer rated) impacted their romantic partners’ mood in a social support context. We also examined whether the attachment orientations of the humor-receiving partners moderated the humor effects. As predicted, support providers’ use of affiliative humor predicted pre- to post-discussion decreases in support recipients’ negative mood. Providers’ use of aggressive humor predicted increases in recipients’ negative mood. The deleterious effects of more aggressive humor were exacerbated in recipients who were more anxiously attached. Providers who used more affiliative humor were also more empathically accurate, and providers involved with more avoidantly attached partners and who used more aggressive humor were less judgmental and more validating of their avoidant partner’s behavior.

Differential effects of self-esteem and interpersonal competence on humor styles

BackgroundIn contrast with an early implicit “facilitative hypothesis” of humor, a revised specificity hypothesis predicts that the benefits of humor depend on the specific style of humor used. Information on predictors of these humor styles in turn enhances the ability to predict the effect on well-being.MethodsWe examined the relationships between interpersonal competence, self-esteem, and different styles of humor, while also examining the contributions of age and gender. Participants (n = 201) aged 18–63 years completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, and gave demographic information.ResultsHigh self-esteem was associated with higher use of affiliative, aggressive, and self-enhancing humor styles, but lower use of self-defeating humor. High interpersonal competence predicted greater use of affiliative humor, whereas low interpersonal competence predicted greater use of aggressive humor. Further analyses showed that initiation competence predicted affiliative humor (positively) but both initiation competence (positively) and conflict management competence (negatively) predicted aggressive humor.ConclusionThe findings that both self-esteem and initiation competence contribute to use of aggressive humor add to knowledge of who is likely to use this potentially harmful humor style. We conclude that a readiness to initiate humorous interactions is not on its own a general and positive attribute contributing to “good” humor.

Prejudice-relevant correlates of humor temperaments and humor styles

Given the field’s interest in humor-relevant individual differences in general, we explored the extent to which humor styles and temperament are correlated with individual difference predictors of prejudice. Participants ( n = 136) completed the humor styles questionnaire, the state-trait cheerfulness inventory-(traits), and measures of social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), personal need for structure (PNS), and anti-Black prejudice. Contrary to preferences for positive humor use among participants generally (i.e., collapsing across individual differences), those higher in SDO or anti-Black prejudice reported increased use of aggressive humor. Those with prejudicial tendencies theoretically rooted in uncertainty avoidance and low openness (RWA, PNS), however, demonstrated no preference (or even some distaste) for socially-oriented humor use. Whereas SDO, RWA, and anti-Black prejudice were unrelated to possessing a “good sense of humor”, PNS was associated with a poor sense of humor. Overall, distinct and theoretically meaningful relations between the prejudice-prone variables and humor-relevant individual differences emerged, with aggressive uses of humor endorsed only by prejudiced and dominance- (vs. security-) oriented persons, contrary to preferences for affiliative and self-regulatory humor styles among people generally.