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Understanding the effects of exposure to humor expressing affiliative and aggressive motivations

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Abstract

Using humor, being funny, and having a good sense of humor are often reported as desirable qualities. However, little attention has been paid to possible differences in responses to humor reflecting affiliative as opposed to aggressive motivations. In evaluating a stranger, when examples of affiliative and aggressive humor were presented as the stranger’s preferred humor, aggressive humor led to more negative impressions (Study 1). To further explore the impact of humor reflecting affiliative versus aggressive motivations, participants were exposed to equally funny videotapes representing the two humor styles (Study 2). Women’s reported affective experiences varied across the humor styles, but men’s did not. Women and men rated the affiliative video as being more positive than negative, but no differences in the qualities were found for the aggressive video. Results across the two studies demonstrate the importance of considering not just the funniness of humor efforts, but also the social motives conveyed by the humor. Given the complexity of responses to humor, additional research is needed to better understand the contexts within which being funny might have social benefits versus social costs.

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Notes

  1. Analyzing the ratings of social desirability and undesirability separately yielded the same results; only the humor style main effect was significant in each case.

  2. A preliminary report on these results was presented in a poster at the International Society for Humor Studies Conference, College of William and Mary, July, 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

    Arnie Cann & Jennifer A. Jordan

  2. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Adam T. Cann

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  1. Arnie Cann
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  2. Adam T. Cann
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  3. Jennifer A. Jordan
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Correspondence to Arnie Cann.

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Cann, A., Cann, A.T. & Jordan, J.A. Understanding the effects of exposure to humor expressing affiliative and aggressive motivations. Motiv Emot 40, 258–267 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9524-8

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