Types of humor and their influence on stress and affect

Types of humor and their influence on stress and affect

Sexism -- Psychological aspects

Stress (Psychology)

Wit and humor -- Psychological aspects

Flick, Jason Benjamin

2006

Abel, Millicent H.

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This study examined the influence of sexist humor on stress and affect in men and women, and relationships between humor styles and affect. I hypothesized that both sexes would show a rise in positive affect when exposed to jokes targeting the opposite sex and a drop in positive affect when exposed to humor targeting their own sex with opposite results for negative affect. I predicted that a negative relationship would exist between the number of stressful events and perceived stress for both sexes when exposed to neutral humor. I expected that both sexes would show a negative relationship between number of stressful events and perceived stress when exposed to humor that was hostile and targeted at the opposite sex. Conversely, I hypothesized a positive relationship when the humor was targeted toward their sex. The hypotheses were not supported, though some interesting information carne from the manipulation checks and the exploratory analyses. The study included 63 female and 59 male participants. After reading and signing an informed consent form and completing a demographic form, the participants completed questionnaires measuring their stress, affect, and trait humor. The participants were then asked to rate a packet of jokes on their funniness, likeability, and offensiveness that were female-targeted, male-targeted, or neutral. After rating the jokes, they completed another administration of the affect scale in addition to scales measuring perceived stress and catastrophizing. The exploratory analyses showed that men and women differ in their styles of humor and how adaptive those styles are when related to affect level and perceived stress. Also, the manipulation check hypotheses were primarily supported. Further, the results found that men perceived female-targeted jokes just as offensive as women, despite finding them significantly funnier and likeable than women.

2014-09-02

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