“啊哈！”和“哈哈！”：顿悟与幽默的脑认知成分比较

作为人类智能的高级表现形式, 顿悟和幽默存在诸多共同之处。从认知和情感组成上看, 顿悟的非连续性、突发性、重构和惊讶, 对应于幽默的失谐、失谐探测、失谐消解和愉悦, 两者存在表征机制的重叠。神经机制的研究发现, 顿悟和幽默的心理事件都伴随着400 ms左右的额中央区负波(N400)以及前扣带回、顶颞叶联合区和前额叶等脑区的活动; 同时顿悟和幽默在P300成分以及海马、右侧前部颞上回等脑区活动上存在差异。未来可借鉴幽默的认知和情感成份的脑成像研究范式, 进一步探明顿悟过程的认知和情感组成。     

Supervisor Humor and Employee Outcomes: The Role of Social Distance and Affective Trust in Supervisor

Purpose

To examine how social distance and affective trust in supervisor affect the relationships between supervisor humor and the psychological well-being and job performance of subordinates.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A survey was conducted among 322 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads in 14 South Korean organizations. Multi-level analyses were performed to test the research hypotheses, including the moderating effects.

Findings

Self-enhancing humor of supervisors was positively associated with the psychological well-being and job performance of subordinates. Affiliative humor was positively associated with psychological well-being, whereas aggressive humor was negatively associated with psychological well-being. In addition, supervisor humor was indirectly related to the psychological well-being of subordinates via social distance. Moreover, affective trust in supervisor significantly moderated the relationship between supervisor humor and social distance, such that the relationship between affiliative humor and social distance was stronger when affective trust in supervisor was high rather than low.

Implications

These findings are important in developing and refining humor theory on the responses of employees to various types of supervisor humor. Moreover, they provide practical implications for organizations. For example, organizations should note that supervisor humor may not always produce good results, and thus should encourage managers to use constructive humor. Similarly, supervisors should build a high-trust relationship with their subordinates to increase the effectiveness of their constructive humor.

Originality/Value

This study is one of the few studies that has examined the mechanism and boundary conditions of the effects of supervisor humor on employee outcomes.

     

A threshold theory of the humor response

The humor response has long been considered mysterious, and it is given relatively little attention in modern experimental psychology, in spite of the fact that numerous studies suggest that it has substantial benefits for mood and health. Existing theories of humor fail to account for some of the most basic humor phenomena. On most occasions when a humor response occurs, certain verbal or visual stimuli (the "setup" stimuli, which function as an establishing operation) must precede a critical stimulus (such as a "punch line" or the final panel or critical feature of a cartoon), which then occasions a sudden "revelation" or "understanding"; this revelation is often accompanied by the humor response. We suggest that the setup stimuli increase the strength of the revelatory response to a point just below the threshold of awareness and that the critical stimulus, properly designed and timed, edges the revelatory response to a point just above threshold. We also suggest that it is this threshold phenomenon that produces most instances of the humor response. We discuss these issues in the context of some notable humor of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner.     

Humor in Teams: Multilevel Relationships Between Humor Climate,Inclusion, Trust,and Citizenship Behaviors

Purpose

This study examines the cross-level influence of positive and offensive leader humor climates on employee inclusion and citizenship behaviors, and the moderating effect of trust in such relationships.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We collected data from a sample of 225 respondents nested within 23 teams from a Canadian financial organization. A multilevel confirmatory analysis was used to provide evidence that variables of this study are distinct and a HLM analysis to test the hypotheses.

Findings

We find that employees’ perception of inclusion is influenced much more by an offensive humor climate than by a positive one. The results also suggest that the perception of inclusion plays a significant intermediary role in the influence of humor climates on citizenship behavior. Finally, trust in leaders acts as an important contingent condition in the effectiveness of a humor climate.

Implications

Use of humor does not always pay. Offensive humor by supervisor is a risky strategy that may undermine the beneficial effects of positive humor climate, increase employee exclusion and weaker individual performance.

Originality/Value

Our study shows the utility of using micro- and macro-approaches, and more specifically, the relevance of adopting an integrative multilevel view of the effect of a humor environment in predicting individual inclusion and citizenship behaviors.

     

CREATIVITY, CARING AND CONTEXT

Empirical research on humor has perpetuated, rather than challenged, stereotypes of the humorless female. Among other biases, it has neglected participants' own definitions of "sense of humor" and their own accounts of their preferences and practices. In this study, 203 participants (72 males, 131 females) answered a 68-item Humor Questionnaire and also wrote a narrative about a person with an outstanding sense of humor. Factor analysis of the questionnaire revealed ten dimensions of humor, with four of the ten producing gender differences. Content analysis of the narratives produced a detailed account of the participants' definition of sense of humor. Both males and females viewed creativity, contextual relevance, and caring as components of an outstanding sense of humor. Gender similarities and differences are discussed in relation to the conversational context of spontaneous humor.     

Integrating Humor Into Psychotherapy: Research,Theory, and the Necessary Conditions for the Presence of Therapeutic Humor in Helping Relationships

Although humor is a key element of all social interactions and is frequently present in the psychotherapy process, rarely do therapists consciously and purposely use humor with therapeutic intent. Each theoretical orientation helps clients change emotions, behaviors, and/or cognitions. Humorous interventions can activate change in each of these central areas of human experience.

A key unanswered question is how therapeutic humor is generated. This question has been virtually ignored. Unless people specify the elements that facilitate the creation of therapeutic humor, they cannot train practitioners to be therapeutic in their use of humor. Using Carl Rogers' (1957 Rogers , C. ( 1957 ). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change . Journal of Consulting Psychology , 21 ( 2 ), 95 – 103 .[Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]) “necessary and sufficient conditions” as a central theme, this article addresses the nature of the practitioner that is necessary for therapeutic humor to be communicated to the client. It further describes the qualities of the client/receiver of the humor that are necessary for therapeutic humor to be experienced, and, finally, it specifies the nature of the interactive relationship that influences the potential for humor to be therapeutic. It is the interaction of the skills and qualities of the therapist, the qualities of the client, and the nature of the bond of the relationship between them that accounts for the client's experience of therapeutic humor.     

The Experience of Failed Humor: Implications for Interpersonal Affect Regulation

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate failed interpersonal affect regulation through the lens of humor. We investigated individual differences that influenced people’s affective and cognitive responses to failed humor and their willingness to persist in the interpersonal regulation of positive affect after a failed attempt.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using well-established autobiographical narrative methods and surveys, we collected data at two time points. All participants (n = 127) received identical surveys at time 1. At time 2, they were randomly assigned to complete a narrative about either successful or failed humor as well as a second survey.

Findings

Using moderated regression analyses and SEM, we found significant differences between our failed and successful humor conditions. Specifically, individual differences, including gender, affective perspective taking, and humor self-efficacy, were associated with negative reactions to failed humor and the willingness of individuals to persist in the interpersonal regulation of positive affect. Moreover, affective perspective taking moderated the effect of gender in both the failed and successful humor conditions.

Implications

Our results suggest that failed humor is no laughing matter. Understanding individuals’ willingness to continue in attempts to regulate the affect of others contributes to the comprehension of an understudied phenomenon that has implications for interpersonal behavior in organizations such as helping, group decision making, and intragroup conflict.

Originality/Value

Studies of interpersonal affect regulation often focus on people’s ability to successfully regulate others’ emotions. In contrast, this is the first quantitative study to explore factors that influence individual’s willingness to persist in interpersonal affect regulation after failure, and to investigate how individual differences influence the personal outcomes associated with failed attempts.     

Incongruity versus tension relief

Three experiments employing weight-judgment tasks with the method of constant stimuli were conducted to test between incongruity and tension relief hypotheses of humor. In the first two experiments, the difficulty of the initial judgments and the heaviness of the final comparison weight were varied in order to manipulate tension and incongruity, respectively. Incongruity but not tension manipulations affected both facial expressions and ratings of humor. A third experiment varied the subjects' expectations about the heaviness of the final comparison weight, which was assumed to affect incongruity but not tension. The expectancy manipulations affected facial expressions and ratings of humor. The results of all three experiments supported the incongruity hypothesis but not the relief hypothesis of humor.     

"Switch Him On!"

In this article, the author describes somber scenes that have been extracted from Brazilian reality. Some of the elements that compose these scenes have been analyzed as to their relation with contemporaneity and psychoanalytic topics of interest: perversion, helplessness, pain, life instinct, death instinct, humor and indifference.     

Humor Types Show Different Patterns of Self-Regulation, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being

Humor styles have been found to be associated with well-being, however, no study has addressed the distinct well-being associations of combinations of humor styles, that is, humor types, yet. The present study thus aimed at investigating which combinations of humor styles exist and to which extent these humor types are associated with well-being. In an online questionnaire, the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ, Martin et al. J Res Pers 37:48–75, 2003), self-regulatory strategies, self-esteem, and well-being instruments were administered to a German sample. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses replicated the underlying structure of the HSQ. With hierarchical clustering, we found evidence for three humor types (endorsers, humor deniers, and self-enhancers), which differed in group means for self-esteem, self-regulatory strategies, and well-being. Findings provide further evidence for the positive well-being correlates of self-enhancing humor, and distinctly address the positive correlates of aggressive and self-defeating humor being absent. It is discussed that humor styles cannot be conceptualized as beneficial or detrimental per se, but have to be regarded in context.     

How virtuous is humor? What we can learn from current instruments

Despite the diverse philosophical accounts of the relation of humor to virtue or vice, this ethical dimension has not been included explicitly in psychological humor instruments. Yet, behavior described in humor questionnaires covering a broad variety of components can be used to study an implicit relation of humor to vices and virtues. The main aim of the present paper was (1) to find humorous behavior and attitudes representing virtues and vices within an item pool of 12 popular humor questionnaires; and (2) to investigate the nature of the virtues represented by their item contents. A comprehensive measure of humor covered the entire range from virtue to vice, with the majority of items evaluated as neutral. Humanity and wisdom were most strongly represented, but the items cover all six core virtues (Dahlsgaard, 2004 Dahlsgaard, K. 2004. “Universal virtues?—Lessons from history”. In Character strengths and virtues, Edited by: Peterson, C and Seligman, MEP. 33–52. New York: Oxford University Press.  [Google Scholar]) to varying degrees. Further research can now investigate the relationship of humor and individual virtues more closely.     

Neuroscience today,Florence 25–27 March 2007: foreword

Currently in humor research, there exists a dearth of computational models for humor perception. The existing theories are not quantifiable and efforts need to be made to quantify the models and incorporate neuropsychological findings in humor research. We propose a new computational model (GraPHIA) for perceiving phonological jokes or puns. GraPHIA consists of a semantic network and a phonological network where words are represented by nodes in both the networks. Novel features based on graph theoretical concepts are proposed and computed for the identification of homophonic jokes. The data set for evaluating the model consisted of homophonic puns, normal sentences, and ambiguous nonsense sentences. The classification results show that the feature values result in successful identification of phonological jokes and ambiguous nonsense sentences suggesting that the proposed model is a plausible model for humor perception. Further work is needed to extend the model for identification of other types of phonological jokes.

A joke is just a joke (except when it isn't): cavalier humor beliefs facilitate the expression of group dominance motives

Past research reveals preferences for disparaging humor directed toward disliked others. The group-dominance model of humor appreciation introduces the hypothesis that beyond initial outgroup attitudes, social dominance motives predict favorable reactions toward jokes targeting low-status outgroups through a subtle hierarchy-enhancing legitimizing myth: cavalier humor beliefs (CHB). CHB characterizes a lighthearted, less serious, uncritical, and nonchalant approach toward humor that dismisses potential harm to others. As expected, CHB incorporates both positive (affiliative) and negative (aggressive) humor functions that together mask biases, correlating positively with prejudices and prejudice-correlates (including social dominance orientation [SDO]; Study 1). Across 3 studies in Canada, SDO and CHB predicted favorable reactions toward jokes disparaging Mexicans (low-status outgroup). Neither individual difference predicted neutral (nonintergroup) joke reactions, despite the jokes being equally amusing and more inoffensive overall. In Study 2, joke content targeting Mexicans, Americans (high-status outgroup), and Canadians (high-status ingroup) was systematically controlled. Although Canadians preferred jokes labeled as anti-American overall, an underlying subtle pattern emerged at the individual-difference level: Only those higher in SDO appreciated those jokes labeled as anti-Mexican (reflecting social dominance motives). In all studies, SDO predicted favorable reactions toward low-status outgroup jokes almost entirely through heightened CHB, a subtle yet potent legitimatizing myth that "justifies" expressions of group dominance motives. In Study 3, a pretest-posttest design revealed the implications of this justification process: CHB contributes to trivializing outgroup jokes as inoffensive (harmless), subsequently contributing to postjoke prejudice. The implications for humor in intergroup contexts are considered.     

Queens and Jesters of YouTube: Communicating Gay/Lesbian Identities Through Humor in YouTube Channel <Emphasis Type="Italic">Spanish Queens</Emphasis>

Considering the transformative potential humor has for minorities who experience exclusion and marginalization, I seek to explore how Spanish gay and lesbian youth construct and communicate gay/lesbian identities using humor as a rhetorical tool. Furthermore, I explore the potential implications of their use of humor for social relations, both within gay and lesbian communities and with the broader society. I approach this discussion though a critical discourse analysis of videos from Spanish Queens—a collaborative YouTube channel, in which LGBTQ youth from diverse parts of the country share their experiences, thoughts, and opinions about being LGBTQ in Spain. Stereotypical humor was the primary form of humor used by SQ vloggers when addressing gay and lesbian issues related to both identification and social relations. Looking at how SQ vloggers most frequently use stereotypical humor, three common functions emerged in all ten videos: (a) affirming identity and separating gay and lesbian experiences from those of other groups, including making a distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity; (b) challenging the conflation of sexual and gender identities (i.e., contesting the notion of gay men and lesbians identifying as members of the opposite sex); and (c) disarming discourses that construct gay and lesbian individuals as threats at both interpersonal and societal levels.     

Contextual connections within puns: effects on perceived humor and memory

The supposition that perceived humor or cleverness would be enhanced by adding separate content to the alternative meanings of a pun was explored, using Tom Swifties as the research vehicle. Because detecting a punning word relationship might induce arousal, requiring more effort and attentional resources for processing than noting a contextual connection, memory strength for adverbs was also examined using a recognition procedure. Five studies were conducted in which college students were asked to judge 24 Swifties (content counterbalanced across participants) in which presence of pun and context were manipulated. The punning relationship was primarily responsible for perceived humor and cleverness. Presence of a pun also enhanced memory strength (d') as long as the familiarization task focused on humor and cleverness. Coherent context enhanced perceived cleverness inconsistently. It was suggested that a coherent contextual connection may make a greater contribution in more lengthy forms of pun-based word play, such as fables or "shaggy dog" stories.     

HUMOR AND INCLINATION TO LAUGH: EMOTIONAL REACTIONS TO STIMULI OF DIFFERENT DIVERGENCE FROM A RANGE OF EXPECTANCY

An experiment was conducted to test the general hypothesis, derived from the incongruity theory of humor, that the experience of humor or of the inclination to laugh is a function of the divergence of a perceived state of affairs from the expected state. The hypothesis was tested with weights as stimuli in two designs. In the first the range of expectancy was defined in terms of the proportion of "heavy" ratings in the subject group at various initial weights. In the second the range of expectancy among subjects was assumed to move with experience with various ranges of weights. The results of both designs supported the hypothesis.     

建言类型对领导者建言采纳的影响：面子与幽默的作用

以说服和面子理论为基础,通过两个研究探讨领导者建言采纳行为的影响因素及作用机制。结果发现：相对于促进型建言,抑制型建言给领导带来的面子威胁更大,且领导者感知面子威胁在建言类型与建言采纳之间起部分的中介作用。而幽默类型与水平影响领导者感知面子威胁的程度,积极幽默水平越高,领导者感知面子威胁的程度越低,其建言采纳可能性越高。这表明领导者感知面子威胁在建言类型与建议采纳间起中介作用,幽默调节了此中介效应。     

Preliminary Validation of a Multidimensional Model of Wittiness

ABSTRACT Past research on wittiness has found that ( a ) self-ratings and peer ratings of wittiness are highly correlated, but neither type of rating is appreciably correlated with measured humor production, and ( b ) sociability is correlated with both types of wittiness ratings but not with humor production. An interpretation of these findings was provided by a multidimensional model of wittiness that conceptualizes wittiness as a factorially complex dimension shaped by three component traits: humor motivation, humor cognition, and humor communication. We conducted three correlational studies to test the hypotheses, derived from the theory, that ( a ) wittiness ratings are influenced by humor motivation and humor communication, whereas humor production taps only humor cognition, and ( b ) sociability is positively correlated with humor motivation and humor communication but unrelated to humor cognition. Results were consistent across studies and generally confirmed the predictions.     

What's so funny about that?: The domains-interaction approach as a model of incongruity and resolution in humor

The domains-interaction approach, originally developed in metaphor research, was used to model humor processing. Using jokes of the structure A is the B of A's domain (e.g., John Candy is the hamburger of actors), this approach allows for precise operationalizations of incongruity and resolution in terms of between-domain and within-domain semantic distance, respectively. Distances between 26 terms used in 250 of these simple jokes were derived from semantic differential ratings. As predicted, humor ratings of the jokes were positively correlated with incongruity (between-domain distance) but not with resolution (within-domain distance). Also as predicted, a significant interaction revealed that jokes with both incongruity and resolution were rated as most humorous. These findings were replicated in a second study. A third study indicated that humor perception differs from metaphor appreciation, showing main effects for both types of semantic distance, but no interaction, when the sentences were presented as metaphors instead of jokes and rated for aptness.The authors wish to thank Richard Harshman and Albert Katz for their helpful suggestions in conducting this research.     

Satisfaction and the Use of Humor by Physicians and Patients

The current study investigated the extent to which various types of humor are associated with high- and low-satisfaction doctor visits and whether male and female physicians and patients differ in their use of humor. A humor coding scheme, capable of distinguishing three categories (negative, positive, and general) and ten sub-types of humor, was validated against 92 audiotaped physician-patient primary care visits, half rated high and half rated low in satisfaction. Results revealed that physicians and patients used more light humor, more humor that relieves tension, more self-effacing humor, and more positive-function humor in high satisfaction than in low-satisfaction visits. In addition, the patients of female physicians used more humor than the patients of male physicians across levels of satisfaction. The results indicate a strong association between humor and satisfaction, and suggest ways in which humor and laughter help to maintain rapportin the physician-patient relationship.