Relation between humor and empathic concern

A series of studies have shown that humor is associated with close interpersonal relationships and effective in reducing stress, which in turn enhances empathy. Therefore, it was hypothesized that humor and empathic concern would be positively correlated. The Empathic Concern subscale of the Empathy Questionnaire, the Coping Humor Scale, the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale, and the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire were given to 124 subjects. Scores on the Empathic Concern subscale were significantly correlated with those on each of the humor scales. Types of humor may be an important variable in the relationship between empathic concern and humor. Both humor and empathic concern are associated for people with emotional intelligence who use these to interact effectively with other individuals. As such, it was suggested that exploration would yield a relation between humor and emotional self-awareness, which is also associated with emotional intelligence.     

Humor and strengths of character

Humor in the Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths is conceptualized as a unipolar and unidimensional strength and is subsumed under the virtue of transcendence. Its scope is intentionally restricted to forms of humor that serve some moral good. The present study (N?=?203) investigated the relation between five dimensions of humorous conduct, sense of humor, and the VIA-Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS). Results show (1) that the VIA-humor correlated with socially warm and competent humor, and the sense of humor, all with a common basis in humanity. (2) Each humor style showed relations to strengths. Additionally, strengths related to the virtue of temperance were also related to not showing mean-spirited and earthy forms of humor. Hence, humor in the VIA-IS can be well-located in established humor taxonomies, but does not cover all of the virtue-related humorous behaviors. Further research is requested to investigate the role of virtue in humor.     

幽默的社会理论及其应用研究

幽默的社会理论强调幽默在社会交往情境中娱乐基础上的交际功能,可更好地解释人们日常生活中的幽默现象。根据幽默的社会理论,研究者从幽默发出者的幽默创作、幽默接收者的幽默理解以及各种社会交往情境的幽默应用等角度来探讨幽默。文化背景对幽默的创作和理解具有重要影响,中西方幽默存在文化差异。最后指出社会理论框架下的幽默研究的不足并提出一些建议。     

贬损型幽默:笑声能化解敌意吗?

贬损型幽默指包含贬损意味同时令人发笑的信息。释放论、优越论、失谐?解决理论与良性进犯理论尝试解释了其心理机制。贬损不一定好笑,群体身份和态度、接收者与贬损对象的心理距离以及人格、文化差异等均会影响幽默效果。贬损型幽默可以起到释放偏见与表达社会支配倾向的作用,对人际交往的作用则不一致。贬损型幽默的整合性过程模型串联描述了贬损型幽默的机制、前因和后效,可作为未来研究的框架。未来亦可继续探讨贬损型幽默的消极影响,以及其对群际关系和社会公平的潜在积极作用,并关注到中国社会文化背景下的贬损型幽默。     

Humor Reconsidered: The Cultivation of “Accurate Perception” as a Contribution to the Care of Souls

Cultivating a sense of humor that has redemptive possibilities for the soul in a post-Christendom era is an important but nonetheless risky act of pastoral ministry. Humor, like the soul, involves ambiguity, incongruity and paradox. Insufficient appreciation of the paradoxical nature of humor contributes to views that are both overly suspicious as well as insufficiently cautious where humor is concerned. A redemptive sense of humor is explored as a virtue analogous to the Greek virtue of eutrapelia in tension with bomocholia (buffoonery/flippancy) and agroikia (boorishness/excessive seriousness). The work of Erik and Joan Erikson on the needed tension between the syntonic and dystonic further clarifies how humor best serves the soul. I conclude that the willingness to cultivate a sense of humor is an act of faith.     

“A joke a day keeps the doctor away?” Meta‐analytical evidence of differential associations of habitual humor styles with mental health

Humor and mental health are interconnected as is evidenced by a large number of studies. However, associations are only small and inconsistent as the operationalization of humor poses a methodological challenge. The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ ) differentiates four humor styles that might be beneficial or harmful to mental health. The aim of the present study was to meta‐analytically aggregate studies using the HSQ to assess the associations of different humor styles with four areas of mental health (self‐esteem, life satisfaction, optimism, depression). An extensive electronic database literature search identified 37 studies that reported correlations between the HSQ scales and the four areas of mental health in 45 independent samples (total N = 12,734). In total, 16 meta‐analyses were conducted. Moderating effects of participant age, sex, and geographic region were examined via subgroup analyses and meta‐regression. Humor styles differed in terms of their associations with mental health. Health‐promoting humor styles were overall positively correlated with mental health (small‐to‐medium effect sizes). Self‐defeating humor was overall negatively correlated with mental health. Aggressive humor was overall unrelated with mental health. Moderator analyses suggested geographic differences (Eastern vs. Western samples) and sex differences for some of these associations. Fostering specific humor styles may be beneficial for mental health. In addition, observing the habitual use of humor styles might help therapists to develop a better understanding of their clients. Differences in the utilization and the correlates of humor styles in Eastern and Western societies, and sex differences, need to be addressed in future research.     

Differential Relationships of Light and Darker Forms of Humor with Mindfulness

This study proposes two links between facets of mindfulness and different forms of humor: First, the common benevolence should link mindfulness positively to light forms of humor and negatively to darker forms of humor. Second, similar cognitive mechanisms should underlie both mindfulness and humor ability (humor detection, comprehension, and production). Third, both are malleable, and we hypothesize that fostering humor and mindfulness may mutually influence each other, leading to innovative and practical interventions for settings such as the workplace. In three studies, the relationship of humor and mindfulness as outlined in the Humor Mindfulness Relationship Model was investigated. In Studies 1 and 2, the relationship of different forms of humor and mindfulness was investigated in a sample of health care professionals and a broad online sample. In Study 3, the effect of a mindfulness intervention on humor as a character strength was investigated, giving preliminary insights into the mutual malleability of both. Results confirmed the positive relationship among light forms of humor and mindfulness as well as negative relationships of darker forms of humor with mindfulness. The mindfulness intervention fostered humor as a character strength. These results indicate that humor and mindfulness may be fruitfully combined in positive interventions as well as in the vocational setting. Moreover, the results suggest initial evidence for the Humor Mindfulness Relationship Model.

     

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.     

Humor As a Stress Moderator in the Prediction of Blood Pressure Obtained during Five Stressful Tasks

In five consecutive stressful tasks we examined the role of humor as a potential stress moderator using systolic and diastolic blood pressure as an indication of cardiovascular reactivity. In all five tasks, the Coping Humor Scale interacted with sex in the prediction of blood pressure. The same pattern was found in response to each of the five tasks: Females who were higher in coping humor exhibited lower systolic blood pressure than females scoring lower on coping humor, while the reverse characterized males; males who scored high on the coping humor scale exhibited higher systolic blood pressure than males scoring low on that scale. Similar though less robust results were found when the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire was used as the measure of humor. In the Cold Pressor Task, which involves pain and endurance, interactions were found between humor, sex, and trials indicating a stress-moderator effect. The absence of interactions indicating stress moderation in most of the analyses with the other four stress tasks suggests that humor may play more of a role in moderating the impact of uncontrollable and passively experienced stressors. Tasks requiring more active, problem-solving behavior may be less amenable to the beneficial effects of humor. The findings do not clearly resolve the questions about the role of humor in effecting responses to stress. However, they do suggest that the subjects' sex may be an important consideration when evaluating the impact of humor as a stress moderator.     

An investigation of worry and sense of humor

To investigate the relationship between worry and sense of humor, the author administered the Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; F. Tallis, M. Eysenck, & A. Matthews, 1992) and the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS; J. A. Thorson & F. C. Powell, 1993) to 140 undergraduates. Worry was negatively related to sense of humor. Results of a stepwise regression, using the WDQ as the criterion and the MSHS factors as predictors, showed that the humor production factor of the MSHS loaded negatively on Step 1 and the coping with humor factor loaded positively on Step 2. The results are discussed in relation to W. E. Kelly and M. J. Miller's (1999) cognitive model of worry and worry as a coping strategy.     

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.     

幽默广告诉求及其传播效

幽默是广告中最常见的诉求方式之一。通过综合分析现有相关研究,发现：(1)幽默诉求在吸引受众注意、增强对广告及其品牌的偏好度上存在优势,但对广告品牌信息的加工是否存在促进或妨碍作用则尚未获得较为统一的结论;(2)该诉求的传播效果明显受到产品类型和卷入度、受众的幽默和认知需求、性别、文化差异、已有的品牌态度以及幽默的类型和相关性等诸多因素的影响。同时,目前尚存在对广告环境因素、传播的整体过程研究不足及理论总结不力等问题     

A Computational Model of Linguistic Humor in Puns

Humor plays an essential role in human interactions. Precisely what makes something funny, however, remains elusive. While research on natural language understanding has made significant advancements in recent years, there has been little direct integration of humor research with computational models of language understanding. In this paper, we propose two information‐theoretic measures—ambiguity and distinctiveness—derived from a simple model of sentence processing. We test these measures on a set of puns and regular sentences and show that they correlate significantly with human judgments of funniness. Moreover, within a set of puns, the distinctiveness measure distinguishes exceptionally funny puns from mediocre ones. Our work is the first, to our knowledge, to integrate a computational model of general language understanding and humor theory to quantitatively predict humor at a fine‐grained level. We present it as an example of a framework for applying models of language processing to understand higher level linguistic and cognitive phenomena.     

Humor styles and personality: A meta‐analysis of the relation between humor styles and the Big Five personality traits

This research summarizes the knowledge generated in social psychology and positive psychology about the relationship between humor styles, personality and wellbeing. Specifically, a meta‐analysis was performed with the results of 15 studies on humor styles measured by the Humor Styles Questionnaire (Martin, Puhlik‐Doris, Larsen, Gray & Weir, 2003) in correlation with the personality traits measured by the Big Five Personality model (measured with different scales). Following the steps presented by Rosenthal (1991) for meta‐analysis in the case of correlational research, we calculated the total mean r as an indicator of effect size. Results show that affiliative humor has a strong and homogeneous relation to neuroticism and extraversion. The homogeneity and heterogeneity found between variables and possible explanations are discussed in the conclusion.     

幽默加工的脑机制

幽默是人类一种独特又普遍的现象,其研究具有重要的应用价值。已有的研究对正常人和特殊个体幽默的神经机制进行了探讨,主要涉及幽默加工的双阶段理论模型和神经机制、幽默加工中的认知和情感因素研究、幽默加工脑机制的个体差异以及幽默加工的大脑不对称性。未来的研究需在更宽的视野中对幽默的加工阶段模型以及幽默与其它心理过程之间的关系进行探讨     

The nature of humor in human nature: Cross-cultural commonalities

It is contended that humor is a universal, pan-cultural phenomenon. Humor theory is examined on superiority, psychoanalytic, and incongruity-resolution dimensions. Cross-cultural humor commonalities are derived from the literature; and genetic, biological, and social dynamics of humor are explored. Intercultural differences in the content domain of humor are noted. It is concluded that humor is an appropriate intervention for ethnically diverse clients, when used sensitively in the counselling process.     

发散性思维与幽默的认知神经机制比较——基于双加工理论的视角

在双加工理论视角下对发散性思维与幽默的认知神经机制进行了系统整理。发现二者的认知加工过程具有相似性：前期都依赖于自动化加工;而后期随着认知负荷的增加,越来越依赖控制化加工。脑机制方面：控制化加工条件下,二者的神经机制重叠部分比自动化加工条件下多,其中负责控制化加工的前额皮层是二者共同的关键脑区。未来可从两类加工协同合作的角度深入揭示发散性思维与幽默的内在机制。     

The general factor of personality and humor styles

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between a general factor of personality (GFP) and four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Participants were 571 same-sex adult twin pairs. Individuals completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and a short form of the NEO personality scale (from which the GFP was extracted). The GFP was found to be heritable with an estimated value of .31. At the phenotypic level, the GFP was found to correlate significantly with the HSQ scales; positively with affiliative and self-enhancing, and negatively with aggressive and self-defeating. Three of the four phenotypic correlations were found to be attributable to correlated genetic factors, suggesting that these dimensions of humor styles and the GFP may have a common genetic factor.     

The Psychological Benefits of Humor

In Men and Their Religion: Honor, Hope, and Humor (2002), I proposed that men have two primary ways of being religious—the religion of honor and the religion of hope. I also proposed that because these two religions do not always have their desired outcomes, men have developed a third way of being religious, the religion of humor. In A Time To Laugh (2005) I have expanded on my claim in Men and Their Religion that if men have three religions—honor, hope, and humor—the greatest of these is humor. In the course of doing the necessary research for a book on humor, I acquired and read a few books and a host of articles that explored the psychological benefits of humor. While I did not report on these studies in the book, I believe they are relevant to the assumption that a religion will have psychological benefits for those who embrace it. This article therefore provides a review of empirical studies of the psychological benefits of humor in order to answer the question whether a religion of humor is likely to have psychological benefits and, if so, what these might be.