Psychology and Humor

Flashback: Pranking Ethic

• be safe • not damage anything • not damage anyone, either physically,

mentally or emotionally • be funny, at least to most of the people who

experience it • GABYP – Get Authorization Before You Prank

What is humor?

• From The Oxford English Dictionary– With reference to action, speech, writing, etc.: the

quality of being amusing, the capacity to elicit laughter or amusement. Also: comical or amusing writing, performance, etc.

And– The ability of a person to appreciate or express

what is funny or comical; a sense of what is amusing or ludicrous. See also sense of humour n

Psychology and Humor

• In terms of psychology, we can approach humor in terms of four components.

1. A social context2. A cognitive-perceptual context3. An emotional response4. The vocal-behavioral response of laughter

Social Context

• Humor is very much a social concept.• Although we can laugh when alone, we are much more likely

to engage in humor when around others.• Humor serves as a way for people to playfully interact.

– Definitions of play vary in the field of psychology, so we will use a simplified version.

– Play is a less serious version of utilitarian behavior. Playful behaviors can resemble more serious behaviors (e.g., play fighting vs. real fighting). With play, participants are more engaged with the behavior itself than the potential outcome (Pelligrini et al., 2006)

– Research has shown a wide variety of benefits from play, many of which come back to play serving as low stakes practice of behaviors.

Cognitive-Perceptual Context

• In order to produce or understand humor, we have to process a variety of information.

• Some of that information comes from the environment, but some of it comes from our own minds.

• That means we have to take into account the mind and cognitive processes of any individual involved.– That includes concepts like knowledge, schemas, attention,

etc.• We will discuss a few different explanations for what

makes something humorous.

Emotional Response

• Humor often creates positive emotional responses (Szabo, 2003).

• Exposure to humorous information increases activation of the reward network in the limbic system, with higher levels of humor associated with stronger activation (Mobbs et al., 2003).

Vocal-Behavioral Response of Laughter

• We respond physically to humor with a variety of behavior including laughter and smiles.

• Those behaviors vary in intensity.• Chimpanzees and other apes show similar

behavior is the context of play. • Many researchers (e.g., van Hooff, 1972) have

suggested that laughter serves as a signal to others that current actions are playful, not serious.

Humor Theories and Hypotheses

• Psychoanalytic• Superiority • Arousal• Incongruity• Reversal• Benign-Violation

Incongruity Theories

• Humor is determined by whether or not incongruity is perceived.

• For example, Eysenck (1942) suggested that laughter is the result of the integration of contradictory ideas such as those experienced from a pun.– Why do people become bakers? Because they

knead the dough.

Another example from Suls (1972)

• O’Riley was on trial for armed robbery. The jury came out and announced, “Not guilty.” “Wonderful,” said O’Riley, “does that mean I can keep the money?” (Suls, 1972, p. 90)

Remember Schemas?

• Schemas provide a skeleton structure, which is filled in with details from an experience

• Schema knowledge also organized around scripts– Knowledge about what occurs during routine

activities

Incongruity and Schemas

• A number of humor theories connecting incongruity and schemas have been proposed (e.g., Wyer and Collins, 1992).

• The general suggestions is as follows.1. The setup of a joke leads to the activation of a schema.2. The punchline does not match with the activated schema.3. This leads to a search through memory for a different schema

that will make more sense.4. The second schema is often incongruous with the first

schema.5. Because both schemas remain activated and are incongruous,

we perceive humor.

Why use humor?

• Social probing– Humor can allow us to share or gather information

with less risk (Kane et al. , 1977)• Examples:

• Decommitment– Using humor to save face after failure or being

caught in a lie or inappropriate behavior (Kane et al. , 1977)• Examples:

Why use humor?

• Breaking Norms– Breaking social norms can be more acceptable if

humor is used while breaking them (Ziv, 1984)• Examples:

• Protecting Norms– Making fun of or teasing others can be used to

coerce others to behave in a particular way (Long & Graesser, 1988)• Examples:

Why use humor in a prank?

• Does humor make a message more memorable?

• Does humor make a message more persuasive?

Humor and Memory

• Humor can enhance memory, but it needs to be used effectively.– Schmidt (1994) found that memory was better for humorous

sentences only when they were presented together in lists with nonhumorous sentences. Furthermore, memory for nonhumorous sentences decreased when presented in a list with humorous sentences.• Explanations:

– Schmidt & Williams (2001) found that participants had better memory for the gist of humorous cartoons but not memory for specific details than for nonhumorous cartoons.• Explanations:

Humor and Persuasion

• The effect of humor on persuasion is complex.– Humorous ads are more effective than nonhumorous

ads if viewers already have a positive attitude. Humor is less effective if the viewers have a negative attitude toward the product (Chattopadhyay & Basu, 1990).

– Humor increases the persuasiveness of low-intensity, soft-sell advertising, but decreased persuasiveness when used with a hard-sell approach (Markiewicz, 1974)

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

• Will a person think through (and be likely to elaborate on) a persuasive message?

Use peripheral route if: • Person focuses on superficial cues presented

1) person does not have ability (intelligence, time) or motivation to think

2) message is not personally relevant3) person is in positive mood

(If the cues are appealing) the resulting attitudes are changed -- but are:

• weak• not resistant to counterarguments• not predictive of behavior

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

• Will a person think through (and be likely to elaborate on) a persuasive message?

Use central route if: • Person focuses on arguments presented1) person has ability (intelligence, time) and motivation to

think/need for cognition (personality characteristic) 2) message is personally relevant3) person in neutral or negative mood(If arguments are strong) the resulting attitudes are:• strong• resistant to counterarguments• predictive of behavior

Humor and Persuasion

• Humor seems to follow the peripheral route.– Humor doesn’t seem to affect the credibility of the source but it

can improve the audience’s liking of the source. (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992).

– Humor doesn’t appear to improve the comprehension of a message (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992).

– Humor can put the audience in a more positive mood (Moran, 1996).

– Humor can grab the attention of the audience (madden & Weinberger, 1982).

• In terms of the ELM, when will humor be most effective in persuading an individual?