Transcript Psychology and Humor

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 context
2. A cognitive-perceptual context
3. An emotional response
4. 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
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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)
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Will a person think through (and be likely to elaborate on) a
persuasive message?
Use peripheral route if:
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Person focuses on superficial cues presented
1) person does not have ability (intelligence, time) or
motivation to think
2) message is not personally relevant
3) person is in positive mood
(If the cues are appealing) the resulting attitudes are changed -- but
are:
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weak
not resistant to counterarguments
not predictive of behavior
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
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(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 presented
1) person has ability (intelligence, time) and motivation to
think/need for cognition (personality characteristic)
2) message is personally relevant
3) 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?