Election Jokes: The Effects of Reference Group Membership

Jokes about Gold water and Johnson were rated by 130 Ss on election day in 1964. The difference in their response to these two types of joke correlated .53 with their candidate preference, even with the differences in their understanding of the points of the jokes partialled out. The multiple correlation of differential comprehension and candidate preference with differential humor is .62. The evidence supports a reference group theory of humor.

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Candidate Preference and Hostile Humor in the 1968 Elections

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1970.26.3.779 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 779-783 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Robert F. Priest ◽

Joel Abrahams

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Group Theory ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Reference Group ◽

Psychology Students ◽

Science Student ◽

Reference Group Theory ◽

Candidate Preference ◽

Student Volunteers ◽

The Difference

Hostile jokes about Wallace, Nixon, Humphrey, and Senator McCarthy's “disaffected liberal” were rated by college students on the day before the 1968 election. The difference in their response to jokes about Humphrey and Nixon correlated .42 with candidate preference for psychology students ( n = 120), .58 for political science student volunteers ( n = 35). The difference in response to jokes about “disaffected liberals” vs jokes about other groups correlated significantly with attitude toward the Democratic party but not with candidate preference. The results support reference group theory, replicate two other studies of election humor and suggest that the enjoyment of hostile humor depends upon who is being aggressed against.

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Comment on Priest's Article: “Election Jokes: The Effects of Reference Group Membership”

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1967.20.1.305 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 305-306 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lawrence La Fave

Keyword(s):

Group Theory ◽

Group Membership ◽

Reference Group ◽

Post Mortem ◽

Reference Group Theory ◽

Methodological Errors

Priest maintains that all relevant studies prior to his own support a reference group theory of humor. However, only La Fave's experiment does unequivocally. Both the Wolff, Smith, and Murray and the Middleton experiments make methodological errors, acknowledged by the authors themselves, which render a reference group interpretation of their data debatable. However, these authors also furnish perceptive, post mortem analyses which suggest that, were their methodologies less inadequate, the reference group construct would have won support

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