Inferring Humor Styles Through Men’s Formidability
Men’s formidability is inferred multimodally through various facial and bodily features. Such inferences frequently provide downstream perceptions of various traits and motivational states that inform subsequent affiliative decisions. Within these inferences could be an implicit understanding of men’s preferred humor styles. Across four studies, this research considered perceptions of men’s proclivity to employ each of the four humor styles through different formidability cues: upper body strength (Study 1), body muscularity (Study 2), facial width-to-height ratio (Study 3), and neck musculature (Study 4). Results indicated a relatively consistent perception of formidable features being diagnostic of men’s interest in aggressive humor. Additional findings indicate certain formidability cues connote a disinterest in self-defeating and self-enhancing humor. Facial and bodily cues finally connoted affiliative humor in different capacities. We frame findings from an evolutionary perspective based on perceptions of the various benefits and costs of different formidability features.