Effects of regular and joke dog whistles on perceptions of political candidates

Our experiment showed a scenario where a White politician used a racist dog whistle (DW) when referring to his Black opponent. We used pilot data to determine DW statements and then tested whether different DWs (joke or regular) would affect perceptions of candidates based on participants’ levels of subtle and explicit racism compared to a comment without racial undertones. Our results indicated that while neither DW affected perceptions of the Black candidate based on participants’ levels of subtle racism, when a regular DW was used, subtle racism was positively associated with more positive perceptions of the White candidate. Our findings can broadly be explained within the context of modern racism and the suppression justification model of prejudice. The presence of a DW served as a prime, allowing those who have subtle anti-Black prejudice to express it through more positive personal perceptions of the White candidate. Without opportunities to justify the expression of their subtle prejudice (i.e. have a non-prejudice reason to dislike the candidate), the participants’ did not report more negative perceptions of the Black candidate. However, there was a “backlash” and participants were less likely to consider voting for the White candidate, particularly when he used a joke DW.

Reliability and validity of the sense of humor scale

This study examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the sense of humor scale (SHS; McGhee, Paul E. 1999. Health, healing and the amuse system: Humor as survival training, 3rd edn. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt), a 24-item questionnaire developed to measure overall sense of humor. Participants included 99 adults, 105 undergraduates, and 111 comedians. One-week test-retest reliability was good (r = 0.75). Internal consistency of the overall scale was excellent, and acceptable-to-excellent for the six subscales. Item-total correlations were generally strong. Comedians scored higher than undergraduates and adults, supporting the construct validity of the SHS. Convergent validity was strong as the SHS was positively correlated with the Humor Styles Questionnaire total and its subscales. Our analyses of SHS’s associations with the Big Five personality dimensions led to findings that are consistent with prior research, as the SHS was positively correlated with extraversion and openness to experience, but uncorrelated with neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Factor analyses found a bifactor model to be the best fitting model for the SHS. Ancillary bifactor fit indices provided additional support for the notion that the SHS may not be best described as unidimensional. Thus, it can be argued that the subscales are relevant for both research and applied work as they offer unique contributions.

How cognitive, social, and emotional profiles impact humor appreciation: sense of humor in autism spectrum disorder and Williams syndrome

Humor is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon composed of a variety of cognitive, social, and emotional processes. This paper will discuss humor appreciation in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic disorder mainly characterized by intellectual disabilities, high social approach tendencies and high positive emotions. Drawing on research on the comprehension and appreciation of humor in individuals with ASD, this paper aims to better understand how the particular cognitive, social, and emotional profile of individuals with WS might affect their appreciation of humor and how such research could ultimately lead to a greater understanding of the nature of humor.

Using humor to disguise racism in television news: the case of the Roma

It has been argued that more research is needed on the role of humor in the expression of racism. One reason is that, in the ‘post racial’ society, overt racism has become publicly unacceptable and, therefore, tends to appear in more concealed forms. In this paper, as part of a larger project on media representations of the Roma, we look at the role of humor in a Romanian television news clip reporting on the financial rewards of begging. We draw on the critical scholarship in humor research and carry out a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a news report selected from a larger corpus. We argue that through humor a recontextualisation of the Roma’s situation takes place, transforming their actual situation of poverty and social marginalisation into a humorous account of cultural failure, incompetence, stupidity and calculated money grabbing. We show that humor is one way by which culture becomes represented as embodied by ethnic minorities.

“Some people work a bit more than me, and so we tease them”: the production of an elite student community in an elite French higher education institution

This article presents the results of an ethnographic study of student humor in a French elite higher education institution, specifically how students in the student community use the term polard. The data was collected between 2014 and 2018 in one of France’s most prestigious elite higher education institution. There are two main ways this term is used as humor, indirectly mocking students, notably those outside the student community, a practice that constructs the polard as a foil figure of a student who spends all their time doing schoolwork and refrains from participating in extracurricular activities, and teasing friends and acquaintances in interactions following a devalued behavior, seeming over-concerned with studies. Furthermore, there exist interactional scripts students can use to successfully navigate these teasing interactions without losing face. Finally, this humor is discussed in relation to the elite setting, as it is linked to the social closure of these elite higher education institutions, and it contributes to the production of an elite student community, by socializing students to privileged self-presentations characterized by ease and by creating distinctions between students, separating the truly elite students from the others.

Humor styles influence the perception of depression-related internet memes in depression

Previous research highlights the potential benefits of engaging with depressive Internet memes for those experiencing symptoms of depression, a phenomenon that can be explained by the humorous interpretation of depressive stimuli and perceived social support through symptom normalization. We examined whether individuals experiencing depressive symptoms would differ from controls in their interpretation of Internet memes related to depression, whilst incorporating the mediating role of humor style. N=78 individuals with self-reported depressive symptoms (≥24 on CES-D) and 67 controls (≤23) rated the emotional valance, humor, relatability, shareability, and mood-improving potential of 32 depressive and control memes (depicting neutral/positive social commentaries). Measures of depression and humor style were also completed. Perceived humor, relatability, shareability and mood-improving potential of depressive, but not control, memes were greater amongst individuals displaying depressive symptoms. However, differential ratings of humor, shareability and relatability were mediated by the extent of ones self-defeating humor style. These outcomes further evidence benefits of interacting with depression-related Internet memes for those with depression.

Identities are no joke (or are they?): humor and identity in Vivek Mahbubani’s stand-up

Using the lenses of humor studies and narrative analysis, this paper discusses the stand-up comedy of Vivek Mahbubani, a Hong Kong-born stand-up comedian of Indian descent. Mahbubani uses humor about ethnicity-related issues to highlight the irrationality of racial discrimination and stereotypes. Specifically, Mahbubani challenges people’s preconceived ideas about the speakerhood of Cantonese and the local identity. The present study demonstrates how this comedian has effectively built humor into his narrative as a response to oppression, thus engaging the local, ethnically Chinese audience to reflect on the social and ethnic tension felt by minorities in Hong Kong. This study further argues that Mahbubani’s comedy reflects a more general trend in stand-up comedy: humor as a vehicle for a more inclusive and progressive grand narrative across different cultures; this trend stands in stark contrast to earlier ethnic jokes that often made minorities the target of verbal humor.

Failed humor in conversation: disalignment and (dis)affiliation as a type of interactional failure

This article reports on research on failed humor in French conversation. The aim is to investigate disalignment and (dis)affiliation as a type of interactional failure. For this purpose, 1,345 instances of humor were identified within a corpus of eight interactions in French. Among them, 259 were instances of failed humor, 158 of which were produced by the recipient, i.e., the participant who had taken the turn to produce humor. These 158 instances were analyzed using a method combining Conversation Analysis and corpus-based approaches. Conversation is seen as intrinsically dynamic: participants constantly shift between serious and humorous frames, different activities and different roles within them. In this light, each instance of failed humor was analyzed in relation to the frame and the type of activity within which it was embedded. All of the instances were found to be either disaligned and affiliated or disaligned and disaffiliated. Viewing conversation through its dynamism thus brings to light the ways in which disalignment and (dis)affiliation are a type of interactional failure. The analysis of three examples of disaligned and (dis)affiliated humor illustrates this type of interactional failure.