THE “DARK SIDE” OF HUMOR

(a) Disparagement humor as a releaser of prejudice

(b) Sexist humor and self-objectification among women

(c) Sexist humor and stereotype threat among women

(d) Sexist humor and women’s social influence and persuasiveness

 

A. DISPARAGEMENT HUMOR AS A RELEASER OF PREJUDICE

 

Understanding the social consequences of disparagement humor—humor that denigrates or belittles its target—interests me because of its pervasiveness in social interaction, and because it has a subtle power to change social realities (definitions of a social context) and thus affect behavior. The over-arching goal of our research is to further advance knowledge of how disparagement humor contributes to expressions of prejudice in new and important ways.

 

Early Research.

In our early research we focused on the social consequences of exposure to sexist humor. Our findings demonstrated that sexist humor is not simply benign amusement. For men who have sexist attitudes it can create a perceived social norm of tolerance of discrimination against women, and as a result, increase personal tolerance of discrimination against women and even increase willingness to engage in sexist behavior without fears of disapproval (Ford, 2000; Ford, Wentzel, & Lorion, 2001; Ford & Ferguson, 2004; Ford, Boxer, Armstrong & Edel, 2008).

 

Recent Research.

The National Science Foundation awarded Thomas E. Ford and Julie A. Woodzicka of Washington and Lee University a three-year collaborative grant (2010 — 2013) to conduct research to build upon existing findings. The research will further advance our knowledge of how sexist humor contributes to imbalanced relations between men and women in new and important ways.In one of our grant supported papers published in Current Research in Social Psychology (Ford, Woodzicka, Triplett & Kochersberger, 2014) we present the findings of an experiment demonstrating that prejudice-releasing effects of sexist humor extend beyond the treatment of individual women.

 

• People high in hostile sexism reported that the gender status-quo—our existing social system of gender relations that disadvantages women —is fair and just more upon exposure to sexist comedy skits than upon exposure to neutral (nonsexist) comedy skits. By demonstrating that sexist humor affirms system-justifying beliefs about the gender status-quo, this research has implications for understanding the mechanisms through which sexist humor contributes to societal gender imbalances.

 

• In another paper published in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (Ford, Woodzicka, Triplett, Kochersberger, & Holden, 2014) we present the findings of three experiments that delineate which social groups are vulnerable to the prejudice-releasing effects of disparagement humor and which groups are not. We found convergent support for the hypothesis that disparagement humor fosters the release of prejudice against only groups that occupy a position of shifting acceptability in society—groups like homosexuals, Muslims and women for whom society’s attitudes are ambivalent. Disparagement humor did not promote the release of prejudice against racists or terrorists for whom prejudice is socially defined as justified.

 

Current Research.

 

Prejudiced people often censor certain opinions in social settings, suspecting that others would consider them “politically incorrect.” Indeed, as social norms have become increasingly prohibitive of public expressions of prejudice, people have become more reluctant to openly express their prejudice. Ironically, attempts to control prejudiced thoughts and responses can backfire, resulting in a “rebound effect.” That is, suppressed prejudiced thoughts can later return to mind with a vengeance and result in even greater expressions of prejudice (Macrae, Bodenhausen, Milne, & Jetten, 1994; Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, 1987). Disparagement humor, however, can relax those prevailing non-prejudice norms allowing open expression of prejudiced (e.g., Ford, Woodzicka, Triplett, Kochersberger, & Holden, 2014). Accordingly, in a paper currently under editorial review (Ford, Teeter, Richardson, & Woodzicka) we present the findings of two studies showing that disparagement humor makes prejudiced people feel less pressure to censor their prejudice and thus alleviates prejudice rebound effects.

 

B. SEXIST HUMOR AND OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN

 

We also are conducting research to investigate emotional, cognitive and behavioral consequences of sexist humor for women. In one paper published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research (Ford, Woodzicka, Petit, Richardson, & Lappi, 2015) reported the results of two experiments showing that women uniquely experienced more state self-objectification and engaged in greater body surveillance following exposure to sexist versus neutral comedy clips. They focused more on how their bodies look from a third-person perspective. These findings demonstrate that sexist humor can be more than just an offensive experience for women; rather it can have important detrimental effects on how women perceive themselves in social settings. Sexist humor presents a combination of cues that direct women to attend to how their bodies look from the perspective of a critical observer, and it expresses sexist ideology in a way that represents a socially accepted perspective for viewing the self. We are currently extending these findings by investigating how objectifying sexist humor affects the way women interact with men in social settings.

 

 

C. SEXIST HUMOR AND STEREOTYPE THREAT AMONG WOMEN

 

Our lab is also developing a series of studies to investigate the possibility that sexist humor sets in motion a cycle of stereotype threat for women thus impairing performance on tasks for which women are negatively stereotyped. We contend that many instances of sexist humor activate gender stereotypes and thus create stereotype threat for women. Consequently, exposure to sexist humor should accentuate performance impairment on tasks for which women are negatively stereotyped. We have mapped out a series of three experiments examining the effect of exposure to sexist humor on women’s math test performance and state anxiety. We hypothesize that, as a situational trigger of stereotype threat, exposure to sexist humor should induce in women math test anxiety thus impairing their math test performance.

 

D. SEXIST HUMOR AND WOMEN’S SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND PERSUASIVENESS

 

Normative Social Influence.

A group’s strength to exert normative social influence can be weakened when the group is diminished or trivialized. Indeed, individuals possess power to exert normative influence to the extent they are high in status (Milgram, 1974). Sexist humor diminishes women and thus should reduce their power to exert normative influence. We are developing studies to test the hypothesis that men will exhibit less public compliance conformity to a group of women (but not men) after exposure to sexist versus neutral humor.

 

Informational Social Influence.

A group’s power to exert informational social influence should be strongest when the perceiver believes the group to be credible, likely to have accurate information to serve as a basis for judgment (Deutch & Gerard, 1955). Thus, a group should have less power to exert informational influence to the extent that its credibility is undermined. Accordingly, we are testing the hypothesis that men will exhibit less private acceptance of information provided by women (but not men) after exposure to sexist versus neutral humor.

 

Persuasiveness.

We have developed a study to exmamine the effect sexist humor on the persuasiveness of a female communicator. Research has shown that less credible communicators are less persuasive than highly credible communicators, particularly when the message recipient does not initially have a clear attitude or knowledge on the persuasion topic (e.g., Chaiken & Maheswaran, 1994). Because sexist humor diminishes women in the eyes of men, we propose that men will perceive women as less credible upon exposure to sexist humor. Specifically, we tested the following hypothesis: Men will find a female communicator less after exposure to sexist versus neutral humor.