ON THE “LIGHT SIDE” OF HUMOR:

 

A. HUMOR AND COPING WITH STRESSFUL EVENTS

 

In this line of research we examine positive consequences of humor. In one set of studies published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Ford, Ferguson, Brooks, & Hagadone, 2004) we’ve shown that women higher in coping sense of humor performed better on a math test than those low in coping sense of humor because they felt less anxiety while taking the test

 

Current Reserch 

More recently, we've treated humor as a situational variable rather than a personality variable. We found that exposure to humorous material prior to taking a difficult math test can reduce the amount of state anxiety associated with the test, and thus enhance performance. A paper describing this research was published in 2012 in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research.

 

Future Research 

In the future, we would like to examine whether exposure to humorous material could help members of stereotyped groups cope with stereotype threat situations. For instance, like coping sense of humor, exposure to humorous material might buffer women against the performance impairment on math tests taken under conditions that heighten the experience of stereotype threat.

 

 

B. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY, HUMOR STYLES AND HAPPINESS

 

Kate McCreight and Kyle Richardson published a study in Europe’s Journal of Psychology in 2014 examining the relationships between dispositional approach and avoidance motives, humor styles, and happiness. In keeping with previous research, approach motives and the two positive humor styles (self-enhancing and affiliative) positively correlated with happiness, whereas avoidance motives and the two negative humor styles (self-defeating and aggressive) negatively correlated with happiness. Also, we found support for three new hypotheses. First, approach motives correlated positively with self-enhancing and affiliative humor styles. Second, avoidance motives correlated positively with self-defeating humor style, and third, the positive relationship between approach motives and happiness was mediated by self-enhancing humor style.

 

Current Research 

Shaun Lappi and I extended this line of research showing that people who have certain personality traits (e.g., extraversion, sense of personal control, high self-esteem) are happier, in part, because they habitually engage in self-enhancing humor.We are currently investigating the effects of humor styles conceptualized as situational variables rather than personality variables. We are examining the effects of engaging in self-enhancing versus self-defeating humor on state anxiety, state self-esteem and mood.