A Developmental Test of the Disposition Theory of Humor

McGhee, Paul E.; Lloyd, Sally A.

doi:10.2307/1129096

Cited by 25 publications

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“…McGhee and Lloyd (1981) and McGhee andDuffey (1983a, 1983b) found that preschoolers found it funnier when an adult/parent is victimized in humor than when a child is victimized. Also, Zillmann and Cantor (1972) found that College students preferred humor in which a professor (vs. another Student), father (vs. a son), or employer (vs. an employee) was victimized.…”

Section: Considerations For General Developmental Changes In Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

McGhee

Ruch

Hehl

1990

Humr

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Thepresent article advances a model of humor development extending from late adolescence until about age 60. Previously advanced models of humor development during the preadolescent years are reviewed, and issues related to the proposal of models of adult humor development are discussed. The developmental model presented here drawsfrom a series of factor-analytic studies which document the importance of two principal humor-appreciation factors (nonsense and incongruity plus resolution), and from a broad ränge of data demonstrating age-related changes in personality measures closely associated with these two factors. Separate attention is given by the model to positive (funniness) and negative (aversiveness) aspects ofreactions to cartoons andjokes.

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Section: Considerations For General Developmental Changes In Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

McGhee

Ruch

Hehl

1990

Humr

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“…Disposition and identification have been used interchangeably in prior research to express the psychological proximity with the characters represented in a joke (McGhee & Duffey, 1983;McGhee & Lloyd, 1981;Ruch, 2008).…”

Section: Disparagement Humor and Perceived Humorousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

A superiority–inferiority hypothesis on disparagement humor: The role of disposition toward ridicule

Hatzithomas

Voutsa

Boutsouki

et al. 2021

J of Consumer Behaviour

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The present paper adopts and substantiates a superiority-inferiority hypothesis on disparagement humor generation and appreciation. Two between-subjects (identification with a character acting as victimizer or victim) experiments address disparaging humorous advertising effectiveness, providing a novel perspective on very old questions. Perceived superiority and inferiority autonomously mediate the relationship between a disparaging advertisement and perceived humorousness. Individuals with high superiority motivation (i.e., high-katagelasticists) experience increased humorousness and an improved attitude toward the brand when they identify with a character acting as victimizer in the disparaging ad. People with a motivation to avoid inferiority (i.e., high-gelotophobes) experience reduced humorousness and lower positive attitudes toward the brand when they identify with a character who is victimized in the disparaging ad. Gelotophiles are not driven by feelings of superiority or inferiority and experience increased humorousness as well as more positive brand attitudes irrespective of the ad's victimization focus. | INTRODUCTIONA woman enjoys a Reese's Take 5 bar. Being asked by one of her colleagues, she describes the product, but to her amazement he has never heard of it. The woman scornfully asks him "have you been under a rock?" which proves to be true. As all her colleagues seem to be unaware of the well-known snack, the woman sarcastically confronts them with expressions like "were you raised by wolves?," or "you have your head stuck in the sand?" implying that the only way to not know Reese's Take 5 bar, is if these phrases are literally true.At the closing scene, an awkward looking discomfited colleague asks in resentment "none of us has heard Reese's 5, so who looks stupid now?" ending up to literally strengthen her claim.Aired in 2020, Hershey's Super Bowl commercial for Reese's Take 5, is addressing people's low awareness of the brand. Adopting a superior stance, the key character verbally abuses her colleagues for their stupid, unnatural ignorance. The creative element in the ad is disparagement humor "that disparages, belittles, debases, demeans, humiliates, or otherwise victimizes" (Zillmann, 1983, p. 85). Being often described as "idiosyncratic" humor (Weinberger, Swani, Yoon, & Gulas, 2017), it holds the capacity to instigate extreme positive and negative emotions (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992) and a feeling of superiority (Newton, Wong, & Newton, 2016). Over the past two decades, longitudinal analyses of Super Bowl humorous commercials have underlined a significant rise in the use of disparagement (Gulas,

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“…Disposition theory of humor is a conceptual framework deriving from disparagement humor ( Wicker et al, 1980 ), but it relates better to superiority theories than to social identity theories. According to disposition theory, the response to humorous stimuli depends on the affective disposition toward the targeted person or group ( McGhee and Lloyd, 1981 ; Becker, 2014 ). This theory posits that people react affectively to any target in a continuum that ranges from extreme positivity to extreme negativity, through a neutral point.…”

Section: Disparagement Humormentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to Political Disparagement Humor and Its Impact on Trust in Politicians: How Long Does It Last?

2017

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The experimental research that looks into the effects of political humor on an individual’s attitudes toward politics and politicians does not evaluate its long-term effects. With this in mind, this study aims to determine the possible effects that being exposed to humor which belittles politicians may have on an ordinary citizen’s trust in them, while at the same time it observes the possible effects that such exposure has on them and the time such effects last. Two hypotheses were tested. The first one was that humor involves less cognitive elaboration, which leads to a short-term impact on the perception of the individual. The second one was that the repetition of a message can augment the swing of such message. Also, a series of elements regarding disposition toward politicians and political affiliation were considered. Two experiments were designed. The first experiment, (N = 94), considered three groups: one exposed to political disparagement humor; one control group exposed to disparagement humor against non-politician subjects; and a control group exposed to a non-humorous political video. Trust in politicians was evaluated first at baseline, then immediately after the experimental manipulation, and once again a week after the experimental manipulation had happened. In the second experiment (N = 146), participants were randomly assigned to one experimental and two control groups. The trust in politicians of the three groups was estimated and they were sent political cartoons, non-political cartoons, and newspaper headlines regarding political topics twice a day for a week via WhatsApp. Trust in politicians among the three groups was assessed again after 1 week, and for a third time 1 week after that. As a result, it was observed that a one-off exposure to political disparagement humor affects trust in politicians negatively; however, the effect it attains is short-lived and can be explained through the political content of the item and not only humor. Also, being exposed to cartoons constantly for a week had no impact whatsoever on the way politics and politicians were perceived during the time the experiment was carried out. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

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A Developmental Test of the Disposition Theory of Humor

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood

A superiority–inferiority hypothesis on disparagement humor: The role of disposition toward ridicule

Exposure to Political Disparagement Humor and Its Impact on Trust in Politicians: How Long Does It Last?

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