An experiential exploration of why men and women laugh

Abstract

Few studies have dealt with differences between the sexes in their appreciation ofjokes. This study attempts to investigate this aspect ofjokes. Nine jokes were told throughout the academic quarter in a class on Scandinavian folklore. Some jokes were longer and anecdotal, some short, two-line, Comeback type jokes, and some were sexual, some parental, and some ethnic. The students were asked to rate the jokes on a scale of l to 7 and t ifthey so wished, comment on why they thought ajoke was funny or not. Nearly 40 students returned the questionnaires; they were roughly equally divided between the sexes. The sexual jokes got the highest rating. Supporting earlier studies, the women in general favored jokes with puns. The men laughed at the "dirty" jokes. The anecdotal jokes were rated higher than the short ones. The women tended to give the jokes higher ratings than the men. It was evident t hat while both sexes may find ajoke funny, they had different reasons for doing so, and a better understanding ofthe different reasons behind similar responses may promote better understanding between the sexes.Mahadaw Apte (1985) notes that existing ethnographic accounts of humor and joking are not helpful in understanding, for example, the nature of linguistic puns and the underlying symbolism of humor. Furthermore, he finds no anthropological discussion of humor relating to sexual differences. What does exist, he argues, is brief and cursory. Psychologists, on the other hand, he comments, have begun to produce more studies on sex-related humor especially in terms of exploring sexual differences in appreciation and evaluation of humor. (However, Apte deplores their lack of analysis of content and technique.) Some years

Sociological Indicators of Ethical Attitude toward Ethnic Humor: An Empirical Study on Persian Jokes

“…On average, men obtained a significantly higher score on ethical attitude toward ethnic humor than women showing that they are less critical toward ethnic jokes. The findings of this research are in concordance with a study by Lundell (1993), which indicates that men are more likely to enjoy dirty jokes than women. This can be related to Ekehammar et al, (2003) who argued that women seem to express implicit prejudice and men explicit prejudice terms.…”

Communication Using Camera Phones Among Young Men and Women: Who Sends What to Whom?

“…However, the literature on humor appreciation is less clear, probably because the type of humor concerned is a critical variable (e.g. Crawford 1995;Lundell 1993). Herzog and Kasafa (1998) found that men gave higher ratings to sick and tendentious jokes than women, while there was no gender difference found for non-tendentious jokes.…”

Getting A Laugh: Gender, Status, and Humor in Task Discussions

“…More recent studies give some reason for qualifying these older patterns, however. Some researchers point out that both much of the research on gender differences in humor production and appreciation has been based on a male mode of humor-jokes that are often hostile or sexual in content (see reviews by Crawford 1995;and Lundell 1993). If so, researchers are not the only ones guilty of this bias.…”

“…Again, gender has been a favorite topic. Some research suggests that women generally undervalue humor, as compared to men (Chupchick & Leventhal 1974;McGhee 1971McGhee , 1979, while more recent studies suggest that women are generally more appreciative (Lundell 1993). Recent research also suggests that men and women may appreciate different kinds of humor (Crawford 1995;Lundell 1993;Mundorf et al 1988).…”

“…Some research suggests that women generally undervalue humor, as compared to men (Chupchick & Leventhal 1974;McGhee 1971McGhee , 1979, while more recent studies suggest that women are generally more appreciative (Lundell 1993). Recent research also suggests that men and women may appreciate different kinds of humor (Crawford 1995;Lundell 1993;Mundorf et al 1988). Mundorf et al (1988) assess men's and women's reactions to hostile, nonsensical, and sexual humor; they find that men have a higher appreciation for humor overall, and interaction effects show that men particularly enjoy sexual humor more than women.…”