At Whose Expense? System Justification and the Appreciation of Stereotypical Humor Targeting High vs. Low Status Groups

Abstract

Many popular comedians tell complicated jokes that involve multiple levels of interpretation. The same joke may be perceived as criticizing or reinforcing the societal status quo, depending on perceivers’ assumptions about the target of the punchline (e.g., whether the joke is at the expense of high- or low-status groups). We focused on how such jokes are experienced by listeners who are psychologically prone to justifying (versus challenging) the status quo. In a sample of Mechanical Turk workers (N = 179), we explored whether individual differences in system justification would be associated with the appreciation of group-based (stereotypical) humor, depending on the perceived target of the joke. As hypothesized, high system-justifiers found jokes targeting low-status groups (e.g., women, poor people, racial/ethnic minorities) to be funnier than low system-justifiers did. In some cases, low system-justifiers found jokes targeting high-status groups (rich people, European Americans) to be funnier than high system-justifiers did. These results expand upon previous demonstrations that humor appreciation is linked to relatively stable ideological dispositions and suggest that different individuals may perceive complex group-based humor in divergent ways.

Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: A critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al. (2020)

“…The study run by Baltiansky et al (2020) corresponds to the two senior authors' core research programs, namely the study of motivated political cognition. In particular, Jost (along with his colleagues of almost 20 years) has pioneered work into politically-and ideologicallymotivated social cognition (e.g., Hennes, Nam, Stern, & Jost, 2012;Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003;Jost et al, 2007;Jost, Stern, Rule, & Sterling, 2017), and asymmetries in politically-salient individuals differences between liberal and conservative groups (for a review, see Jost, 2017a).…”

“…The target study developed this line of work in a more direct manner with regard to motivated social cognition, choosing to examine the role of system justification motivations in the judgment of jokes that target individuals that are members of low-and high-status groups. Baltiansky et al (2020) started with two simple hypotheses corresponding to the system justification framework. First, those scoring high on this index were predicted to find jokes about low-status groups funnier than jokes about highstatus groups.…”

“…Although contextual issues are not set out in Baltiansky et al (2020), this study is both topical and timely. Many high-profile comedians (including Joe Rogan, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld) now avoid performing on college campuses due to what they refer to as an overtly politically correct culture (Flanagan, 2015) that is driven by leftist concerns about offending historically low status groups (for a review of the sociological development of so-called 'victimhood culture', see Campbell & Manning, 2018).…”

“…In a recent paper accepted by HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, Baltiansky, Craig, & Jost (2020) outlined a small-scale study wherein they tested two hypotheses related to system justification and the perception of stereotypical humor. They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters' system justification motivation.…”

“…They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters' system justification motivation. In this critical commentary and re-analysis we discuss the presentation of the data in Baltiansky et al (2020) and the original authors' potential biases in data interpretation, before presenting a re-analysis of the authors' shared data file to show how claims such as "high system-justifiers found jokes targeting low-status groups (e.g., women, poor people, racial/ethnic minorities) to be funnier than low system-justifiers did" (p. 1) are misleading in their framing. Instead, we show that ideological differences in joke perception are driven primarily by those scoring low on the system justification motivation rating jokes about ostensibly low-status groups as less funny than jokes about other social groups.…”