Covariation between formidability inferences and perceptions of men's preferred humor styles

Brown, Mitch; Tracy, Ryan; Boykin, Kaitlyn

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.111792

Cited by 14 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 90 publications

(106 reference statements)

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“…These findings encourage an interesting discussion on perceptions of strong men as being more interested in promiscuous mating strategies and employing gregarious interpersonal (Schmitt & Shackelford, 2008), despite a concomitant perception of these men as aggressive. These results reflect the dual signal value of men's strength as connoting an affiliative opportunity and an increased physical threat if conflict were to arise (Brown et al, 2022c;Geniole & McCormick, 2013). Additionally, and also consonant with research reflecting an interest in monogamy among those exhibiting higher levels of these traits (Schmitt & Shackelford, 2008), affiliative targets were perceived as more agreeable and conscientious.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…The costs or benefits of strong men could be most salient with knowledge of their preferred humor style. Strong men are perceived as interested in employing both affiliative and aggressive humor (Brown et al, 2022c). These dual signal values suggest that additional context clues could foster different perceptions of strength.…”

Section: Desirability Of Humor Styles Across Mating Contextsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This study sought to determine how women evaluate the costs and benefits of physical strength across LTM and STM domains. We considered the accompanying humor style of a prospective mate, namely aggressive and affiliative humor, given the fact that strong men are HUMOR AND STRENGTH 8 perceived as exhibiting a higher proclivity to use both types (Brown et al, 2022c). Because of the general aversiveness of aggressive humor in LTM (Betz & DiDonato, 2020;DiDonato et al, 2013), we predicted that a prospective mate employing aggressive humor would be seen as less desirable in LTM.…”

Section: Current Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor

Brown

O'Neil

2022

Personal Relationships

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Women find men's upper body strength highly desirable, albeit primarily within short-term mating contexts. This boundary implicates strength as possessing both costs and benefits in longterm and short-term mating contexts. The desirability of strength could be contingent upon whether the costs or benefits of strength are more salient through behaviors. Men's humor style could be one modality to infer costs and benefits, namely their interest in affiliative humor relative to aggressive humor. This study represents a synergistic replication of previous work investigating the desirability of strength and various humor styles in mating domains. Women evaluated the short-term and long-term desirability of a prospective mate manipulated to appear physically strong or weak and described using affiliative or aggressive humor. We replicated previous findings implicating affiliative humor as desirable in long-term contexts and upper body strength in short-term contexts. However, no interactive effects between these traits emerged.Results indicate that women's mate choices are multimodal and frequently involve evaluating the costs and benefits of various constellations of traits.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Desirability Of Humor Styles Across Mating Contextsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Current Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor

Brown

O'Neil

2022

Personal Relationships

Self Cite

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“…Second, the use of aggressive humor appears particularly effective in increasing men’s perceived dominance ( Cowan and Little, 2013 ) because, if the Contests Hypothesis is correct, aggression—including verbal aggression and thus the use of aggressive humor—did not evolve to attract mates but to repel same-sex rivals. Consistent with this hypothesis, Brown et al (2022) found that men and women tended to perceive more physically formidable (e.g., muscular) men to be more likely to use aggressive humor. Physical formidability is a major determinant of men’s ability to inflict physical costs on others and thus their competitiveness in contest competitions ( Sell et al, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 52%

The motive of competition but not courtship positively correlates with self-reported use of aggressive humor: A critical test of the contests- vs. mate-choice hypotheses

Duarte

Zhang²

2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionThe use of aggressive humor (e.g., teasing, schadenfreude, and sarcasm) is a spiteful behavior because it inflicts costs on both others and the self. To explain the existence of this spiteful behavior, two hypotheses derived from sexual selection theory—namely Mate-Choice and Contests—posit that the use of aggressive humor helps one attract mates or repel competitors. Both hypotheses have merit, but extant data are unable to discriminate between them.MethodsWe critically tested those two hypotheses with a survey study that measured 509 U.S. MTurkers’ self-reported tendencies to use aggressive (and other types of) humor, the motives to engage in competition and courtship, and the Dark-Triad personality traits. The final sample was N = 439.ResultsWe found that (1) the motive of competition but not courtship positively and significantly correlated with the self-reported tendency to use aggressive humor. (2) Subclinical psychopathy—a personality trait positively associated with competition—mediated the correlation between the motive of competition and self-reported use of aggressive humor. These results were held in both female and male respondents.DiscussionOur findings favored the Contests Hypothesis and helped reveal the psychological mechanism that generates the use of aggressive humor as a form of verbal aggression and spiteful behavior.

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“…Strong men are perceived as protective parents and mates that could afford security against interpersonal threats (Brown, Donahoe, & Boykin, 2022;Brown, Sacco, & Drea, 2022;Snyder et al, 2011). However, several competing inferences could undermine this desirability, as masculinized features could connote aggressive and promiscuous intent (Brown & Sacco, 2017;Brown, Tracy, & Boykin, 2022;Gallup et al, 2007;Geniole & McCormick, 2013;. Strong men could be perceived as threatening to women due to the physical size asymmetry imposed by sexual dimorphism that could lead them to feel vulnerable to exploitation (Sell et al, 2012).…”

Section: Contextual Mate Value Of Men's Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual Desirability of Strong Men Employing Affiliative and Aggressive Humor

Brown¹,

Brown²,

O'Neil³

2022

Preprint

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Women find men’s upper body strength highly desirable, albeit primarily within short-term mating contexts. This boundary implicates strength as possessing both costs and benefits in long-term and short-term mating contexts. The desirability of strength could be contingent upon whether the costs or benefits of strength are more salient through behaviors. Men’s humor style could be one modality to infer costs and benefits, namely their interest in affiliative humor relative to aggressive humor. This study represents a synergistic replication of previous work investigating the desirability of strength and various humor styles in mating domains. Women evaluated the short-term and long-term desirability of a prospective mate manipulated to appear physically strong or weak and described using affiliative or aggressive humor. We replicated previous findings implicating affiliative humor as desirable in long-term contexts and upper body strength in short-term contexts. However, no interactive effects between these traits emerged. Results indicate that women’s mate choices are multimodal and frequently involve evaluating the costs and benefits of various constellations of traits.

show abstract

Covariation between formidability inferences and perceptions of men's preferred humor styles

Cited by 14 publications

References 90 publications

Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor

Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor

The motive of competition but not courtship positively correlates with self-reported use of aggressive humor: A critical test of the contests- vs. mate-choice hypotheses

Contextual Desirability of Strong Men Employing Affiliative and Aggressive Humor

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