Cultural Insights Into Social Dating Ad Humor Styles

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare Hispanic and Caucasian Generation Y women's social dating ad humor styles using theoretical paradigms related to cultural norms, gender role, and education. Content analysis is performed on 400 dating ads collected in an interactive digital dating app. The results show that young Hispanic and Caucasian women share the same frequency and some similar patterns in the use of humor in social dating. In spite of the non-significant results on cultural differences, education significantly influences dating ad humor styles of young women, as those with less education tend to use negative ad humor styles more often, and those with more education use a greater amount of positive humor. The findings offer insights into how humor is used by diverse consumers in social media and C2C advertising.