Does religion shape people’s sense of humour? A comparative study of humour appreciation among members of different religions and nonbelievers

Abstract

Using an empirical approach, this study addresses the question whether followers of different religious beliefs (Christians, Muslims, and Hindus), as well as Atheists and Agnostics manifest different senses of humour when rating a variety of jokes. The study further investigates whether one’s religious background influences the threshold of what is considered offensive. And finally, it seeks to answer whether jokes targeting religions other than one’s own are always perceived as funnier. Analysing the results of a public survey (N=783) containing a blend of religious and non-religious jokes (including irreverent ones), we found that Hindus demonstrate overall the highest humour appreciation among all the groups, while Christians were the least amused by the jokes presented on the survey. Muslims had overall robust humour responses, despite reporting the highest incidence of being offended. Atheists were the least likely to be offended, and they generally enjoyed irreverent jokes. All groups agreed that if a joke was seen as offensive, its funniness was reduced.

Funny or distasteful? A cross-cultural perspective on surprise and humour in multimodal advertising

“…This may be accounted for in terms of their own religious beliefs, as Buddhist tradition seems far more tolerant when it comes to diversity and laughing at religion in general. It was demonstrated, for example, by Ott & Schweizer (2018), that "religious background influences the threshold of what is considered offensive" (Ott & Schweizer 2018: 12) and that, as compared to Asian religions, Christianity is far more hostile towards joking about religion, which results in reduced appreciation of such jokes. As they put it, "official Christianity's long-standing hostility to laughter has led to a religious climate of joylessness" (Ott & Schweizer 2018: 13), which finds confirmation in the present study; Polish respondents, predominantly belonging to the Christian Catholic Church, did not appreciate the ads in which the theme of religion was used.…”

Religions with or without Sense of Humor: A Psychological Perspective

“…Using a survey style approach, Ott and Schweizer (2018) used 18 jokes and cartoons with religious connotations, and 6 clever religiously irreverent phrases. Online, 783 respondents (plus 294 unreliable surveys that were dismissed) appraised which ones were intelligible, funny, or offensive.…”