Gender and humor in meetings: A moderation analysis.

Abstract

Meetings are at the core of organizational life. Yet, gender, as a central social cue, is poorly understood in this context. Here, we investigate how gender and humor, an integral communicative element, influence meeting experiences by analyzing a subsample of a larger database on meeting research with U.S. working adults across different industries (N = 662). Confirming our hypotheses, perceived positive and interactive humor positively related to perceived meeting satisfaction. This relationship was moderated by gender such that women benefited more from high perceptions of positive and interactive humor in terms of their meeting satisfaction, compared to men (β = .14, p = .010, Cohen’s f2 = .01). This study highlights the importance of individual attendee characteristics in meeting science and addresses previously overlooked gender differences in meeting experiences. It also informs meeting leaders on the benefits of promoting a meeting culture that fosters both benign and social humor.