Gender disparaging jokes: An investigation of sexist-nonstereotypical jokes on funniness, typicality, and the moderating role of ingroup identification

Abrams, Jessica R.; Bippus, Amy M.; McGaughey, Karen

doi:10.1515/humor-2015-0019

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…There are, however, a number of studies that are broadly consistent with the notion that individuals differ considerably in the extent to which they enjoy group-based humor and that these individual differences are linked to ideological orientations (e.g., Hodson et al 2010a;Thomas and Esses 2004). For instance, women who were strongly identified with their gender were found to appreciate jokes making fun of men more than women who were low in gender identification (Abrams et al 2015). Conversely, women who scored higher on an individual difference measure of hostile sexism against women rated sexist jokes told at the expense of women as funnier than women who scored lower on hostile sexism (Prusaczyk and Hodson 2020).…”

Section: Previous Research On Stereotypical Humormentioning

confidence: 80%

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

Baltiansky¹,

Craig²,

Jost³

2020

Preprint

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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.

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Section: Previous Research On Stereotypical Humormentioning

confidence: 80%

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

Baltiansky¹,

Craig²,

Jost³

2020

Preprint

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“…This has been confirmed in political humour, where liberals were found to prefer jokes directed at conservatives, and vice versa (Braun & Preiser 2013). Another study based on gender-specific humour (Abrams et al 2015) found that women rated jokes targeting men as funnier than those targeting women, and vice versa for men. We observed a similar effect for Atheists who enjoy religious offensive jokes in particular.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Instead, our study adds to the modest but growing body of research about shared humour sensibilities (e.g. Yue 2011;Braun & Preiser 2013;Abrams et al 2015;Schweizer & Ott 2016). Specifically, this study provides empirical answers to the question whether, collectively, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Agnostics, and Atheists demonstrate observable and statistically relevant differences in their appreciation of humour, including their reaction to irreverent jokes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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

Ott¹,

Schweizer

2018

EJHR

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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.

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“…The study builds on previous research that has found that judgments of comedy are impacted by judges' ideological positions. For example, women who identify more strongly as feminists have been found to find jokes that are disparaging about men more funny than women who do not endorse this self-labelling (Abrams, Bippus, & McGaughey, 2015). In the political domain there has been scant research testing the effects of ideologically-relevant personality constructs on joke perception.…”

Section: Rationale To Baltiansky Et Al and Contextual Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Purser¹,

Ca²

2020

Preprint

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A recent study by Baltiansky, Craig, & Jost (2020) 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 motivations. Here, we discuss the original analysis, presentation, and interpretation of the data in Baltiansky et al. (2020), before presenting a re-analysis of the authors’ shared data file. We show that the framing of 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, our re-analyses suggest 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.

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Gender disparaging jokes: An investigation of sexist-nonstereotypical jokes on funniness, typicality, and the moderating role of ingroup identification

Cited by 21 publications

References 39 publications

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

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

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

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

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