Humor, anxiety, and task performance.

Abstract

Subjects differing in level of test anxiety were administered a course examination under standard classroom conditions. Approximately half of the subjects received a form of the examination containing one-third humorous test items, while the remainder of the subjects received a nonhumorous form of the examination. High-test-anxious subjects receiving the nonhumorous form performed significantly more poorly than did low-or moderate-test-anxious subjects, and at a significantly lower level than did the high-anxiety group that received the humorous form. The results lend support to the hypothesis that exposure to humor may reduce anxiety and thereby affect task performance.Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in the experimental study of humor and the psychological functions that it serves. The most commonly utilized conceptual framework underlying such studies is the notion, derived from both psychoanalytic (Freud, 1928) and learning-based (Byrne, 19S6) approaches, that humor serves to relieve tension. There is both observational and experimental evidence to suggest that humor is capable of reducing negative affective states. In his naturalistic observations of graduate students who were preparing for their doctoral examinations, Mechanic (1962) noted that jokes were often used as a defense against anxiety engendered by the forthcoming examinations. Experimental evidence for humor-mediated tension reduction has recently been reported in studies by Dworkin and Efran (1967) and by Singer (1968). In both studies, subjects who were exposed to manipulations intended to induce emotional arousal reported significant decreases in anger and in anxiety following subsequent exposure to humor.Changes in affective state in both the Dworkin and Efran and Singer studies were denned in terms of subject responses on prehumor and posthumor mood checklists. The

Statistics? You Must be Joking: The Application and Evaluation of Humor when Teaching Statistics

“…These students tended to be already highly motivated to do well in statistics or already have a high level of interest in the subject. A similar outcome was observed when the inclusion of humor during an examination was studied by Smith et al (1971). It was found that humor enhanced the recall of information among students with high anxiety.…”

“…Torok, McMorris, and Lin (2004) found that students report that they are less supportive of using humor on tests than in class. However, an experimental study found that humor may facilitate performance in high anxious students when it is included on examinations (Smith, Ascough, Ettinger and Nelson, 1971).…”

Effects of humor on the test performance of elementary school children

“…Thus, the third graders were initially less tense than the fifth graders; in fact, initially the third graders could have been below, and the fifth graders above, the optimum level of tension for effective performance. Instructions deemphasizing the importance of the test would have reduced arousal in all students (Sarason, Mandler, and Craighill, 1952), and the humor manipulations would have further reduced the Humor students' tension (Smith, et al, 1971). If the third graders were initially low in arousal, continued reductions in tension would be manifested in lower performance, and if fifth graders were relatively high, then reductions would at first be manifested in heightened performance (as the ontimum was approached) and then, with further tension reduction, lowered performance (as the optimum was passed).…”

“…It has long been recognized that there is an optimal level of tension for effective performance (Terry and Isaacson, 1971) ; ie., extremely high or low tension inhibits performance. Smith, et al (1971) showed that highly anxious students scored significantly higher on a humorous test than on a nonhumorous test, presumably because the humor reduced the high anxiety down to the optimal level. But they also report that students with lower anxiety tended to do more poorly on the humorous test than on the nonhumorous test, presumably because their anxiety was reduced to below the optimal level.…”

Functions of humor in conversation: Conceptualization and measurement

“…While sense of humor is typically viewed as a personality trait, one might possess a sense of humor while not actually using humor in all interactions. Many scholars have indicated that humor serves a variety of functions (Chapman, 1983;Cheatwood, 1983;Civikly, 1983;Coser, 1960;Duncan, 1984;Foot, 1986;Malone, 1980;Poole, 1983;Smith, Ascough, Ettinger, & Nelson, 1971;Ziv, 1984Ziv, , 1988a. However, the independent functions have yet to be collapsed into a reliable and valid measure indicative of an individual's repertoire of humor motives or tendency to enact these motives.…”