Humor, Comedy, and Consumer Behavior

Warren, Caleb; Barsky, Adam; McGraw, A. Peter

doi:10.1093/jcr/ucy015

Cited by 54 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 223 publications

(275 reference statements)

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“…The more psychologically distant a violation is, the more likely it therefore is to be perceived as benign. A violation can take the form of a threat to a person’s physical well-being, identity, or cultural, communicative, linguistic, and logical norms (Warren and McGraw, 2016; Warren et al, 2018). A threat is benign when perceived as “safe, harmless, acceptable, nonserious, or okay” (Warren et al, 2018, p. 5).…”

Section: Psychological Distance In the Benign Violation Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A violation can take the form of a threat to a person’s physical well-being, identity, or cultural, communicative, linguistic, and logical norms (Warren and McGraw, 2016; Warren et al, 2018). A threat is benign when perceived as “safe, harmless, acceptable, nonserious, or okay” (Warren et al, 2018, p. 5). Examples used by McGraw et al (2012) include joking about someone stubbing their toe yesterday or being hit by a car 5 years ago.…”

Section: Psychological Distance In the Benign Violation Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical research on the BVT seems to mostly address situations in which someone regards or does not regard something as funny (McGraw and Warren, 2010; McGraw et al, 2012, 2014; Warren et al, 2018). However, one does not specifically differentiate between a joke-teller and a joke-listener, and whether different perspectives may influence the extent to which something is perceived as benign, a violation, and funny.…”

Section: Three Suggested Elements That Could Be Added To Benign Violamentioning

confidence: 99%

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You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context

Kant

Norman

2019

Front. Psychol.

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Violated expectations can indeed be funny, as is acknowledged by incongruity theories of humor. According to the Benign Violation Theory (BVT), something is perceived as humorous when it hits the “sweet spot,” where there is not only a violation, but where the violation is also perceived as benign. The BVT specifies how psychological distance plays a central role in determining whether a certain event, joke, or other stimulus is perceived as benign or malign. In line with the aims of this research topic, we specifically address how this “sweet spot” may be influenced by social distance . This form of psychological distance has so far received less attention in the BVT than other forms of distance. First, we argue that the BVT needs to distinguish between different perspectives in a given situation, i.e., between the joke-teller and the joke-listener, and needs to account for the social distance between the two parties as well as between each of them and the joke. Second, we argue that the BVT needs to acknowledge possible power asymmetries between the two parties, and how asymmetries might influence the social distance between the joke-teller and joke-listener, as well as between each of these and the joke. Based on the assumption that power influences social distance, we argue that power asymmetry may explain certain disagreements over whether something is funny. Third, we suggest that cultural differences might influence shared perspectives on what is benign vs. malign, as well as power balance. Thus, cultural differences might have both a direct and an indirect influence on what is perceived as humorous. Finally, we discuss potential implications beyond humor, to other social situations with border zones. Close to the border, there is often disagreement concerning attempted violations of expectations and norms, and concerning their nature as benign or malign. This can for instance occur in sexual harassment, #MeToo, bullying, aggression, abusive supervision, destructive leadership, counterproductive work behavior, organizational citizenship behavior, parenting, and family relations. New understanding of border zones may thus be gained from BVT along with our proposed systematically mismatched judgments which parties could make about attempted benign violations.

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Section: Psychological Distance In the Benign Violation Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Psychological Distance In the Benign Violation Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Three Suggested Elements That Could Be Added To Benign Violamentioning

confidence: 99%

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You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context

Kant

Norman

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…Moreover, it is a domain with which most people have significant experience. Humor plays a role in many social interactions in our personal (Bressler, Martin, & Balshine, 2006;Curry & Dunbar, 2013;Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003) and professional lives (Bitterly, Brooks, & Schweitzer, 2017;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006;Warren, Barsky, Mcgraw, & MacInnis, 2018;Warren & McGraw, 2016). The demands of these interactions will often require people to predict their listeners' reactions to jokes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of recommendations

Yeomans¹,

Shah

Mullainathan

et al. 2019

Behavioral Decision Making

268

130

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Computer algorithms are increasingly being used to predict people's preferences and make recommendations. Although people frequently encounter these algorithms because they are cheap to scale, we do not know how they compare to human judgment. Here, we compare computer recommender systems to human recommenders in a domain that affords humans many advantages: predicting which jokes people will find funny. We find that recommender systems outperform humans, whether strangers, friends, or family. Yet people are averse to relying on these recommender systems. This aversion partly stems from the fact that people believe the human recommendation process is easier to understand. It is not enough for recommender systems to be accurate, they must also be understood.

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“…Humour appreciation is said to affect decision making by altering (a) memory, (b) information processing, and (c) creativity. In all of these cases, the effect of humour appreciation is integral to, or related to, the stimulus that the consumer wants to remember (Warren, Barsky & McGraw 2018).…”

Section: Spoofing Destination Marketing For Political Sarcasmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“America First, the Netherlands Second” on YouTube: “spoofing” destination marketing with political satire

Turnšek

Janeček

2019

EJHR

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This study attempts to provide initial tentative insights into the audience reception of intertwining political satire and destination marketing imagery by analysing the "America First, the Netherlands Second" video and a student sample audience response. In 2017, a series of YouTube videos named "America First" went viral. The video that started the viral phenomenon was "America First, the Netherlands Second", responding in a satirical manner to the "America First" message of the inaugural speech of U.S. president Donald J. Trump. They achieved extreme popularity both in number of views and number of new memetic videos with similar satirical messages. These videos were a form of political expression and at first sight did not seem to have much in common with communication in tourism. However, the videos included typical destination marketing imagery, intertwined with satirical representations, thus representing a humorous "spoof" on destination marketing. The study analyses participants' memory recall, eye-tracking movements and focus group responses in order to provide initial conclusions on how audiences respond to the intertwining of satirical political expression and destination marketing imagery.

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Humor, Comedy, and Consumer Behavior

Cited by 54 publications

References 223 publications

You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context

You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context

Making sense of recommendations

“America First, the Netherlands Second” on YouTube: “spoofing” destination marketing with political satire

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