Putting the brakes on prejudice rebound effects: An ironic effect of disparagement humor

Abstract

When people high in prejudice censor prejudice in one setting, they can experience a prejudice rebound effect-subsequently responding with more prejudice than otherwise. Disparagement humor fosters the release rather than suppression of prejudice. Thus, two experiments tested the hypothesis that exposure to disparagement humor attenuates rebound effects. Participants suppressed prejudice by writing fewer anti-gay thoughts about same-sex adoption (Experiment 1) or by reporting greater support for same-sex civil rights (Experiment 2) when expecting to share their responses with others (non-prejudice norm condition) but not if others first exchanged anti-gay jokes (prejudice norm condition). High-prejudice participants then exhibited prejudice rebound in the non-prejudice norm condition only. They rated a gay man more stereotypically (Experiment 1) and allocated greater budget cuts to a gay student organization (Experiment 2) in the non-prejudice norm condition.

The development and initial validation of an instrument measuring levels of violence suffered and practiced by students in higher education

“…Jokes are a form of violence that emphasise values and relations of power in society (Santos et al, 2019), and in this connection, disclosing one’s sexual orientation to others may be something dangerous, raising the risk of suffering different kinds of violence, such as jokes. Our findings regarding the connection between making jokes about an individual’s sexuality, which is a way of displaying prejudice, and homophobia are in line with the wider literature (Branfman, 2019; Ford et al, 2017); however, and in addition to this, it is arguable that not disclosing one’s sexual orientation may be a reasonable option taken by individuals so to feel safer in certain contexts, such as the university campus. Further, when the gender expression is not conforming to established social norms, individuals may decide not to come out of the closet (Soares Parente et al, 2018).…”

Disparagement humor permits unsafe COVID‐19 behaviors: A prejudiced norm perspective

“…Context is crucial, and one should not take these results to support broad censorship of COVID‐19 disparagement memes or the communities in which such humor is prevalent (as r/NoNewNormal faced several months after this study's completion). In addition to valid concerns over the efficacy of censorship in general (e.g., Armitage, 2021), previous research shows that censorship of disparagement humor backfires with “rebound effects”, simply pushing and potentially amplifying the consequences to a later time/place (Ford et al., 2017). However, if one is concerned about encouraging unsafe pandemic behaviors in their social circles, our results do suggest they should choose to avoid sharing memes like those depicted in Figure 1.…”

Do you know when you are the punchline? Gender-based disparagement humor and target perceptions

“…It is no surprise that individuals with sexist attitudes toward women consider sexist humor less offensive (Thomae and Pina, 2015; Thomas and Esses, 2004). The presence of egalitarian norms informs individuals to behave in a non-sexist manner and reduces the tolerance of any prejudice (Ford et al , 2013, 2017; Klonis et al , 2005). This is consistent with the notion of norm violation theory (Levine et al , 2000), which asserts that norms create expectations, and violation of expectations occurs when the behaviors deviate from expectations (Bond et al , 1992).…”