The Impact of Humor in North American versus Middle East Cultures

Abstract

North American (Canadian) and Middle East (Lebanese) participants rated their reactions to four different humorous comments (self-enhancing, affiliative, self-defeating, and aggressive), presented by others in brief scenarios. Consistent with predictions generated from a humor styles model originally formulated in a North American context, all participants responded most negatively to aggressive humorous comments by indicating the saddest mood, the highest ratings of rejection, and the least desire to continue interacting with the person making the comments. Only the North American participants showed a distinctive positive reaction to the self-enhancing humorous comments by displaying the happiest mood, the least rejection, and the greatest desire to continue with the interaction. In contrast, the Middle East Lebanese participants did not differentiate in their responses between self-enhancing, affiliative and self-defeating humorous comments. These findings were considered in light of cultural distinctions in collectivistic versus individualistic self-construals. Here, it was suggested that the collectivistic self-construals that characterize Lebanese Middle East participants may hav e blurred the self versus other distinctions in the humor styles model, thus leading to significantly less humor differentiation in a Lebanese Middle East context. The implications of these findings for further cross-cultural work on humor and its impact in social interactions w as then considered.

The effects of humor and depression labels on reactions to social comments

“…This context was chosen because it was suitable for all four styles of comments investigated in this study (i.e., self‐enhancing comments generally occur in response to a difficult situation). Past research has also utilized vignettes describing a stressful context to assess reactions to the four styles of humorous comments (Kuiper et al , 2010a). Nevertheless, future research should investigate the effects of humor and depression on recipients’ responses to comments made in other social contexts.…”

“…This idea is supported by two previous research studies. Kuiper, Kazarian, Sine, and Bassil (2010a) investigated participants’ responses to brief scenarios where a teaching assistant or a friend made affiliative, self‐enhancing, self‐defeating, and aggressive humorous comments in the context of a stressful event. Results showed that in response to aggressive humorous comments participants reported feeling more sad, more rejected, and less interested in continuing the interaction; whereas self‐enhancing humorous comments made recipients feel happier, more accepted, and more interested in continuing the interaction.…”

“…Thus, compared to a non‐humorous presentation, a humorous presentation of adaptive comments would result in more positive responses and a humorous presentation of maladaptive comments would result in less negative responses. These expectations were based on previous research findings showing a positive impact of adaptive humorous comments on others (e.g., Kuiper et al , 2010a; Kuiper et al , 2010b), as well as on the idea that humor may allow maladaptive comments to be taken more ambiguously and less seriously by recipients (Martin, 2007). It was expected that participants would report responding more negatively to comments made by an acquaintance described as depressed, compared to comments made by an acquaintance not described as depressed.…”

Investigating the Effect of Humor Communication Skills Training on Pro-social and Anti-social Humor Styles, Cognitive Learning, Self-efficacy, Motivation, and Humor Use

“…Another possible explanation for the increase in self-enhancing humor as opposed to affiliative humor is linked to the culture in which the humor skills training program was conducted. Kuiper, Kazarian, Sine, and Bassil (2010) conducted a study examining cultural distinctions in humor styles and found that those in individualistic cultures reported using greater levels of self-enhancing humor and lower levels of affiliative humor in general. More specifically, American students reported employing self-enhancing humor to benefit the self, rather than employing affiliative humor aimed at benefiting others and enhancing interpersonal relationships (Kuiper et al, 2010).…”

“…Kuiper, Kazarian, Sine, and Bassil (2010) conducted a study examining cultural distinctions in humor styles and found that those in individualistic cultures reported using greater levels of self-enhancing humor and lower levels of affiliative humor in general. More specifically, American students reported employing self-enhancing humor to benefit the self, rather than employing affiliative humor aimed at benefiting others and enhancing interpersonal relationships (Kuiper et al, 2010). Therefore, perhaps in American culture, individuals are more likely to apply humor communication skills to benefit the self, rather than to benefit others.…”