What Makes Things Funny? An Integrative Review of the Antecedents of Laughter and Amusement

Abstract

Despite the broad importance of humor, psychologists do not agree on the basic elements that cause people to experience laughter, amusement, and the perception that something is funny. There are more than 20 distinct psychological theories that propose appraisals that characterize humor appreciation. Most of these theories leverage a subset of five potential antecedents of humor appreciation: surprise, simultaneity, superiority, a violation appraisal, and conditions that facilitate a benign appraisal. We evaluate each antecedent against the existing empirical evidence and find that simultaneity, violation, and benign appraisals all help distinguish humorous from nonhumorous experiences, but surprise and superiority do not. Our review helps organize a disconnected literature, dispel popular but inaccurate ideas, offers a framework for future research, and helps answer three long-standing questions about humor: what conditions predict laughter and amusement, what are the adaptive benefits of humor, and why do different people think vastly different things are humorous?

Humor and Personality: Temperament and Character Have Different Roles

“…Recent research suggests it is possible to describe differences in sense of humor quantitatively and qualitatively (Moreira & Inman, 2021;. Differences in overall humor potential represent quantitative differences in the extent to which individuals appreciate, interpret, produce, and use things that are amusing or funny (Hehl & Ruch, 1985;Warren et al, 2021). In turn, differences in style reflect qualitative variations in sense of humor, such as differences in mood, tone, or refinement .…”

Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion

“…and also, why it is considered to be 'funny'? The joke, as we have seen, is pretty thin, and even given the huge individual differences in what people find funny [40],…”

“…The humour may stem partly from the double meaning, where one meaning is a bit naughty (a benign violation) (e.g. [ 40 ]) and partly from the perceived intent, the desire to be funny. However, almost immediately the two men are, we suspect, not laughing because the joke is so funny, but because their laughter is itself highly behaviourally contagious [ 20 ].…”

“…and also, why it is considered to be ‘funny’? The joke, as we have seen, is pretty thin, and even given the huge individual differences in what people find funny [ 40 ], no one argues that this clip is amusing because the joke itself is funny. Instead, we suspect that the highly authentic, spontaneous nature of the laughter is what listeners are responding to, and the way that this laughter is shared between the two men.…”

Humour Against Binge Drinking During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cartoon-Based Anti-Alcohol Health Campaign Targeting Women-Who-Have-Sex-With-Women

“…More generally, there are many theories on humour and amusement (for an overview, see Warren et al, 2021 ). Open questions that constitute interesting venues for future research entail, for example: Which antecedents of laughter and amusement in particular are good candidates for a humorous health campaign?…”