Abstract
There is a widely held belief that humor contributes to better health, but the research on this topic yields mixed results. To assess the relationship between humor and health, we compared the susceptibility to various infectious diseases of 511 comedy performers (amateur improvisational artists) and a control group of 795 non-performers that were matched to the comedy performers sample in age and sex. Subjects reported the number of episodes and the total days they had had various infectious diseases. Contrary to the prevailing sentiment that humor boosts health, results showed that the comedy performer group reported more frequent contagious diseases and more days having these infections diseases, compared to the control group. Improv artists had significantly more infections and reported more days infected than the control group on respiratory infections, head colds, stomach or intestinal flu, skin infections, and autoimmune diseases. The control group had significantly more bladder infections with non-significant difference on days infected. Results held after controlling for BMI, age, number of antibiotics used and neuroticism. We found no evidence that humor positively contributes to health, and a career in a humor-related profession may be detrimental to one’s health. Our research highlights the complex relationship between humor and health outcomes.
Acknowledgements
We thank A. Peter McGraw and Dan Goldstein for their assistant collecting the data.
References
Abel, Millicent H. & David Maxwell. 2002. Humor and effective consequences of a stressful task. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 21(2). 165–190.10.1521/jscp.21.2.165.22516Search in Google Scholar
Anderson, Craig A. & Lynn H. Arnoult. 1989. An examination of perceived control, humor, irrational beliefs, and positive stress as moderators of the relation between negative stress and health. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 10(2). 101–117.10.1207/s15324834basp1002_1Search in Google Scholar
Attardo, Salvatore. 2014. Encyclopedia of Humor Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, Jacob. 1988. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn (Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences). Hillsdale, NJ: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, Sheldon & Gail M. Williamson. 1991. Stress and infectious disease in humans. Psychological Bulletin 109(1). 5–24.10.1037/0033-2909.109.1.5Search in Google Scholar
Cousins, Norman. 1979. Anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient: Reflexions on healing and regeneration. New York: W. W. Norton and Co.Search in Google Scholar
Cousins, Norman. 1985. Therapeutic value of laughter. Integrative Psychiatry 3(2). 112–112.Search in Google Scholar
Edwards, Kim R & Rod A Martin. 2012. Do humorous people take poorer care of their health? Associations between humor styles and substance use. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 8(4). 523–534.Search in Google Scholar
Epstein, C. R. & R. J. Epstein. 2013. Death in The New York Times: The price of fame is a faster flame. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine 106(6). 517–521.10.1093/qjmed/hct077Search in Google Scholar
Fisher, Seymour & Rhoda Lee Fisher. 1981. Pretend the world is funny and forever: A psychological analysis of comedians, clowns, and actors. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Search in Google Scholar
Friedman, Howard S., Joan S. Tucker, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Joseph E. Schwartz, Deborah L. Wingard & Michael H. Criqui. 1993. Does childhood personality predict longevity?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65(1). 176–185.10.1037/0022-3514.65.1.176Search in Google Scholar
Fry, P. S. 1995. Perfectionism, humor, and optimism as moderators of health outcomes and determinants of coping styles of women executives. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs 121(2). 211–245.Search in Google Scholar
Gangestad, Steven W. & Nicholas M. Grebe. 2014. Pathogen avoidance within an integrated immune system: Multiple components with distinct costs and benefits. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences 8(4). 226–234.10.1037/ebs0000023Search in Google Scholar
Gervais, Matthew & David Sloan Wilson. 2005. The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach. The Quarterly Review of Biology 80(4). 395–430.10.1086/498281Search in Google Scholar
Glaser, Ronald, Bruce Rabin, Margaret Chesney, Sheldon Cohen & Benjamin Natelson. 1999. Stress-induced immunomodulation: Implications for infectious diseases?. Jama 281(24). 2268–2270.10.1001/jama.281.24.2268Search in Google Scholar
Greengross, Gil. 2014. Male production of humor produced by sexually selected psychological adaptations. In Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford & Todd K. Shackelford (eds.), Evolutionary perspectives on human sexual psychology and behavior, 173–196. New York, NY US: Springer Science + Business Media.Search in Google Scholar
Greengross, Gil & Robert Mankoff. 2012. Inside” Inside Jokes”: The hidden side of humor. A review of Matthew M. Hurley, Daniel C. Dennett, and Reginald B. Adams Jr, Inside jokes: Using humor to reverse-engineer the mind. Evolutionary psychology: An international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior 10(3). 443–456.Search in Google Scholar
Greengross, Gil, Rod A. Martin & Geoffrey F. Miller. 2012. Personality traits, intelligence, humor styles, and humor production ability of professional stand-up comedians compared to college students. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts 6(1). 74–82.10.1037/a0025774Search in Google Scholar
Greengross, Gil & Geoffery F. Miller. 2009. The Big Five personality traits of professional comedians compared to amateur comedians, comedy writers, and college students. Personality and Individual Differences 47(2). 79–83.10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.045Search in Google Scholar
Greengross, Gil & Geoffrey F. Miller. 2008. Dissing oneself versus dissing rivals: Effects of status, personality, and sex on the short-term and long-term attractiveness of self-deprecating and other-deprecating humor. Evolutionary Psychology 6(3). 393–408.Search in Google Scholar
Hurley, Matthew, Daniel Dennett & Reginald Adams Jr. 2011. Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Janus, Samuel S. 1975. The great comedians: Personality and other factors. American Journal of Psychoanalysis 35(2). 169–174.10.1007/BF01358189Search in Google Scholar
Janus, Samuel S., Barbara E. Bess & Beth R. Janus. 1978. The great comediennes: Personality and other factors. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 38(4). 367–372.10.1007/BF01253595Search in Google Scholar
John, Oliver P. & Sanjay Srivastava. 1999. The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research, 102–138. New York: Guilford Press.Search in Google Scholar
Kerkkanen, Paavo, Nicholas A. Kuiper & Rod A. Martin. 2004. Sense of humor, physical health, and well-being at work: A three-year longitudinal study of Finnish police officers. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 17(1). 21–35.Search in Google Scholar
Kohler, Gabriele & Willibald Ruch. 1996. Sources of variance in current sense of humor inventories: How much substance, how much method variance?. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 9(3–4). 363–397.Search in Google Scholar
Kuiper, Nicholas A. & Sorrel Nicholl. 2004. Thoughts of feeling better? Sense of humor and physical health. Humor 17(1/2). 37–66.Search in Google Scholar
Lahey, Benjamin B. 2009. Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist 64(4). 241–256.10.1037/a0015309Search in Google Scholar
Lefcourt, Herbert M., Karina Davidson-Katz & Karen Kueneman. 1990. Humor and immune system functioning. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 3. 305–321.Search in Google Scholar
Long, Debra L. & Arthur C. Graesser. 1988. Wit and humor in discourse processing. Discourse Processes 11(1). 35–60.10.1080/01638538809544690Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Leslie R., Howard S. Friedman, Joan S. Tucker, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Michael H. Criqui & Joseph E. Schwartz. 2002. A life course perspective on childhood cheerfulness and its relation to mortality risk. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(9). 1155–1165.10.1177/01461672022812001Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod A. 1998. Approaches to the Sense of Humor: A Historical Review. In Willibald Ruch (ed.), The sense of humor: Explorations of a personality characteristic, 15–60. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod A. 2001. Humor, Laughter, and Physical Health: Methodological issues and Research Findings. Psychological Bulletin 127(4). 504–519.10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.504Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Rod A. 2007. The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. London: Elsevier Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar
McClelland, David C. & Adam D. Cheriff. 1997. The immunoenhancing effects of humor on secretory IgA and resistance to respiratory infections. Psychology and Health 12(3). 329–344.10.1080/08870449708406711Search in Google Scholar
McGhee, Paul. 1996. Health, healing, and the amuse system: Humor as survival training. New York: Kendall/Hunt.Search in Google Scholar
McGhee, Paul. 2010. Humor: The lighter path to resilience and health. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.Search in Google Scholar
McGraw, A. Peter & Caleb Warren. 2010. Benign violations: Making immoral behavior funny. Psychological Science 21(8). 1141–1149.10.1177/0956797610376073Search in Google Scholar
Mobbs, Dean, Cindy C. Hagan, Eiman Azim, Vinod Menon & Allan L. Reiss. 2005. Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102(45). 16502–16506.10.1073/pnas.0408457102Search in Google Scholar
O’Quin, Karen & Peter Derks. 1997. Humor and creativity: A review of the empirical literature. In M. Runco (ed.), Creativity research handbook, 223–252. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.Search in Google Scholar
O’Shannon, Dan. 2012. What are you laughing at? A comprehensive guide to the comedic even. NY, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.Search in Google Scholar
Porterfield, Albert L. 1987. Does sense of humor moderate the impact of life stress on psychological and physical well-being?. Journal of Research in Personality 21(3). 306–317.10.1016/0092-6566(87)90013-4Search in Google Scholar
Provine, Robert. 2000. Laughter: A scientific investigation. New York: Viking.Search in Google Scholar
Rotton, James. 1992. Trait humor and longevity: Do comics have the last laugh?. Health Psychology 11(4). 262–266.10.1037/0278-6133.11.4.262Search in Google Scholar
Ruch, Willibald. 2004. Humor. In C.P. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman (eds.), Character strengths and virtues: A handbook of classification, 583–598. Washington DC: American Psychological Association & Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Salinsky, Tom & Deborah Frances-White. 2013. The improv handbook: The ultimate guide to improvising in comedy, theatre, and beyond. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.Search in Google Scholar
Samson, Andrea C. & Oswald Huber. 2007. The interaction of cartoonist’s gender and formal features of cartoons. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 20(1). 1–25.10.1515/HUMOR.2007.001Search in Google Scholar
Simon, Jolene M. 1990. Humor and its relationship to perceived health, life satisfaction, and morale in older adults. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 11(1). 17–31.10.3109/01612849009014542Search in Google Scholar
Stewart, Simon & David R. Thompson. 2015. Does comedy kill? A retrospective, longitudinal cohort, nested case–Control study of humour and longevity in 53 British comedians. International Journal of Cardiology 180. 258–261.10.1016/j.ijcard.2014.11.152Search in Google Scholar
Stewart, Simon, Joshua F. Wiley, Cressida J. McDermott & David R. Thompson. 2016. Is the last “man” standing in comedy the least funny? A retrospective cohort study of elite stand-up comedians versus other entertainers. International Journal of Cardiology 220. 789–793.10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.06.284Search in Google Scholar
Thornhill, Randy & Steven W. Gangestad. 2006. Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women. Evolution and Human Behavior 27(2). 131–144.10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.06.001Search in Google Scholar
Tukey, John W. 1977. Exploratory data analysis. Reading: MA: Addison-Wesley.Search in Google Scholar
Watson, David & James W. Pennebaker. 1989. Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review 96(2). 234–254.10.1037/0033-295X.96.2.234Search in Google Scholar
Weisenberg, Matisyohu, T Raz & T Hener. 1998. The influence of film-induced mood on pain perception. Pain 76(3). 365–375.10.1016/S0304-3959(98)00069-4Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston