Abstract
The present study investigates the relationships of eight comic styles (fun, benevolent humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) with acceptability of prejudice (laughing at different groups and topics), humorous self-image (funniness and frequency of laughter), humor appreciation (funniness and aversiveness of cartoons with different structures and contents), and happiness. A representative Chilean adult sample (N=857, 60.8% women; age M=40.50, SD=17.28) was recruited in face-to-face interviews and online surveys. They completed self-reports of all variables as well as a humor appreciation test. Most of the comic styles related to finding the cartoons funnier. Furthermore, the darker styles were more strongly related to laughing at a variety of topics and groups. Also, happiness was positively related to fun and benevolent humor and negatively to cynicism. This study provides evidence of the criterion validity of the Comic Style Markers in Latin-American cultures and highlights differences between lighter and darker styles.
Funding statement: This work was supported by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Funder Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002850, Grant Number: 11160661.
About the authors
Andrés Mendiburo-Seguel is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences of Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile. His main research interests in humor are experimental methods applied to humor appreciation and disparagement humor, and individual differences.
Email: andres.mendiburo@unab.cl, Address: Fernández Concha 700, Las Condes, Santiago de Chile.
Sonja Heintz is a senior research and teaching assistant at the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Her main research interests in humor are individual differences (humor and comic styles, dimensions of the sense of humor), measurement (humor questionnaires and humor-related behaviors), and positive psychology (relationships of humor with character strengths and well-being, virtuous forms of humor).
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