22 research outputs found
Male production of humor produced by sexually selected psychological adaptations:Evolutionary perspectives on human sexual psychology and behavior.
Humor and aging - a mini-review
Humor is one of the most important human activities, one that is enjoyed daily by people in every culture and at every age. However, very little is known about how aging affects humor experiences. Research suggests that elderly people enjoy humor more than younger people, but they have increasing difficulties in understanding jokes. Several cognitive mechanisms that may help explain this trend are discussed. Also, the amount of laughter exhibited by the elderly is smaller compared to young adults. In addition, the older population seems not to enjoy aggressive types of humor as much as the younger ones, and the elderly are especially sensitive to jokes referring to old age. Because most studies are cross-sectional, we cannot ignore possible cohort effects that might influence age differences in humor production and humor appreciation. Several future directions are mentioned with the hope for further research on the subject to follow.</jats:p
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
The Big Five personality traits of professional comedians compared to amateur comedians, comedy writers, and college students
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
This study explores the adaptive functions and design features of self-and other-deprecating humor. Sixty-four female and 32 male college students participated in a two-part study. In the first part, we examined the relationships among participant demographics, personality traits, and preferences for producing different types of humor. Men report using more other-deprecating humor than women do, and the use of other-deprecating humor decreases with age for both sexes. In the second part of the study, each participant listened to tape recordings of opposite-sex people who were described as having different levels of status, and who produced different types of humor; then participants rated each person's attractiveness as a potential short-term and long-term mate. Humor type and presenter status had no effects on short-term attractiveness, but self-deprecating humor by high-status presenters (but not low-status presenters) increased long-term attractiveness for both sexes. These results are discussed in the light of sexual selection theory and costly signaling theory