What does a joke provoke?

We take a look through our archive in search of the links between humour and other aspects of our psychology and lives…

Humour has the power to reduce psychological distress

We're all aware that jokes can serve as a distraction… they help us to think about something other than our hurt feelings, and in the short term, they can impair our memories, so we no longer remember exactly why we felt hurt. Think about how often we use these tactics on a tantrum-prone toddler! 

Researchers Lisa Kugler and Christof Kuhbandner at the University of Regensbury in Germany wanted to see if humour is merely temporarily distracting, or if it really does offer a valuable form of emotional regulation. They showed one set of volunteers some negatively charged photos; a distressed child, a crying soldier, a snake about to attack and accompanied them with a joke relating to the photo. They compared reactions with a set of volunteers who didn't receive a joke. The 'humour group' could still remember details of the images but found them considerably less upsetting, which, the researchers suggested, shows humour doesn't block memories but can relieve distress.

Another study, however, found that for some people with depression, sharing and observing even 'depressive' memes helped them with emotional distress. As depressive symptoms are often difficult to verbalise, researchers believe that the memes may help form social and emotional bonds with others or help to make light of their experiences.

Humour helps with physical pain

Heidi Fritz at Clarkson University and her colleagues studied 22 people with chronic pain and found that those who displayed a more pronounced sense of humour, also reported lower psychological distress at their physical symptoms. The researchers also examined the type of humour that was most helpful. Self-enhancing (a cheerful perspective on life) is associated with reduced stress over time, whereas self-defeating humour (disparaging oneself) is associated with more distress and less reappraisal.

Over the years, advocates have suggested that humour can relieve all manner of ailments from cardiovascular function to arthritis, and although the jury is still out, there is some evidence that watching a humorous film can boost immunity and even reduce allergic reactions (antihistamines may still be an advisable back-up!). 

Laughter acts as a social lubricant

It's well documented that sharing our vulnerabilities can help us to make connections with others, but the kicker is that sharing our secret stuff can make us feel a bit, well, too vulnerable. Could laughter be the answer? Researchers have discovered that the act of chuckling can encourage personal disclosure. In a study by Alan Gray, participants watched either a nature series, an observational comedy or a golf instruction video, and were then asked to write pieces of personal information about themselves. The intimacy of the personal details was analysed and those in the comedy group shared significantly more. Why? The team believe it was because laughter produces endorphins that encourage physiological relaxation. (In that case, maybe going to a comedy club with your boss isn't so advisable).

Laughter can help us identify friend or foe

Evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar explains that making people laugh is the human equivalent of primate grooming  (which plays a vital role in maintaining social structures and close bonds). The extra advantage of creating laughter in a group is that we can 'groom' several people at once, producing bonus endorphins for both the groomer and groomee. It also turns out, that we humans are pretty good at sussing out the social set-up of a group just by listening to their laughter. A study that asked participants to listen to a variety of giggles discovered that the volunteers could judge whether laughter came from a group of friends or from strangers; a pretty good skill for our ancestors trying to work out friend from foe. 

Humour helps love last longer

A good sense of humour is usually high on the wish list when we are looking for a potential partner. Researchers believe that someone who can make us laugh is also someone who is usually also good at creative problem-solving (a handy trait for a prospective other half). But what about the role of humour in established partnerships? Kenneth Tan at Singapore Management University set out to discover whether established couples who are funny are more satisfied with each other, or if satisfied couples were simply able to see the funny side of their partners. They found that after a day with more humorous interactions, participants reported feeling more satisfied with their relationship, concluding that humour functions as a significant 'tool for relationship maintenance'.

Comedy can question our gender stereotypes

Men and women may both value a sense of humour in potential partners, but perhaps for different reasons. A survey by Eric Bressler at Westfield State Collge of over 100 undergrads found women who were looking for a male partner wanted them to be receptive to humour and be funny. Men, by contrast, were only concerned that potential partners would laugh at their jokes. Christopher Wilbur and Lorne Campbell at the University of Western Ontario backed this up by analysing hundreds of online dating profiles. They discovered that men were more likely than women to boast about being funny, whilst women were more likely to say that they were looking for a witty date. 

Many psychologists believe that women have evolved to be humour appreciators and men humour producers – this makes sense in terms of wider evolutionary theory, whereby the female of our species is the more selective partner, with men having to compete and flex their genetic fitness, in terms of intelligence, creativity and other advantageous traits.

A belief that men are funnier than women still holds sway in some quarters. To challenge this, researcher Laura Mickes and her team at the University of California invited 16 men and 16 women to write humorous cartoon captions and then asked them to rate each other's efforts. (The study is reported in Christian Jarrett's 2013 article, 'How many psychologists does it take… to explain a joke?') Both genders, but men particularly, found the male-penned captions slightly funnier. However, in a memory test, it was shown that both genders tended to misattribute funnier captions to male authors, highlighting the influence of cultural bias and expectation. Mickes believes factors such as how boys and girls are encouraged to behave, and the fact that males may up end practising humour a lot more than women may influence people's beliefs about gender and humour. Men also tend to dominate the stand-up circuit too, an imbalance that hit the news again last year. 

…and humour reveals a bit more than we may realise 

The reason we can watch a comedy like Bad Sisters with murder at the centre of its plot,  says psychologist, Marc Hye-Knudsen, is because  of psychological distance.  Viewers know they are watching a piece of fiction, and as such they are quicker to condone and find humorous pleasure in a moral violation like murder than they would be in real life. 

That's all very well, but does the type of humour you are drawn to say more about you than you realise? When psychologist, Alberto Dionigi, gave 715 adults a test that assessed their comic style, some patterns emerged which led the team to believe that certain types of humour appeal to those with psychopaths, narcissists or Machiavellians. Fascinating but certainly one to take with a pinch of salt, particularly as some of these comedy styles appeal to the broader population too. 

A 'dad joke' is the gift that keeps giving 

If the definition of a 'dad joke' is, as one dictionary states, 'a wholesome joke with a predictable pun at its core, usually judged to be unfunny', then why are they so popular? Here at The Psychologist, our Dad Joke article is consistently one of the most read online pages. 'To categorise Dad humour as simply, bad jokes, would be a mistake.' says psychologist and humour researcher, Mark Hye-Knudsen. He points out that they 'work on at least three levels: as puns, as anti-humour, and as a kind of weaponised anti-humour when dads use them to teasingly annoy and/or embarrass their children'. They are therefore, perfectly tailored to serve as a pedagogic tool. The very fact that Dad's jokes are cringe-inducing pushes children to tolerate embarrassment. And as each joke is told, those limits are expanded. The valuable lesson that 'embarrassment isn't fatal' is perhaps one we can all do with embracing a little more.

Sharing laughs makes us more productive at work

Need to encourage your colleagues to crank up the creativity? Try bringing some more humour to the meeting room. Researchers, Nale Lehmann- and Joseph Allen found laughter really was contagious when they analysed various work teams' attempts at humour. They found that once laughter was in the room, it could trigger more and more jokes, effectively producing humour-laughter-humour chains. Moments after the laughter died down, the researchers' found the teams were more likely to engage in productive, open behaviours, such as proposing new ideas, asking questions, offering praise or encouraging participation by others. This fits with the broaden-and-build model of positive states, where a good mood opens us up to other people and different ideas – great in a collaborative context and good for work morale too!

And if you're struggling to think of a witty one-liner to brighten up a dull Monday at work, you can always swot up on the first research to look at the funniest individual English words (try dropping 'Jabber' or 'Fluff' into the conversation if you want to be really hilarious). Or, if you want to raise the bar, how about digging deep and coming up with two crazy words? Researcher Cynthia Siew from the National University of Singapore, examined why pairs of words with completely unrelated meanings were funny – Pansy Panties and Rowdy Bowels were particular big hitters! 

Humour helps us during our darkest days

Knowing that we will all shuffle off this mortal coil at some point or another has brought us humans a whole host of existential challenges since time began, however, some psychologists believe humour can play a role in helping us to cope. Tom Pyszczynski, Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, argues that 'The value of humour in life is seriously underestimated by psychologists. Yet, it can be easily seen in the popularity of humour that puts humankind in its place, by pointing to the absurdity of much of what we do.' However, Pyszczynski goes on to say that by, 'taking ourselves less seriously could probably go a long way toward helping us better deal with our lot in life, there are powerful psychological forces that push us toward wanting to be important, significant, and heroic. Completely abandoning these pursuits is not the answer, but seeing the absurdity of them seems a step in the right direction.' For a quick take on debt and death, comedian Tom Allen has something to say on the absurdity of it all here. 

But perhaps Dr Gil Greengross, who has studied the perceived benefits of humour, is best placed to sum up our relationship with comedy. 'Even if it doesn't make us significantly healthier,' she says, 'it's fun and it's enriching, and we should enjoy it for its own sake. But as psychologists, it is only through more robust research that we will ensure the joke isn't on us.'

The Editor of The Psychologist, Dr Jon Sutton, is a Trustee for the Big Difference charity, who run the Leicester Comedy Festival and UK Kids Comedy Festival. The events take place 5-23 February. If you have a psychological perspective on comedy (particularly live) and humour, he would love to hear from you on [email protected].