Aggressive humor as a stimulus to aggressive responses.

As a test of (.he notion that, the witnessing of aggressive humor can produce a cathartic purge of the observer's aggressive inclinations, 80 female university students were first either angered or not aroused by having them hear a job applicant's statements about university women. In a factorial design, the subjects then listened to a 4-minute tape recording, either of a nonhostile comedian (George Carlin) or a hostile comedian (Don Rickles). When the subjects rated the job applicant on several measures immediately afterwards, knowing their comments might affect the applicant's chances of getting the job, the women who had heard the aggressive humor were more aggressive toward the applicant than were the women who had listened to the neutral humor. Several other studies purporting to demonstrate the cathartic influence of aggressive humor are discussed.