Humor can be expressed in many ways, some of which may not be seen as displaying a good sense of humor or as being socially desirable. Using the Humor Styles Questionnaire to predict global ratings of sense of humor for oneself and for a romantic partner indicated that only adaptive humor styles were reliably related to sense of humor and that an affiliative style was the primary predictor. Beh...

Titze (Humor and Health Journal 5:1-11, 1996) concluded from individual case studies that gelotophobes do not experience humor and laughter as a shared enjoyment but rather as a threat. Two studies examined whether gelotophobes are less humorous in general or whether this is true only for certain components of humor. In study I, three samples (N = 120 and 70 students; N = 169 adults) filled in ...

OBJECTIVE The provision of information appears to be an important feature of humor. The present studies examined whether humor serves as an interpersonal signal such that an individual's style of humor is associated with how the individual is perceived by others. METHOD We examined this issue across two studies. In Study 1, undergraduate participants (257 targets) were rated more positively b...

Humor is a hallmark of human discourse. People use it to relieve stress and to facilitate social bonding, as well as for pure enjoyment in the absence of any apparent adaptive value. Although recent studies have revealed that humor acts as an intrinsic reward, which explains why people actively seek to experience and create humor, few have addressed the cognitive aspects of humor. We used event...

Humor seems to manifest differently in Western and Eastern cultures, although little is known about how culture shapes humor perceptions. The authors suggest that Westerners regard humor as a common and positive disposition; the Chinese regard humor as a special disposition particular to humorists, with controversial aspects. In Study 1, Hong Kong participants primed with Western culture evalua...

The Humor Styles Questionnaire and Interpersonal Reactivity Index were given to 103 (28 men, 75 women) undergraduates in a community college in the Midwestern United States. As predicted, significant positive correlations were found between affiliative humor and empathic concern (r = .23, p < .05) and between self-enhancing humor and perspective-taking empathy (r = .28, p < .01). Also, as predi...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To describe patients' perspectives concerning the use of humor in their care and recovery. DESIGN Descriptive. SETTING Community-based. SAMPLE Nine women with a diagnosis of breast cancer. METHODS Open-ended interviews were conducted with participants to identify their use of humor, its influence on spirituality, and their perceptions of how nurses use humor in caring...

OBJECTIVE Humor has been shown to decrease the use of pain medicine, improve mood, and decrease stress. However, the timing and setting for using humor can be perceived differently depending on the patient and the context. Our objective was to better understand how patients with recurrent ovarian cancer experience humor to gain insight into the feasibility of using humor as a therapeutic adjunc...