This study assessed the concurrent and prospective (fall to spring) associations between four different humor styles to assess the degree to which stable friendships are characterized by similarity, and to assess whether best friends' humor styles influence each other's later use of humor. Participants were aged 11-13 years, with 87 stable, reciprocal best friend dyads. Self-report assessments ...

The present study examined the relationships between the broad, multidimensional view of humor using the factors of the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) and all of the Five Factor Theory (FFT) personality domains and specific facets. Results indicated a number of significant personality facets related to the Humor Production and Social Use factor. The strongest were Assertiveness, A...

This study examined how personality impressions about another person are influenced by the style of humor that person displays. Four distinct styles were examined, with two of these being adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing humor), and two being maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating humor). Participants read descriptions of an individual displaying each humor style, and then rated tha...

Basic personality traits (e.g., extraversion) have been found to be associated with the humor styles that individuals employ. In the present study, we were interested in determining whether pathological personality traits were also associated with humor styles. We examined the associations between the pathological personality traits captured by the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5) an...

BACKGROUND In contrast with an early implicit "facilitative hypothesis" of humor, a revised specificity hypothesis predicts that the benefits of humor depend on the specific style of humor used. Information on predictors of these humor styles in turn enhances the ability to predict the effect on well-being. METHODS We examined the relationships between interpersonal competence, self-esteem, a...

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 ...

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...

The aim of the present study was to examine whether humor styles mediated the associations between the pathological forms of narcissism (grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism) and self-esteem in a sample of Israeli undergraduates (N = 200). Grandiose narcissism was positively associated with the use of adaptive humor (i.e., self-enhancing humor and affiliative humor), whereas vulnerabl...

Studies examining humor in psychiatric disorders have elucidated the affective and cognitive components that are essential in understanding and appreciating humor. Both cognitive executive functioning (e.g., verbal fluency, set shifting) and the ability to mentalize dramatically impact the ability to understand and appreciate humor. Emotional components, such as mood states and traits, which af...