Not all humor is the same, yet little is known about the appeal of specific humor styles in romantic initiation. The current experimental study addresses this gap by investigating how romantic motives (short-term or long-term) affect individuals' anticipated use of, and response to, positive humor and negative humor. Heterosexual participants (n = 224) imagined the pursuit of either a desired s...

Research has found that more aggressive cartoons are perceived as funnier. The current study (N = 106; 16 cartoons) examined this finding in more detail by additionally including painfulness and cleverness rankings of cartoons, and by examining possible moderating effects of different humor styles, self-esteem (explicit, implicit), and social desirability. Aggressive or painful cartoons were no...

Individuals infer men's formidability through various facial and bodily features. Such inferences covary with perceptions of personalities motivational states, potentially informing subsequent affiliative decisions. Within these could be an implicit understanding preferred humor styles. Across four studies, this research considered proclivity to employ styles different cues: upper body strength...

The three teachers in this study selected many types of humor to exemplify their points. To avoid predictability, they varied their humor presentation styles and frequency by using simple cartoons projected on a screen, jokes and stories, and songs and dance routines. All three teachers engaged in a continuous search for new material to further expand their repertoire. Careful not to overuse hu...

A sense of humor is widely viewed as beneficial for physical health. However, some limited research suggests that humor may actually be related to increased smoking and alcohol consumption because humorous individuals may take a less serious attitude toward substance use. The purpose of the present study was to explore this hypothesis in greater detail in a sample of 215 undergraduate students....

The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) by Martin et al. (2003) measures four humour styles, namely affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating. In contrast to former humour instruments, the HSQ has strong relations to various measures of psychological well-being. However, its incremental validity in relation to basic personality traits has not been sufficiently studied. Two studies...