Humor perception in men and women: effect of joke type and gender of joke target

Abstract

A key question in the area of humor research is "What factors affect humor perception?" Past studies have shown humor perception depends on several factors, including the gender of the joker (or agent of the humor), the gender of the target of the humor, and the joke type. Past studies have shown a difference in humor perception between males and females; males prefer sexual and hostile jokes, females prefer nonsense jokes, and both genders prefer jokes with male agents and female targets. However, a majority of the studies in humor research were conducted more than 10 to 20 years ago, when attitudes towards gender and use of humor were different from today.The current study sought to improve upon past studies by a) having a larger subject pool; b) devising a humor survey designed specifically to probe gender differences for different types of humor; c) using a broad range of humor types for actual jokes used; d) examining subjects own classifications of jokes as being of one type or another; e) examining perceptions of joke reversibility if the gender of the joke's target was reversed; and f) comparing humor ratings across different gendered versions of the same jokes.