Scientists startled by their findings re humor

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on November 5th, 2008

Here’s a fascinating NYTimes article from that paper’s Science section. The thrust of it is that a study conducted in Boston (and detailed in a Psychology Today blog here), sought to find out which group– self-identifying liberals or conservatives– enjoys humor more. Hard to quantify (and the “science” sounds a little hinky), to be sure, but the researchers were surprised by their findings.

From the Psychology Today piece:

Common stereotypes link the word “liberal” with words such as open-mindedness, tolerance, and impartiality, while the word “conservative” is linked with tradition, caution, and conventional values. Given these associations we might expect that liberals will appreciate, and respond more to humor and jokes than conservatives. This was certainly our expectation going into this project, but, is this really the case?

And, from the NYT article:

Could it be that the image of conservatives as humorless, dogmatic neurotics is based more on political bias than sound social science? Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who reviews the evidence of cognitive differences in his 2005 book, “Expert Political Judgment,” said that while there were valid differences, “liberals and conservatives are roughly equally closed-minded in dealing with dissonant real-world evidence.”

So perhaps conservatives don’t have a monopoly on humorless dogmatism. Maybe the stereotype of the dour, rigid conservative has more to do with social scientists’ groupthink and wariness of outsiders– which, come to think of it, resembles the herding behavior of certain hoofed animals. Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.

Handy to remember when you’re psyching yourself up to perform at a country club filled with liquored-up, “uptight” retired businessmen.

from → News • 0 Comments - Let's discuss! • Print-Friendly • Back To Top