1. Experimental Evidence for Strategic Use of Humor Styles in Relationship Initiation Theresa E. DiDonato1 and Brittany K. Jakubiak2 Loyola University Maryland, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract
Do people prefer to use specific humor styles as a function of specific romantic goals? The current experimental study investigated the effect of romantic motives (short-term or long-term) on individuals’ anticipated use of, and response to, positive humor and negative humor. We primed 224 heterosexual participants with a short-term or long-term relationship motive and asked them to report on their intended humor use in an imagined context with an attractive stranger (target). Participants also indicated how their interest would change in response to the imaginary target’s use of positive or negative humor. The evidence suggests that individuals are strategic producers of humor as a function of their romantic goals, avoiding negative humor when pursuing a long-term partnership. Target’s positive humor increased attraction, especially for women. Findings extend a trait-indicator model of humor.
Do people use different humor styles as a function of relational goals?
Methods
Participants single, heterosexual participants (167 female; Mage = 27.12, SD = 12.20) were recruited from an undergraduate participant pool and via Mturk to complete the study, posted on Qualtrics.
Design
2 (humor style: positive or negative) x 2 (relational motive: short-term or long-term) x 2 (gender: male or female) mixed factor experimental design to investigate the effect of romantic motives on anticipated humor use, and responses to others’ humor use.
Manipulation
We manipulated romantic motive using Griskevicius and colleagues’ (2006) mating primes, modified to reflect an opportunity for a short- or long-term relationship rather than having this relationship in order to maintain a relationship initiation focus. Participants were randomly assigned to condition.
Measures Anticipated humor production (based off of Martin et al.’s [2003] HSQ): Participants used a scale of 1-7 to indicate the extent to which they would engage in each of 16 humor behaviors in order to secure a relationship consistent with their primed motive (i.e., short- or long-term). Anticipated use was computed as averages separately for positive and negative humor styles.
Humor’s Effectiveness: Participants imagined the target in their relationship scenario producing 8 different
examples of humor (4 positive style, 4 negative style) and indicated how each would change their romantic interest in the target on a scale of -5 (decrease) to +5 (increase). Averages were computed for positive and negative styles.
Figure 1. The anticipated production of positive and negative humor as a function of primed relational motive and gender.
Results from a 2 (humor style: positive or negative) x 2 (romantic motive: short-term or long-term) x 2 (gender: male or female) mixed ANOVA showed the expected interaction between humor style and romantic motive on anticipated humor production, F(1, 220) = 8.37, p = .004, η2 =.04. Negative humor use was endorsed more by individuals pursuing short-term relationships (M = 3.61, SD = -.93) than long-term relationships (M = 3.32, SD = 0.99), F(1, 220) = 4.23, p = .041, η2 =.02. There was no difference in the preferred use of positive humor for individuals pursuing short-term (M = 4.67, SD = 0.91) and long-term relationships (M = 4.71, SD = 0.78), F(1, 220) = 0.49, p = Contrary to expectations, participant gender did not independently predict anticipated humor use, nor did it interact with humor style or romantic motive to predict intended humor production (all F’s < 1.10).
Theoretical Background
People fall in love with funny people. A wealth of evidence supports the idea that humor is desired and attractive (e.g., Lippa, 2007), yet little is known about how humor use might change as a function of romantic goals. Evolutionary theory suggests that humor’s wide appeal in romantic contexts may be because humor is a sexually-selected behavior that serves as an honest (i.e., hard-to-fake) signal of desirable underlying traits, such as intelligence and creativity (Miller, 2000) or favorable good partner/co-parent traits, such as warmth or prosociality (Hall, 2015). However, evidence showing that humorous individuals have these desired traits is mixed. Perhaps the divergent findings reflect a focus on general humor, rather than specific humor styles, which may convey different qualities.
Humor can be divided into two primary styles, positive (e.g., affiliative and self-enhancing) and negative (e.g., aggressive and self-defeating; Martin et al., 2003). Consistent with a trait-indicator model, people discriminate between humor styles when evaluating potential long-term partners, reporting more interest in prospects who use positive humor than negative humor, an effect accounted for by warmth inferences (DiDonato, Bedminster, & Machel, 2013). For short-term relationships, however, humor style does not appear to affect romantic interest. In short-term relationships, individuals may prioritize the good genes (e.g., intelligence) conveyed by any kind of funny humor, rather than seeking the good partner traits conveyed specifically by positive humor.
Given the link between humor style and relationship interest, suitors may manipulate their humor style use as a function of their motive to secure either a short-term or a long-term relationship. Men may be especially likely to manipulate their humor, as women tend to be humor evaluators (Wilbur & Caombell, 2011).
Primary Hypotheses
Men and women (especially men) anticipate using positive humor in the pursuit of either long-term or short-term relationships.
Men and women (especially men) anticipate using negative humor more in the pursuit of short-term than long-term relationships.
For women (the humor evaluators), positive humor will increase short-term and long-term interest; negative humor will only increase interest in short-term contexts.
Excerpt Long-term Prompt (female)
There you are, sitting outside at your favorite coffee shop. It’s a pleasant early spring day, and you can smell the blooming flowers in the breeze. You have a book open, but you’re not really reading it. You look around, relaxed and daydreaming. As you watch the people strolling by in front of you, you notice that everyone seems to be in a particularly good mood.
From behind you, you hear a voice say: “Wow, isn’t this an absolutely beautiful day?” …
Excerpt Short-term Prompt (female)
Imagine that you are on vacation with your friends on a tropical island. It’s the last day of your trip and you are sitting on the beach on a pleasant summer afternoon, sipping an exotic drink. The air is warm and pleasant, and you watch the waves as the sun begins to set. You have a book open, but you’re not really reading it. Instead, you look around, relaxed and daydreaming. As you watch the people strolling by on the soft sand, you notice that everyone seems to be in a particularly good mood.
From behind you, you hear a voice say: “Wow, isn’t that the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen?”…
Does romantic interest change as a function of target humor style?
Figure 2. Changes in romantic interest (humor’s effectiveness) as a function of humor style, relational motive, and gender.
Results from a 2 (humor style: positive or negative) x 2 (romantic motive: short-term or long-term) x 2 (gender: male or female) mixed ANOVA showed that positive humor (M = 3.17, SD = 1.19) increased participants’ interest more than negative humor (M = 1.35; SD = 1.54), F(1, 220) = , p < .001, η2 =.49. Note that negative humor was still judged to increase attraction, t(223) = 71.34, p < .001, relative to the mid-point (no change) of the participants’ response scale, for individuals primed to imagine long-term, t(116) = 8.27, p < .001, or a short-term relationship, t(106) = 10.50, p < Positive humor increased women’s interest (M = 3.29, SD = 1.11) more than men’s (M = 2.82, SD = 1.35), F(1, 220) = 6.53, p = .012, η2 =.03.
Results
Descriptive Statistics Manipulation Check
Discussion
Humor use as a flirtation strategy involves more than simply being funny: the style of humor chosen during relationship initiation appears linked to romantic motive. People opt to use positive to attract someone for a short- or long-term relationship, but negative humor is preferred more for short-term, relative to long-term, contexts. Such strategic use calls into question the validity of humor as an honest signal of underlying traits; however, even strategic use of certain styles of humor may require a certain degree of baseline possession of those traits. In other words, knowledge of a suitor’s motives may provide important clarification on the extent to which a specific humor style is a reliable indicator of underlying personality traits.
On the receiving end, positive humor appears to generate more romantic interest, regardless of the receivers’ relational motive, but negative humor also increased romantic interest. Perhaps humor in general is appealing because of its capacity to signal good genes (e.g., intelligence) regardless of style, with positive styles all-the-more attractive because of the good partner traits that might be inferred (e.g., warmth).
The results of two manipulation check questions (“To what extent are you interested in a ___ term relationship with this person?”) suggested an effective manipulation of romantic motive.
References
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Hall, J. A. (2015). Sexual selection and humor in courtship: A case for warmth and extroversion. Evolutionary Psychology, 13, 1-15.
Lippa, R. A. (2007). The preferred traits of mates in a cross-national study of heterosexual and homosexual men and women: An examination of biological and cultural influences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36,
Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37,
Wilbur, C. J., & Campbell, L. (2011). Humor in romantic contexts: Do men participate and women evaluate? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37,