Thomas E Ford
Biographic Data
| ID | 199326 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas E Ford |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas E |
| FAMILY NAME | Ford |
| SIGNATURE | FORD T E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Carolina University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2160-8248 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 463 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Who counts as ‘us’? Latent profiles of moral inclusiveness, trauma history, and psychological wellbeing
Moral inclusiveness-the scope of one's moral circle-has traditionally been studied as a single, global trait. This study instead applied latent profile analysis (LPA) to uncover nuanced moral inclusiveness profiles spanning nested layers of relational proximity (family, community, global citizen, and nonhuman living beings). The study looked across four validated scales-Kindness, Compassion, Global-Mindedness, and Speciesism-and further examined …
From humor to political dispositions: Effect of disparagement humor on perceptions of political identity
An experiment ( n = 202; 136 women; 66 men) demonstrated that people use implicit theories about liberals and conservatives to guide their impression of another person based on their humor, specifically, the degree to which their humor violates the individualizing and binding moral foundations described by Moral Foundations Theory (e.g., Graham, Haidt and Nosek 2009. Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal …
Funnypoliticians: How Do Political Figures Use Humor on Twitter
Social media has increased its popularity among politicians. If they wish to succeed in the political arena, politicians need to present themselves to citizens as attractive individuals through these platforms. This study examined how politicians present themselves using humor on Twitter . We analyzed tweets ( n = 6,443) from 27 politicians to determine their use of different types of humor and its relationship with age, gender, or political posi…
Comedy Bootcamp: Stand-up comedy as humor training for military populations
This paper details the results of an 18-month program impact evaluation ( n = 72) on Armed Services Arts Partnership’s “Comedy Bootcamp,” a popular stand-up comedy course specifically tailored to military veterans. Based on literature around the benefits of sense of humor and humor training (e.g., 7 Humor Habits), we anticipated that participants in Comedy Bootcamp would show greater well-being relative to a control group, and that this effect wo…
Where’s your sense of humor? Political identity moderates evaluations of disparagement humor
Two experiments ( N = 449; 246 men, 198 women) examined how political identity moderates appreciation of disparagement humor that violates different moral foundations described in moral foundations theory. In Experiment 1, liberals evaluated memes violating the individualizing moral foundations as more offensive and less funny than conservatives, whereas conservatives rated memes violating the binding moral foundations as more offensive and less …
Humor styles predict emotional and behavioral responses to Covid-19
A correlational study ( n = 180 adults) in the United States tested the hypothesis that self-directed humor styles predict emotional responses to COVID-19, specifically stress and hopelessness, and in turn predict engagement in protective behaviors. Results from a sequential mediation analysis supported our hypotheses. First, to the extent that people have a self-enhancing humor style they perceived less stress and hopelessness associated with CO…
Diminished self-concept and social exclusion: Disparagement humor from the target’s perspective
Two experiments (Total N = 393) demonstrated that disparagement humor can trigger a social identity threat for members of the targeted group resulting in perceptions of a diminished possible self and feeling socially excluded. Experiment 1 (N = 278) revealed that, upon exposure to humor disparaging one’s political in-group (versus political out-group disparagement humor or non-political disparagement humor), both conservatives and liberals percei…
Ignoring sexism increases women’s tolerance of sexual harassment
Women often ignore gender harassment (i.e., sexism). Two studies tested whether ignoring real or imagined sexism increases tolerance of sexual harassment and decreases support for survivors. In Study 1 (n = 252) undergraduate women were randomly assigned to receive a sexist or offensive remark delivered in a serious or humorous manner. Compared to women who confronted sexism, women who ignored it aligned attitudes with behavior and reported more …
The Psychology of Humor
Manipulating humor styles: Engaging in self-enhancing humor reduces state anxiety
We conducted three experiments to determine if engaging in self-enhancing humor can alleviate state anxiety associated with an anticipated stressful event. In all three experiments, participants imagined they were about to take a stressful math test. In Experiment 1 participants who engaged in self-enhancing humor while anticipating taking the test experienced less state anxiety than those who engaged in self-defeating humor or no humor at all. E…
Restoring Threatened Masculinity: The Appeal of Sexist and Anti-Gay Humor
Sexist Humor and Rape Proclivity: The Moderating Role of Joke Teller Gender and Severity of Sexual Assault
Three experiments examined the effect of sexist humor on men's self-reported rape proclivity (RP). Pilot study demonstrated that people differentiate the five rape scenarios of Bohner et al.'s. RP Scale based on the degree of physical violence perpetrated against the victim. Experiment 1 demonstrated that men higher in hostile sexism report greater RP upon exposure to sexist jokes when a woman (vs. a man) delivers them, and that this effect is li…
What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes
Effect of relationship status on perceptions of physical attractiveness for alternative partners
Coupled people, those in a relationship, devaluate the attractiveness of an alternative partner compared to noncoupled people (D. J. Johnson & C. E. Rusbult, 1989). The present research tested two competing hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. According to the motivational hypothesis, coupled and noncoupled people initially perceive opposite‐sex others as equally attractive. Coupled people, however, recalibrate their percep…
Disparagement humor and prejudice: Contemporary theory and research
In this article we review contemporary research testing Martineau’s (
The social consequences of disparagement humor: Introduction and overview
Sexist humor as a trigger of state self-objectification in women
We conducted two experiments to test the possibility that sexist humor triggers a state of self-objectification in women. Our findings supported two hypotheses derived from self-objectification theory. In Experiment 1, we found that women (but not men) reported greater state self-objectification following exposure to sexist comedy clips than neutral comedy clips. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for women and further demonstrated that sexist …
The role of identification with women as a determinant of amusement with sexist humor
We conducted two studies to investigate whether the degree to which people identify with women as a social category affects amusement with sexist humor (humor that disparages women) apart from their affective dispositions toward women. Both studies supported our hypothesis showing that male and female participants were more amused by sexist humor the less they identified with -- the more they felt psychologically distant from -- women as a social…
Not all groups are equal: Differential vulnerability of social groups to the prejudice-releasing effects of disparagement humor
Three experiments tested hypotheses about why humor that disparages some groups fosters discrimination whereas humor that disparages others does not. Experiment 1 showed that disparagement humor fosters discrimination against groups for whom society’s attitudes are ambivalent. Participants higher in anti-Muslim prejudice tolerated discrimination against a Muslim person more after reading anti-Muslim jokes than after reading anti-Muslim statements…
The role of social context in the interpretation of sexist humor
An experiment supported our hypotheses about the relationship between the social context in which sexist humor is delivered and the adoption of a non-critical humor mindset to interpret it. First, a professional workplace setting implied a local norm that is more prohibitive of sexist jokes than the general societal norm, whereas a comedy club implied a local norm of greater approval of sexist jokes. Second, offensiveness ratings revealed that pa…
Effect of humor on state anxiety and math performance
An experiment tested the hypothesis that exposure to humorous material prior to taking a difficult math test can inhibit the amount of anxiety associated with the test, and thus enhance performance. In keeping with our hypothesis, participants performed better on a math test after first being exposed to funny cartoons versus non-humorous poems or nothing at all. Mediation analyses suggest that state anxiety mediated the relationship between expos…
The Unmaking of Prejudice: How Christian Beliefs Relate to Attitudes Toward Homosexuals
We propose that the internalization of orthodox Christian beliefs serves as a basis for a personal moral standard that discourages prejudice against others as well as for self-critical emotions that follow upon behaving in a discriminatory manner. Two correlational studies tested hypotheses derived from our theory. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent people endorse orthodox Christian beliefs, they report an internal motivation to respond with…
Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories
This research reviews the empirical and theoretical literature on disparagement humor and amusement. In particular, we ask, “Why is disparagement humor funny?” Three theoretical frameworks provide responses to this question: psychoanalytic theory, superiority theories, and social identity theory. Each framework suggests a distinct psychological mechanism that fosters amusement upon exposure to disparagement humor. The review presents the central …
"More Than "Just a Joke: The Prejudice-Releasing Function of Sexist Humor
The results of two experiments supported the hypothesis that, for sexist men, exposure to sexist humor can promote the behavioral release of prejudice against women. Experiment 1 demonstrated that hostile sexism predicted the amount of money participants were willing to donate to a women's organization after reading sexist jokes but not after reading nonhumorous sexist statements or neutral jokes. Experiment 2 showed that hostile sexism predicted…
Measurement of communal strength
Communal strength refers to a person's degree of motivation to respond to a communal partner's needs. The development and testing of a questionnaire measure of communal strength is described. Study 1 involved item selection. Studies 2 and 3 found that the 10‐item communal strength measure taps a construct distinct from behavioral interdependence as measured by the Relationship Closeness Inventory of Berscheid, Snyder, and Omoto (1989) and distinc…
Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor: A Prejudiced Norm Theory
In this article we introduce a "prejudiced norm theory" that specifies the social-psychological processes by which exposure to disparagement humor uniquely affects tolerance of discrimination against members of groups targeted by the humor. Our theory posits that a norm of tolerance of discrimination implied by disparagement humor functions as a source of self-regulation for people high in prejudice. For people high in prejudice, this norm regula…
"More Than "Just a Joke: The Prejudice-Releasing Function of Sexist Humor
The results of two experiments supported the hypothesis that, for sexist men, exposure to sexist humor can promote the behavioral release of prejudice against women. Experiment 1 demonstrated that hostile sexism predicted the amount of money participants were willing to donate to a women's organization after reading sexist jokes but not after reading nonhumorous sexist statements or neutral jokes. Experiment 2 showed that hostile sexism predicted…
Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories
This research reviews the empirical and theoretical literature on disparagement humor and amusement. In particular, we ask, “Why is disparagement humor funny?” Three theoretical frameworks provide responses to this question: psychoanalytic theory, superiority theories, and social identity theory. Each framework suggests a distinct psychological mechanism that fosters amusement upon exposure to disparagement humor. The review presents the central …
Restoring Threatened Masculinity: The Appeal of Sexist and Anti-Gay Humor
What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes
The role of social context in the interpretation of sexist humor
An experiment supported our hypotheses about the relationship between the social context in which sexist humor is delivered and the adoption of a non-critical humor mindset to interpret it. First, a professional workplace setting implied a local norm that is more prohibitive of sexist jokes than the general societal norm, whereas a comedy club implied a local norm of greater approval of sexist jokes. Second, offensiveness ratings revealed that pa…
The role of diagnosticity in stereotype formation: Perceiving group means and variances
Three experiments tested the hypotheses that while forming stereotypes of social groups, people abstract the central tendency and variability of different attribute dimensions to determine which ones best differentiate the groups and that more differentiating dimensions are more likely to become stereotypical in the sense of becoming strongly associated with the groups in memory. Supporting these hypotheses. Experiment 1 found that, after viewing…
Effects of Stereotypical Television Portrayals of African-Americans on Person Perception
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that stereotypical television portrayals of African-Americans increase the likelihood that whites will make negative social perception judgments of an African-American (but not a white) target person. Forty white subjects were exposed to comedy skits featuring stereotypical or neutral portrayals of AfricanAmerican characters. Subjects then read a vignette describing an incident in which a college…
Not all groups are equal: Differential vulnerability of social groups to the prejudice-releasing effects of disparagement humor
Three experiments tested hypotheses about why humor that disparages some groups fosters discrimination whereas humor that disparages others does not. Experiment 1 showed that disparagement humor fosters discrimination against groups for whom society’s attitudes are ambivalent. Participants higher in anti-Muslim prejudice tolerated discrimination against a Muslim person more after reading anti-Muslim jokes than after reading anti-Muslim statements…
The social consequences of disparagement humor: Introduction and overview
Sexist humor as a trigger of state self-objectification in women
We conducted two experiments to test the possibility that sexist humor triggers a state of self-objectification in women. Our findings supported two hypotheses derived from self-objectification theory. In Experiment 1, we found that women (but not men) reported greater state self-objectification following exposure to sexist comedy clips than neutral comedy clips. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for women and further demonstrated that sexist …
Effects of exposure to sexist humor on perceptions of normative tolerance of sexism
The results of an experiment supported the hypotheses that (1) for men high in hostile sexism, exposure to sexist humor creates a perceived social norm of tolerance of sexism relative to exposure to nonhumorous sexist communication or neutral humor, and (2) due to this ‘relaxed’ normative standard in the context of sexist humor, men high in hostile sexism anticipated feeling less self‐directed negative affect upon imagining that they had behaved …
The Unmaking of Prejudice: How Christian Beliefs Relate to Attitudes Toward Homosexuals
We propose that the internalization of orthodox Christian beliefs serves as a basis for a personal moral standard that discourages prejudice against others as well as for self-critical emotions that follow upon behaving in a discriminatory manner. Two correlational studies tested hypotheses derived from our theory. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent people endorse orthodox Christian beliefs, they report an internal motivation to respond with…
Disparagement humor and prejudice: Contemporary theory and research
In this article we review contemporary research testing Martineau’s (
Where’s your sense of humor? Political identity moderates evaluations of disparagement humor
Two experiments ( N = 449; 246 men, 198 women) examined how political identity moderates appreciation of disparagement humor that violates different moral foundations described in moral foundations theory. In Experiment 1, liberals evaluated memes violating the individualizing moral foundations as more offensive and less funny than conservatives, whereas conservatives rated memes violating the binding moral foundations as more offensive and less …
Sexist Humor and Rape Proclivity: The Moderating Role of Joke Teller Gender and Severity of Sexual Assault
Three experiments examined the effect of sexist humor on men's self-reported rape proclivity (RP). Pilot study demonstrated that people differentiate the five rape scenarios of Bohner et al.'s. RP Scale based on the degree of physical violence perpetrated against the victim. Experiment 1 demonstrated that men higher in hostile sexism report greater RP upon exposure to sexist jokes when a woman (vs. a man) delivers them, and that this effect is li…
The role of identification with women as a determinant of amusement with sexist humor
We conducted two studies to investigate whether the degree to which people identify with women as a social category affects amusement with sexist humor (humor that disparages women) apart from their affective dispositions toward women. Both studies supported our hypothesis showing that male and female participants were more amused by sexist humor the less they identified with -- the more they felt psychologically distant from -- women as a social…
Effect of humor on state anxiety and math performance
An experiment tested the hypothesis that exposure to humorous material prior to taking a difficult math test can inhibit the amount of anxiety associated with the test, and thus enhance performance. In keeping with our hypothesis, participants performed better on a math test after first being exposed to funny cartoons versus non-humorous poems or nothing at all. Mediation analyses suggest that state anxiety mediated the relationship between expos…
Manipulating humor styles: Engaging in self-enhancing humor reduces state anxiety
We conducted three experiments to determine if engaging in self-enhancing humor can alleviate state anxiety associated with an anticipated stressful event. In all three experiments, participants imagined they were about to take a stressful math test. In Experiment 1 participants who engaged in self-enhancing humor while anticipating taking the test experienced less state anxiety than those who engaged in self-defeating humor or no humor at all. E…
The Role of Internalization of Gender Norms in Regulating Self-Evaluations in Response to Anticipated Delinquency
The results of an experiment suggest that internalized gender norms can serve a self-regulatory function for both males and females in delinquent situations. We found that participants anticipated experiencing a more negative self-evaluation upon imagining performing delinquent behaviors socially defined as highly inconsistent with their gender than upon imagining performing less gender-inconsistent delinquent behaviors, particularly insofar as t…
Funnypoliticians: How Do Political Figures Use Humor on Twitter
Social media has increased its popularity among politicians. If they wish to succeed in the political arena, politicians need to present themselves to citizens as attractive individuals through these platforms. This study examined how politicians present themselves using humor on Twitter . We analyzed tweets ( n = 6,443) from 27 politicians to determine their use of different types of humor and its relationship with age, gender, or political posi…
The Role of Differentiation Between Groups and Social Identity in Stereotype Formation
Subjects read about behaviors performed by members of two fictitious groups which related to the friendliness and intelligence of those groups. Subjects then completed measures to assess (I) the strength of association between the groups and each attribute in memory, and (2) perceptions of intergroup differences in friendliness and intelligence. Subjects who believed that they were members of neither group perceived intergroup differences along e…
Comedy Bootcamp: Stand-up comedy as humor training for military populations
This paper details the results of an 18-month program impact evaluation ( n = 72) on Armed Services Arts Partnership’s “Comedy Bootcamp,” a popular stand-up comedy course specifically tailored to military veterans. Based on literature around the benefits of sense of humor and humor training (e.g., 7 Humor Habits), we anticipated that participants in Comedy Bootcamp would show greater well-being relative to a control group, and that this effect wo…
Humor styles predict emotional and behavioral responses to Covid-19
A correlational study ( n = 180 adults) in the United States tested the hypothesis that self-directed humor styles predict emotional responses to COVID-19, specifically stress and hopelessness, and in turn predict engagement in protective behaviors. Results from a sequential mediation analysis supported our hypotheses. First, to the extent that people have a self-enhancing humor style they perceived less stress and hopelessness associated with CO…
Affective and Cognitive Determinants of Prejudice
According to traditional theories, prejudice toward national, racial, and ethnic groups was considered to consist largely of a negative affective response toward the group or toward members of the group. More recently, however, the general approach to the study of prejudice within social psychology has been to emphasize its cognitive determinants, particularly in terms of the formation and maintenance of social stereotypes. The present research c…
Accuracy and Expectancy-confirming Processing Orientations and the Development of Stereotypes and Prejudice
Historically, the development and maintenance of prejudicial attitudes and accompanying social stereotypes has been accounted for within two very different theoretical traditions—one decidedly motivational in flavor, and the other focusing upon cognitive processes. The present chapter proposes a potential integration of these two distinct approaches by suggesting that diverse underlying motivational orientations (e.g. needs for individual or soci…
The role of diagnosticity in stereotype formation: Perceiving group means and variances
Three experiments tested the hypotheses that while forming stereotypes of social groups, people abstract the central tendency and variability of different attribute dimensions to determine which ones best differentiate the groups and that more differentiating dimensions are more likely to become stereotypical in the sense of becoming strongly associated with the groups in memory. Supporting these hypotheses. Experiment 1 found that, after viewing…
Effects of Stereotypical Television Portrayals of African-Americans on Person Perception
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that stereotypical television portrayals of African-Americans increase the likelihood that whites will make negative social perception judgments of an African-American (but not a white) target person. Forty white subjects were exposed to comedy skits featuring stereotypical or neutral portrayals of AfricanAmerican characters. Subjects then read a vignette describing an incident in which a college…
The Role of Differentiation Between Groups and Social Identity in Stereotype Formation
Subjects read about behaviors performed by members of two fictitious groups which related to the friendliness and intelligence of those groups. Subjects then completed measures to assess (I) the strength of association between the groups and each attribute in memory, and (2) perceptions of intergroup differences in friendliness and intelligence. Subjects who believed that they were members of neither group perceived intergroup differences along e…
The orientation of health professional students towards the care of older adults: The Case of Podiatry
Although podiatrists treat a large number of older adults, few studies have examined podiatry students' attitudes to treating them. Using data from a nationally representative random sample of podiatry students (n = 528), a theoretical model was tested that examined the impact on the level of expected satisfaction from treating older adults in terms of: students' perceptions of the effectiveness of podiatry for treating older adults (i.e. the bel…
Effects of Sexist Humor on Tolerance of Sexist Events
The results of three experiments supported the hypothesis that exposure to sexist humor increases tolerance of sex discrimination among people high in hostile sexism. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that for participants high in hostile sexism, exposure to sexist jokes led to greater tolerance of a sexist event in comparison to exposure to neutral jokes or nonhumorous sexist communications. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 suggest that the…
Effects of exposure to sexist humor on perceptions of normative tolerance of sexism
The results of an experiment supported the hypotheses that (1) for men high in hostile sexism, exposure to sexist humor creates a perceived social norm of tolerance of sexism relative to exposure to nonhumorous sexist communication or neutral humor, and (2) due to this ‘relaxed’ normative standard in the context of sexist humor, men high in hostile sexism anticipated feeling less self‐directed negative affect upon imagining that they had behaved …
The Role of Internalization of Gender Norms in Regulating Self-Evaluations in Response to Anticipated Delinquency
The results of an experiment suggest that internalized gender norms can serve a self-regulatory function for both males and females in delinquent situations. We found that participants anticipated experiencing a more negative self-evaluation upon imagining performing delinquent behaviors socially defined as highly inconsistent with their gender than upon imagining performing less gender-inconsistent delinquent behaviors, particularly insofar as t…
Measurement of communal strength
Communal strength refers to a person's degree of motivation to respond to a communal partner's needs. The development and testing of a questionnaire measure of communal strength is described. Study 1 involved item selection. Studies 2 and 3 found that the 10‐item communal strength measure taps a construct distinct from behavioral interdependence as measured by the Relationship Closeness Inventory of Berscheid, Snyder, and Omoto (1989) and distinc…
Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor: A Prejudiced Norm Theory
In this article we introduce a "prejudiced norm theory" that specifies the social-psychological processes by which exposure to disparagement humor uniquely affects tolerance of discrimination against members of groups targeted by the humor. Our theory posits that a norm of tolerance of discrimination implied by disparagement humor functions as a source of self-regulation for people high in prejudice. For people high in prejudice, this norm regula…
"More Than "Just a Joke: The Prejudice-Releasing Function of Sexist Humor
The results of two experiments supported the hypothesis that, for sexist men, exposure to sexist humor can promote the behavioral release of prejudice against women. Experiment 1 demonstrated that hostile sexism predicted the amount of money participants were willing to donate to a women's organization after reading sexist jokes but not after reading nonhumorous sexist statements or neutral jokes. Experiment 2 showed that hostile sexism predicted…
Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories
This research reviews the empirical and theoretical literature on disparagement humor and amusement. In particular, we ask, “Why is disparagement humor funny?” Three theoretical frameworks provide responses to this question: psychoanalytic theory, superiority theories, and social identity theory. Each framework suggests a distinct psychological mechanism that fosters amusement upon exposure to disparagement humor. The review presents the central …
The Unmaking of Prejudice: How Christian Beliefs Relate to Attitudes Toward Homosexuals
We propose that the internalization of orthodox Christian beliefs serves as a basis for a personal moral standard that discourages prejudice against others as well as for self-critical emotions that follow upon behaving in a discriminatory manner. Two correlational studies tested hypotheses derived from our theory. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent people endorse orthodox Christian beliefs, they report an internal motivation to respond with…
Effect of humor on state anxiety and math performance
An experiment tested the hypothesis that exposure to humorous material prior to taking a difficult math test can inhibit the amount of anxiety associated with the test, and thus enhance performance. In keeping with our hypothesis, participants performed better on a math test after first being exposed to funny cartoons versus non-humorous poems or nothing at all. Mediation analyses suggest that state anxiety mediated the relationship between expos…
Not all groups are equal: Differential vulnerability of social groups to the prejudice-releasing effects of disparagement humor
Three experiments tested hypotheses about why humor that disparages some groups fosters discrimination whereas humor that disparages others does not. Experiment 1 showed that disparagement humor fosters discrimination against groups for whom society’s attitudes are ambivalent. Participants higher in anti-Muslim prejudice tolerated discrimination against a Muslim person more after reading anti-Muslim jokes than after reading anti-Muslim statements…
The role of social context in the interpretation of sexist humor
An experiment supported our hypotheses about the relationship between the social context in which sexist humor is delivered and the adoption of a non-critical humor mindset to interpret it. First, a professional workplace setting implied a local norm that is more prohibitive of sexist jokes than the general societal norm, whereas a comedy club implied a local norm of greater approval of sexist jokes. Second, offensiveness ratings revealed that pa…
The role of identification with women as a determinant of amusement with sexist humor
We conducted two studies to investigate whether the degree to which people identify with women as a social category affects amusement with sexist humor (humor that disparages women) apart from their affective dispositions toward women. Both studies supported our hypothesis showing that male and female participants were more amused by sexist humor the less they identified with -- the more they felt psychologically distant from -- women as a social…
Effect of relationship status on perceptions of physical attractiveness for alternative partners
Coupled people, those in a relationship, devaluate the attractiveness of an alternative partner compared to noncoupled people (D. J. Johnson & C. E. Rusbult, 1989). The present research tested two competing hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. According to the motivational hypothesis, coupled and noncoupled people initially perceive opposite‐sex others as equally attractive. Coupled people, however, recalibrate their percep…
Disparagement humor and prejudice: Contemporary theory and research
In this article we review contemporary research testing Martineau’s (
The social consequences of disparagement humor: Introduction and overview
Sexist humor as a trigger of state self-objectification in women
We conducted two experiments to test the possibility that sexist humor triggers a state of self-objectification in women. Our findings supported two hypotheses derived from self-objectification theory. In Experiment 1, we found that women (but not men) reported greater state self-objectification following exposure to sexist comedy clips than neutral comedy clips. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for women and further demonstrated that sexist …
Sexist Humor and Rape Proclivity: The Moderating Role of Joke Teller Gender and Severity of Sexual Assault
Three experiments examined the effect of sexist humor on men's self-reported rape proclivity (RP). Pilot study demonstrated that people differentiate the five rape scenarios of Bohner et al.'s. RP Scale based on the degree of physical violence perpetrated against the victim. Experiment 1 demonstrated that men higher in hostile sexism report greater RP upon exposure to sexist jokes when a woman (vs. a man) delivers them, and that this effect is li…
What Did He Mean by that? Humor Decreases Attributions of Sexism and Confrontation of Sexist Jokes
Manipulating humor styles: Engaging in self-enhancing humor reduces state anxiety
We conducted three experiments to determine if engaging in self-enhancing humor can alleviate state anxiety associated with an anticipated stressful event. In all three experiments, participants imagined they were about to take a stressful math test. In Experiment 1 participants who engaged in self-enhancing humor while anticipating taking the test experienced less state anxiety than those who engaged in self-defeating humor or no humor at all. E…
Psychology (32 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Humor Studies and Applications (23 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (17 works) · Communication in Education and Healthcare (12 works) · Perception (9 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (7 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Media Influence and Health (7 works)