TY - JOUR
T1 - At whose expense? System justification and the appreciation of stereotypical humor targeting high- versus low-status groups
AU - Baltiansky, Dean
AU - Craig, Maureen A.
AU - Jost, John T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is based on a masters’ thesis submitted by the first author to the Department of Psychology at New York University under the supervision of the other two authors. This study was funded by an M.A. Research Award. We thank members of the Social Justice Lab and the Diversity and Social Processes Lab for helpful assistance, support, and feedback. We especially wish to thank Andrea Courtney, Thomas Ford, Jussi Valtonen, Jamil Zaki, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on a previous version of the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2021.
PY - 2021/8/1
Y1 - 2021/8/1
N2 - Many popular comedians tell complicated jokes that involve multiple levels of interpretation. The same joke may be perceived as criticizing or reinforcing the societal status quo, depending on perceivers' assumptions about the target of the punchline (e.g., whether the joke is at the expense of high- or low-status groups). We focused on how such jokes are experienced by listeners who are psychologically prone to justifying (vs. challenging) the status quo. In a sample of Mechanical Turk workers (N = 179), we explored whether individual differences in system justification would be associated with the appreciation of group-based (stereotypical) humor, depending on the perceived target of the joke. As hypothesized, high system-justifiers found jokes targeting low-status groups (e.g., women, poor people, racial/ethnic minorities) to be funnier than low system-justifiers did. In some cases, low system-justifiers found jokes targeting high-status groups (rich people, European Americans) to be funnier than high system-justifiers did. These results expand upon previous demonstrations that humor appreciation is linked to relatively stable ideological dispositions and suggest that different individuals may perceive complex group-based humor in divergent ways.
AB - Many popular comedians tell complicated jokes that involve multiple levels of interpretation. The same joke may be perceived as criticizing or reinforcing the societal status quo, depending on perceivers' assumptions about the target of the punchline (e.g., whether the joke is at the expense of high- or low-status groups). We focused on how such jokes are experienced by listeners who are psychologically prone to justifying (vs. challenging) the status quo. In a sample of Mechanical Turk workers (N = 179), we explored whether individual differences in system justification would be associated with the appreciation of group-based (stereotypical) humor, depending on the perceived target of the joke. As hypothesized, high system-justifiers found jokes targeting low-status groups (e.g., women, poor people, racial/ethnic minorities) to be funnier than low system-justifiers did. In some cases, low system-justifiers found jokes targeting high-status groups (rich people, European Americans) to be funnier than high system-justifiers did. These results expand upon previous demonstrations that humor appreciation is linked to relatively stable ideological dispositions and suggest that different individuals may perceive complex group-based humor in divergent ways.
KW - joke targets
KW - motivated humor appreciation
KW - stereotypical humor
KW - system justification
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U2 - 10.1515/humor-2020-0041
DO - 10.1515/humor-2020-0041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100880667
SN - 0933-1719
VL - 34
SP - 375
EP - 391
JO - Humor
JF - Humor
IS - 3
ER -