The article below may contain offensive and/or incorrect content.
Theories of humor tend to be post hoc descriptions, suffering from insufficient operationalization and a subsequent inability to make predictions about what will be found humorous and to what extent. Here we build on the Engelthaler & Hills' (2017) humor rating norms for 4,997 words, by analyzing the semantic, phonological, orthographic, and frequency factors that play a role in the judgments. We were able to predict the original humor rating norms and ratings for previously unrated words with greater reliability than the split half reliability in the original norms, as estimated from splitting those norms along gender or age lines. Our findings are consistent with several theories of humor, while suggesting that those theories are too narrow. In particular, they are consistent with incongruity theory, which suggests that experienced humor is proportional to the degree to which expectations are violated. We demonstrate that words are judged funnier if they are less common and have an improbable orthographic or phonological structure. We also describe and quantify the semantic attributes of words that are judged funny and show that they are partly compatible with the superiority theory of humor, which focuses on humor as scorn. Several other specific semantic attributes are also associated with humor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)





Departments
Authors
Libraries
Current Articles
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How schools meet the needs of students crushed by stress, depression
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Losing a long-term spouse can be deadly
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » One Year In: COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Is COVID-19 the rock in David’s slingshot that will bring down Goliath?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: CDC says racism is a 'serious threat' to public health
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Challenges and innovations in Guatemala’s psychology
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Group therapy can provide meaningful connection during COVID-19 loneliness
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Covid-19 linked to depression and dementia
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Stress on the front lines of Covid-19
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Scientific Meeting » Virtual Workshop: Integrating Genomics with Dimensional and Transdiagnostic Approaches to Advance Mental Health Research
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Augmenting exposure therapy: International collaboration and technological innovation for specific phobia
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: What are the 3 levels of autism?
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: How to reach out when someone you know may be at risk of suicide
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Five questions for Michael Kraus
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Meeting the demand for services
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Preparing for leadership
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Benefits of virtual psychotherapy groups for students during COVID-19
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Airbnb launches inclusive virtual experiences for neurodiverse guests
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Video » NIMH Expert Dr. Mary Rooney Discusses Bipolar Disorder in Adolescents and Young Adults
- Article Correctness Is Author's Responsibility: Blog Post » One Year of Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, and Anticipating New Challenges