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Put-Down Humor Directed at Outgroup Members Increases Perceived - But Not Experienced - Cohesion in Groups

  • Put-down humor always has a target, and the intent of the speaker is to make fun of someone or something. Due to its inherently social nature, put-down humor could strongly affect socio-emotional group processes and outcomes like cohesion. We hypothesized that put-down humor would increase cohesion when it was targeted at outgroup members and was followed by laughter. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the underlying processes of the put-down humor – cohesion relation. Study 1 showed that put-down humor of outgroup members (as compared to no humor) did not increase participants’ attraction to the group. But it increased perceived cohesion among other group members and the perception that other group members felt safer and were more similar to each other. Even when procedures were altered in Study 2 to reduce participants’ evaluation apprehension and their potential anxiety about not themselves being humorous, we found the same pattern of results. We discuss which conditions might be necessary for put-down humor toPut-down humor always has a target, and the intent of the speaker is to make fun of someone or something. Due to its inherently social nature, put-down humor could strongly affect socio-emotional group processes and outcomes like cohesion. We hypothesized that put-down humor would increase cohesion when it was targeted at outgroup members and was followed by laughter. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the underlying processes of the put-down humor – cohesion relation. Study 1 showed that put-down humor of outgroup members (as compared to no humor) did not increase participants’ attraction to the group. But it increased perceived cohesion among other group members and the perception that other group members felt safer and were more similar to each other. Even when procedures were altered in Study 2 to reduce participants’ evaluation apprehension and their potential anxiety about not themselves being humorous, we found the same pattern of results. We discuss which conditions might be necessary for put-down humor to increase one’s personal attraction to a group.show moreshow less
Metadaten
Author:Prof. Dr. Christine Gockel, Norbert L. Kerr
Parent Title (English):Humor: International Journal of Humor Research
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2016/06/13
Year of first Publication:2015
Publishing Institution:SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences
Release Date:2016/06/13
Tag:Put-down Humor; Study
Volume:28
Issue:2
First Page:205
Last Page:228
Note:
Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276139334_Put-Down_Humor_Directed_at_Outgroup_Members_Increases_Perceived_-_But_Not_Experienced_-_Cohesion_in_Groups
Link author profile:https://www.srh-berlin.de/hochschule/hochschulteam/gockel-christine/
JEL-Classification:Y Miscellaneous Categories
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung
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