Welcome to this special humor issue of Europe’s Journal of Psychology. This August 2010 EJOP issue is devoted to a presentation of contemporary psychological research on humor, with a particular emphasis on work that targets the personality and social aspects of humor, including stress, coping and well-being.

This special issue can be placed into a broader context by noting that we are currently enjoying a psychological renaissance in research on humor. Each year, an increasing number of scientific articles are being published about the psychological aspects of humor. This is clearly seen in Table 1, which provides one rough index of humor publications in psychology over the past thirty years. This was done by searching in PsychINFO, using the term “humor,” across a sequence of one-year time periods (beginning in 1980), and then advancing in five year increments. Thus, starting in 1980, there was a grand total of 47 publications on psychological aspects of humor in all of that year, with 25 of these being in peer-reviewed journals. Moving forward, we begin to see a slow but steady increase in humor research, reaching an overall total of 119 works published in 1995, with the majority of these now in peer-reviewed sources (88).

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Julie A. Schermer
Management and Organizational Studies, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Rod A. Martin
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Lynn F. Cherkas
Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, King’s College London, UK

Tim D. Spector
Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, King’s College London, UK

Philip A. Vernon
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Abstract
In this study, four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, self-defeating) were assessed in conjunction with a measure of the HEXACO model of personality, in order to gain greater insight into the etiology of these humor styles, and to situate them better in the framework of human personality. Participants were 664 monozygotic twin pairs and 522 dizygotic twin pairs from the United Kingdom who completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire and the HEXACO Personality Inventory. Univariate behavioral genetic analyses of the HEXACO revealed that individual differences in all of its dimensions were entirely attributable to additive genetic and non-shared environmental factors. Significant phenotypic correlations were found between many of the HEXACO factors and the four humor styles, and bivariate behavioral genetic analyses revealed that these correlations were themselves accounted for entirely by correlated genetic and correlated non-shared environmental factors. Our study adds to the literature validating humor as a personality construct and assessing its relations to psychological well-being.

Key words: Humor Styles, HEXACO model of personality, behavioral genetics, individual differences.

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Abstract
The Humor Styles Questionnaire and Interpersonal Reactivity Index were given to 103 (28 men, 75 women) undergraduates in a community college in the Midwestern United States. As predicted, significant positive correlations were found between affiliative humor and empathic concern (r = .23, p < .05) and between self-enhancing humor and perspective-taking empathy (r = .28, p < .01). Also, as predicted, there were significant negative correlations between self-enhancing humor and personal distress (r = -.34, p < .001), and between aggressive humor and perspective-taking empathy (r = -.40, p < .001), empathic concern (r = -.29, p < .01) and personal distress (r = -.20, p < .05). Predictions involving self-defeating humor and empathy were not supported. The differences in the correlations for affiliative humor and those of self-enhancing humor were examined in terms of the greater importance of perspective-taking and stress reduction in self-enhancing humor versus affiliative humor, which is more involved with social relationships. The implications for future research were discussed.

Keywords: humor styles; perspective-taking empathy; empathic concern; personal distress.

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James M. Olson
University of Western Ontario

Abstract
In this paper, we describe a program of research on the topic of ridicule, which explored the differing effects of observing either ridicule directed at other people or self-disparaging ridicule. In three studies, participants listened to humor that either ridiculed another person, ridiculed the self (the person expressing the humor), or involved no ridicule. Results in two studies showed that observing ridicule that targeted another person led participants to conform more to the alleged attitudes of others and to behave in ways suggesting a heightened fear of failure, compared to self-ridicule or no ridicule. In contrast, results in a third study showed that observing self-disparaging ridicule led participants to generate more creative ideas, compared to other-ridicule or no ridicule. The implications of these “inhibiting” effects of other-ridicule and “disinhibiting” effects of self-ridicule are discussed.

Keywords: ridicule, disparagement humor, self-ridicule, conformity, creativity

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Lamia Moghnie
University of Michigan

Rod A. Martin
University of Western Ontario

Abstract
This research examined maternal and paternal warmth (acceptance) and rejection (hostility and aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection), as remembered by young adults, in relation to humor styles and subjective happiness. A total of 283 Lebanese college students completed the Arabic versions of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mother and Father, the Humor Styles Questionnaire, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. As predicted, parental warmth correlated positively and parental overall rejection and specific rejection scores correlated negatively with subjective happiness ratings. Parental warmth tended to correlate positively with use of adaptive humor styles, and negatively with use of maladaptive humor styles, while parental rejection tended to correlate positively with use of maladaptive humor styles and negatively with use of adaptive humor styles. In addition, self-enhancing humor mediated the relationships between parental warmth and rejection and subjective happiness. Overall, the findings are consistent with the view that parental warmth and rejection might contribute to the development of particular styles of humor, which in turn may contribute to later happiness and well-being.

Keywords – humor styles, parental acceptance/rejection, subjective happiness.

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Christelle Lacour
Department of Psychology, Université catholique de Louvain

Marie-Eve Demeure
Department of Psychology, Université catholique de Louvain

Abstract
Humor has been found to play a key role in close relationships, including marriage. The objective of the present work was to investigate the role of specific humor styles, i.e. affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, earthy, and self-defeating, with regard to (a) relationship quality among married and divorced people and (b) divorced versus married status. We compared men and women from 98 married and 48 divorced couples (total N = 292) who evaluated their humor styles, anxiety and avoidance in attachment, marital satisfaction, and (ex-)spouse’s humor styles. Constructive humor (self-enhancing and/or affiliative), especially among men, was related to increased relationship satisfaction and to non-divorced status. Self-defeating humor, especially among women, predicted marital satisfaction but also divorce. Use of antisocial humor (aggressive and earthy), especially by men, predicted divorce and was related to low (retrospective) relationship quality among divorced couples. Humor styles were unique predictors of divorce beyond the impact of insecure attachment. Finally, partner similarity in the high or low use of self-defeating humor and the (transgressing social norms) earthy humor was observed in both the married and divorced, but the latter were dissimilar in the high or low use of humor styles implying positive or negative quality in interpersonal relations. Partners’ humor styles provide unique and gender-specific information to our understanding of factors influencing marital stability and dissolution.

Keywords – Humor styles, attachment, marital satisfaction, divorce, aggression.

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W. Larry Ventis
The College of William & Mary, United States of America

Abstract
This research assessed the extent to which humor moderates the relationship between retirement stress, including hassles, and health. Two hundred sixty-five retirees over the age of 55 years responded to an on-line survey, completing the RAND 36-Item Health Survey and the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Stress was measured using the Self Perceived Stress in Retirement Scale and The Hassles Scale. The stress moderating effect of humor was examined via regression analyses. Contrary to expectation, and the assumed nature of humor styles, results suggest that the adaptiveness of humor styles depends on the level of stress or hassles one perceives, as well as gender. This is a first indication that whether specific humor styles are adaptive or maladaptive may depend on specific circumstances or person variables.

Keywords – humor, retirement, coping, stress, health.

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Shahe S. Kazarian
American University of Beirut

Jessica Sine
University of Western Ontario

Margaret Bassil
American University of Beirut

Abstract
North American (Canadian) and Middle East (Lebanese) participants rated their reactions to four different humorous comments (self-enhancing, affiliative, self-defeating, and aggressive), presented by others in brief scenarios. Consistent with predictions generated from a humor styles model originally formulated in a North American context, all participants responded most negatively to aggressive humorous comments by indicating the saddest mood, the highest ratings of rejection, and the least desire to continue interacting with the person making the comments. Only the North American participants showed a distinctive positive reaction to the self-enhancing humorous comments by displaying the happiest mood, the least rejection, and the greatest desire to continue with the interaction. In contrast, the Middle East Lebanese participants did not differentiate in their responses between self-enhancing, affiliative and self-defeating humorous comments. These findings were considered in light of cultural distinctions in collectivistic versus individualistic self-construals. Here, it was suggested that the collectivistic self-construals that characterize Lebanese Middle East participants may have blurred the self versus other distinctions in the humor styles model, thus leading to significantly less humor differentiation in a Lebanese Middle East context. The implications of these findings for further cross-cultural work on humor and its impact in social interactions was then considered.

Keywords: Humor, Cross-cultural, Lebanese, Self-construals, Social Interactions, Cross-cultural, Canadian.

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Thomas E. Ford
Western Carolina University

Abstract
The prevalence of sexist humor in popular culture and its disguise as benign amusement or “just a joke” give it potential to cultivate distress and harassment for women and to facilitate tolerance of sexism and discriminatory behavior among men. Thus, understanding the social consequences of sexist humor is a critical project for research in social psychology. The purpose of our paper is to provide researchers with a conceptual framework for organizing and evaluating empirical research and theories on sexist humor. We divided research on sexist humor into two categories: direct effects and indirect effects. Research on direct effects addresses questions about variables that moderate the interpretation of sexist humor as benign amusement versus a reprehensible expression of sexism. Research on indirect effects considers questions about the broader social consequences of exposure to sexist humor. For instance, "how does exposure to sexist humor affect the way people think about women and their perceptions of discrimination against women?" and "does sexist humor promote sexist behavior among men?" For each category of research, we describe representative empirical research and theoretical frameworks used to guide that research. Importantly, we also raise important issues or questions that require further empirical research or theoretical development. We hope that this research will cultivate further interest in theoretically guided empirical research on sexist humor.

Keywords: sexist humor, sexism, hostile work environment, effects of humor

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Rod A. Martin
University of Western Ontario

Abstract
Sense of humor is a multidimensional personality construct. Some components may be more relevant to psychological health than others. While there has been a considerable amount of research on humor styles, humor creation ability (HCA) has remained relatively understudied in relation to well-being. This study employed two methods of assessing HCA (a cartoon captioning task and a task involving the generation of humorous responses to vignettes depicting everyday frustrating situations) to study associations with mental health variables. In addition to these humor creation performance tasks, 215 participants completed measures of four humor styles (Humor Styles Questionnaire) and psychological well-being (self-esteem, satisfaction with life, optimism, depression, anxiety, and stress). No significant correlations were found between either of the HCA tasks and any of the well-being measures. In contrast, humor styles were significantly correlated with well-being variables in ways consistent with previous research. In addition, the frustrating situation humor creation task was positively correlated with all four humor styles. These findings add support to the view that the ability to create humor is less relevant to mental health than are the ways people use humor in their daily lives. Implications for humor-based interventions are discussed.

Key Words: humor creation ability, humor styles, well-being, mental health.

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Kelly Stilwell
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

Kanako Taku
Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan, USA

Abstract
The research examines the relationship of sense of humor differences and positive personality qualities with perceptions of stress and well-being. Positive and negative styles of self-directed humor were assumed to have opposing relationships with perceived stress, but the relationships were predicted to be mediated through positive personality qualities. University students provided data at two points in time separated by 8 weeks. Data from time 1 was used to verify the mediation of the relationship of sense of humor with perceived stress through the positive personality qualities. A more extensive theoretical model, using longitudinal data, was tested using the sense of humor measures from time 1 and positive personality qualities at time 2 to predict perceived stress and well-being at time 2. The results from the two analyses support the proposed mediator model in which the potential health benefits of a positive humor style and the potential damage to health associated with a negative humor style are mediated through the positive personality qualities. Thus, it would appear that good humor uses can support maintaining a stable positive personality style, which has positive associations with both psychological and physical well-being.

Keywords: sense of humor, positive personality, psychological well-being, physical well-being.

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Gillian A. Kirsh
University of Western Ontario

Catherine Leite
University of Western Ontario

Abstract
The first two studies investigated reactions to several different types of humorous comments. Participants indicated they would be significantly more likely to continue interacting with a friend who used adaptive self-enhancing or affiliative humor rather than maladaptive aggressive or self-defeating humor; with the most detrimental effects being evident for aggressive humor. Adaptive humorous comments also made recipients feel significantly more positive and less negative about themselves. Humor styles were further investigated in terms of implicit theories about humor. Study 2 indicated that for the self, humor was perceived as being used most often with close friends, followed by family members, romantic partners, casual acquaintances, and least often with teachers. Participants also indicated that affiliative humor was used most frequently for each relationship, followed by self-enhancing humor, self-defeating humor, and then aggressive humor. Study 3 examined the perceived frequency of use for each humor style by others. Participants indicated affiliative humor to be the most frequently used humor style, regardless of the group being rated (people in general, people one knows, family and friends), self-enhancing humor to be the second most frequently used, and the two maladaptive humor styles as being used the least often. Different co-variation patterns for the four humor styles were also found. These findings were then discussed in terms of the strong differential impact of humor styles on the recipients of humorous comments; as well as the implicit theories of humor styles that are evident for self or others.

Key words: Humor styles, humor impact, humor use, implicit theories of humor, self, other.

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Shawn M. O’Toole
Ithaca College

Abstract
Researchers have made consistent claims that people do not have an awareness of their humor competence and that the vast majority of people claim to have an above-average sense of humor. In this study, we examined whether people’s self reports of humor competence matched an independent measurement of sense of humor. We also investigated participants’ self-reported personality characteristics to see if they attributed to themselves the same characteristics that participants in earlier research attributed to hypothetical others that shared their level of humor competence. Participants completed the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) and inventories based on the Big Five model of personality. The results revealed that participants had a realistic view of their humor competence. Their self-perceived humor competence correlated reliably with their scores on the MSHS. In addition, they characterized themselves on the personality inventories in the way that previous research participants evaluated others. Participants’ self-reports matched the stereotypes they had of imaginary others for extraversion and neuroticism, but not for agreeableness and openness. The findings suggest that people hold implicit theories of the link between humor and personality and apply it reliably both to themselves and to others. Results are discussed in terms of the need to study humor as multidimensional construct and in light of expectations of evolutionary theory.

Keywords – Sense of humor, stereotypes, implicit theories of personality, personality traits.

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Abstract
This paper presents the background for developing the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ), including ideas that guided the ambition to design a tool for assessment of individual differences in sense of humor that was relatively neutral to variations in culture, content and technique. The test was first organized into three dimensions of items, based on face validity of content, with items oriented to openness to ambiguity, preference for humorous situations and emotional suggestibility. The first revision reduced items from twenty-seven to twenty-two. A second revision presented seven items on each of three dimensions that were theoretically founded on ideas of person-situation interactions. Research found that items on meta-message sensitivity (M-items) and liking of humorous situations (L-items) yielded fair alphas, whereas those on mirthful expression (E-items) did not. A review of research is presented based on scores from the M- and L-items of the SHQ. The SHQ-6 is a short form including three items from the M- and the L-dimensions, respectively. This scale has proven effective in research across a vide range of applications including the role of sense of humor in mood, coping, morbidity and mortality. An ultra-short version (SHQ-3) was included in a population health survey and provided descriptive evidence on the prevalence of sense of humor as well as the positive role for sense of humor in surviving into retirement. After age seventy this protective effect of sense of humor faded away.

Key words: Coping, Morbidity, Mortality, SHQ, SHQ-6, SHQ-3.

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Technology supporting the production of academic knowledge has come a long way and Europe’s Journal of Psychology is at the forefront of a new phase in the dissemination and discussion of knowledge. Before the advent of writing, knowledge was spread by word of mouth often through poems to aid memory. Writing was obviously a breakthrough, but it has taken millennia to refine. Unwieldy scrolls became books with pages allowing easy access to each part of the text. The printing press, which made the reproduction of information easy and cheap, was obviously a major breakthrough. But many micro-inventions were required for this medium to mature. Introducing spaces between words greatly increased readability, as did paragraph breaks. Page numbers, chapters, chapter titles, and indexes improved accessibility (Chartier, 1995). Journal articles developed their own conventions of titles, abstracts, keywords, and predictable organisation. The technologies of The Age of Print are not only found within printed books and journal articles. Institutions grew up around printed material supporting the creation, distribution, archiving, and searching of the material. In libraries across the world, books were catalogued and shelved, journal articles were abstracted, keywords parsed, and massive index systems compiled.

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