Don't Worry, It's Not Real: How Humor and Violation Severity Varies with Hypothetical Psychological Distance

We seek to examine how the level of “hypotheticality” (how real or abstract something seems) affects humor in this study. Under the Benign Violation Theory of humor (McGraw & Warren, 2010), or BVT, humor is a result of a benign violation. Psychological distance can enhance or limit humor based on the ability to reduce a sense of threat. Previous research has been limited to extreme violations either mild or severe. The purpose of our study is to give depth to intermediary violation severity and how they interact with humor and distance. We hypothesize the moderately hypothetical condition is the funniest as a close stimulus will be too close and uncomfortable to be humorous, and a distant one will be irrelevant. Two studies were conducted using first 76 university students and secondly 388 MTurk workers. The results did not reveal any significant differences in humor level between hypotheticality and severity. HUMOR AND HYPOTHETICALITY 3 Don’t Worry, It’s Not Real: How Humor and Violation Severity Varies with Hypothetical Psychological Distance Imagine a familiar story. It’s a Saturday morning and a couple of kids are gathered around the television in the family room with their choco-choco crazy crunchy cereal. Appearing on the screen is a jubilant talking sponge that the mom can approve of, knowing they’re learning a little about life’s lessons. Meanwhile the kiddos get a good kick out of watching him wrap his bottom lip right over the top of his head or have his eyes jump out of his skull. Sponges get ripped in half, coyotes have all their bones pulverized, and unlucky cats have their knee caps busted in by their prey. Turn these characters into human actors and suddenly the kids are watching Saw 7. Why exactly can a friendly yellow sponge be run over or lit on fire and the audience is not alarmed, even amused, from his misfortune? Although there are many theories that seek to grasp what causes humans to laugh, they often are unable to fully address such a phenomena. Benign Violation Theory (BVT) incorporates methods necessary and sufficient to predict humor but also can explain how and why psychological distance is able to sway what is considered funny (McGraw & Warren, 2010). The real world is devoid of talking sponges. Characters like SpongeBob are unrealistic. He is very hypothetical. On the other hand, the Saw series is dreadfully real, although some of the horrific material is not incredibly different from happenings on children’s cartoons. BVT deepens our understanding of why the degree to which something is hypothetical or not interacts with humor. HUMOR AND HYPOTHETICALITY 4 Ancient philosophers, anthropologists, market researchers, and comedians are some of the many who have sought to learn more about humor and its various effects. Although there is a weighty amount of scientific inquiry on humor, many theories predict humor when it does not happen or don’t accurately predict how certain conditions change the perception of humor such as psychological distance. Significance of Humor Humor is not limited to human life. Other primates make a noise that is thought to be analogous to human laughter during tickling, supporting that humor may have evolved out of a need to indicate non-aggressive behavior (Vettin & Todt, 2005; Ross, Owren, & Zimmermann, 2009; Darwin, 1872; Yerkes & Learned, 1925; Lockard et al. 1977; Goodall, 1968). Many specialists also argue tickling and laughter probably play a significant role in the survival and success of the human race (Provine, 2004; Porteous, 1988; Gervais & Wilson, 2005; Weisfeld, 1993; Li et al., 2009). Supporting the evolutionary value of humor, humor is intermingled with attraction. some Some research found a positive association between humor and marital satisfaction (Weisfeld et al., 2011), happiness in romantic relationships (Butzer & Kuiper, 2008), and mate preference (Didonato, Bedminster, & Machel, 2012). There are many gender linked differences apparent between humor and attraction. Previous studies found a preference for males who produce humor during courtship, and females who are receptive to others’ jokes and musings (Bressler & Balshine, 2006). Curiously, the type of humor can either help or hurt attraction based on characteristics of the individual (Lundy, Tan, & Cunningham, 1998). Singles may want to reconsider whoopee cushions as a must have on the next date. HUMOR AND HYPOTHETICALITY 5 Humor and social appeal are intertwined outside of courtship as well. Higher levels of humor increase general social attractiveness and popularity (Wanzer, Booth-Butterfield, & Booth-Butterfield, 1996; Mesibov & Stephens, 1990; Hampes, 1992) and decreases social distance (Graham, 1995; Sherman, 1985; Sherman, 1988). And in therapeutic settings, humor facilitates bonding (Yoels & Clair, 1995; Dziegielewski, Jacinto, Laudadio, & Legg-Rodriguez, 2003; Berger, Coulehan, & Belling, 2004). Those with a better sense of humor have reported feeling less stress (Abel, 2002; Labott & Martin, 1987; Martin & Dobbin, 1988; Martin & Lefcourt, 1983), lower levels of depression, loneliness, and higher self-esteem (Overholser, 1992). Humor can lower blood pressure during stressful tasks (Lefcourt, Davidson, Prkachin, & Milis, 1997). A study done on trainees in the Israeli military uncovered that when others perceive an individual to be funny that individual is more likely to perform better under stress (Bizi, Keinan, & Beit-Hallahmi, 1988). Regarding business, leaders who use humor are often perceived to perform their management duties better (Priest & Swain, 2006); although there are usually distinctions to the types of humor (Decker & Rotondo, 2001; Smith & Powell, 2009) and types of leaders (Avolio, Howell, & Sosik, 1999). A meta-analysis on the topic established that an employee’s use of humor has a positive association with worker productivity, cohesion among group members, and even health. Supervisors who use positive humor styles benefit from a better performance from subordinates and the supervisor themselves, satisfaction from subordinates, and a lower chance of work withdrawal (Mesmer-Magnus & Glew, 2012). Humorous stimuli are often more convincing than non-humorous ones (Lammers, Leibowitz, Seymour, & Hennessey, 1983) as well as more memorable (Takahashi & Inoue, 2009). Furthermore, humor enhances attention and HUMOR AND HYPOTHETICALITY 6 increases product liking (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992). But similar to bonding and attraction, the interaction is dodgy and can sometimes enhance a positive product or brand evaluation or strengthen disapproval (Chattopadhyay & Basu, 1990). Psychological Distance Psychological distance is characterized by a deviation from the present self “in the here and now” (Liberman & Trope, 2010). Removal from this point happens in many ways: spatial, temporal, social, and hypothetical. Changes in perspective significantly impact how events or objects are thought of. Construal level theory suggests that increasing the abstraction of an event or object removes the relevance of minute details, leaving only general overarching meanings. Psychological distance can also decrease perceived threat (Mobbs et al., 2007; Chandran & Menon, 2004; Balcetis & Dunning, 2013). An example of such threat reduction is that higher psychological distance lowers distress from a terminal illness (Butler, 2003). Children exposed to a distant trauma were less distressed than those who were close to one (Pine, Costello, & Masten, 2005). Additionally, people recounting a negative past memory reported feeling more distance from that past self than those asked about a positive memory (Ross & Wilson, 2002). Psychological distance or proximity mediates feelings of threat and changes the attributes of one’s thoughts and memories.