Top

Journal of Happiness Studies

Published in:

01-02-2024 | Research Paper

Essentializing Humor and Implications for Pursuing Happiness

Authors: Yi Cao, Yuanze Liu, Yubo Hou, Li-Jun Ji

Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Issue 1-2/2024

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

To what extent an individual holds an essentialist belief about a sense of humor may influence their use of humor and subsequently subjective well-being. We conducted three studies with Chinese adults to examine the effect of such Belief in Essentialism about Sense of Humor (BESH) on people’s intention to use humor and subjective happiness. Study 1 (n = 333) manipulated BESH and found that high BESH reduced individuals’ likelihood of using humor, especially in negative social contexts. Study 2 (n = 240) showed that the high BESH predicted lower subjective happiness through a low intention to use humor in negative contexts. Study 3 (n = 100) used an online intervention paradigm to manipulate BESH and found that intervention in BESH enhanced the subjective happiness of participants who were coping with COVID-19. The research highlights the importance of essentialist beliefs about humor and suggests ways of improving happiness by reducing such beliefs.

previous article Role of Positive and Negative Emotion Regulation in Well-being and Health: The Interplay between Positive and Negative Emotion Regulation Abilities is Linked to Mental and Physical Health

next article Impact of the Expiration of the SLCP Subsidy on Farmers’ Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hebei Province, China

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

A separate sample (N = 60) showed that the same manipulation led to higher BESH scores in the high BESH condition, than in the low BESH condition, t(58) = 7.81, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 2.02, with no differences in the understandability, credibility, and persuasiveness between the two conditions, t(58)s ≤ 1.39, ps ≥ 0.169.

All scenarios were pretested. Pretest participants (N = 50) rated how positive or negative each scenario (1 = completely negative, 7 = completely positive) was. Scenarios in positive contexts were rated as more positive (M = 5.34, SD = 0.27) than those in the negative contexts (M = 2.29, SD = 0.47), t (49) = 42.22, p < .001.

The sense of humor did not vary between the two conditions, F (1, 331) = 0.05, p = .830.

Including the sense of humor as the covariate did not change the pattern of the results.

More details can be found in the online supplementary material.

In Addition, we have run a commonality analysis to test the shared variance of variables. The results indicated that the two predictors together account for 20.9% of the variance in subjective happiness, in which the unique effect of BESH is 0.001% and that of intention to use humor is 20.8%, indicating that, when both factors are considered at the same time, the intention to use humor, rather than BESH, plays an important role in predicting subjective happiness

The same pattern holds when sense of humor is added as a covariate in the model.

We originally aimed to recruit 300 participants, but due to the impact of COVID-19, only 162 were eventually recruited.

Participants completed the BESH scale on a Five-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

Athletic ability is not valued very much among Chinese people.

The average time participants spent on the intervention task was 17.33 min, which did not differ significantly between the control (17.03 min) and experimental (17.59 min) conditions. t (103) = 0.31, p = .76.

Including the sense of humor as the covariate or the measurements of time 1 as covariates (BESH_1 and sense of humor_1) did not change the pattern of the results.

Abel, M. H. (2002). Humor, stress, and coping strategies. Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, 15(4), 356–381. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.15.4.365.CrossRef

Bastian, B., & Haslam, N. (2006). Psychological essentialism and stereotype endorsement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(2), 228–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2005.03.003.CrossRef

Cao, Y., Hou, Y., Dong, Z., & Ji, L. J. (2021). The impact of Culture and Social Distance on humor appreciation, sharing, and production. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14(2), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211065938.CrossRef

Cheng, D., Amarnani, R., Le, T., & Restubog, S. (2019). Laughter is (powerful) medicine: The effects of humor exposure on the Well-being of victims of Aggression. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(3), 389–402. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9548-7.CrossRef

Cheng, D., Chan, X. W., Amarnani, R. K., & Farivar, F. (2021). Finding humor in work–life conflict: Distinguishing the effects of individual and co-worker humor. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 125, 103538. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103538.CrossRef

Chiu, C., Hong, Y., & Dweck, C. S. (1997). Lay Dispositionism and Implicit theories of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.19.CrossRef

Choi, I., Yu, J., Lee, J., & Choi, E. (2021). Essentializing happiness reduces one’s motivation to be happier. Journal of Personality, 89(3), 437–450. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12589.CrossRef

Corrigan, P. W., Powell, K. J., Fokuo, J. K., & Kosyluk, K. A. (2014). Does humor influence the Stigma of Mental illnesses? Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 202(5), 397–401. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000138.CrossRef

Dweck, C. S. (2017). From needs to goals and representations: Foundations for a unified theory of motivation, personality, and development. Psychological Review, 124(6), 689–719. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000082.CrossRef

Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A. G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146.CrossRef

Gelman, S. A. (2004). Psychological essentialism in children. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 404–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.001.CrossRef

Haslam, N., Rothschild, L., & Ernst, D. (2000). Essentialist beliefs about social categories. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39(1), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466600164363.CrossRef

Hayes, A. F. (2017). Model templates for PROCESS v3.0. http://www.guilford.com/p/hayes3.

Higgins, E. T., & Rholes, W. S. (1978). Saying is believing: Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person described. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14(4), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(78)90032-X.CrossRef

Hong, Y., Chiu, C., Dweck, C. S., Lin, D. M. S., & Wan, W. (1999). Implicit theories, attributions, and coping: A meaning system approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(3), 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.77.3.588.CrossRef

Job, V., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2010). Ego depletion-is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1686–1693. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610384745.CrossRef

Kraus, M. W., & Keltner, D. (2013). Social class rank, essentialism, and punitive judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(2), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032895.CrossRef

Kuiper, N. A., Grimshaw, M., Leite, C., & Kirsh, G. (2004). Humor is not always the best medicine: Specific components of sense of humor and psychological well-being. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 17(1–2), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2004.002.CrossRef

Levy, S. R., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (2006). Lay theories and intergroup relations. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430206059855.CrossRef

Liao, C. C., & Yano, Y. (2005). Comparing Taiwanese and Japanese perceptions of humor through watching a movie. Humanities Research Journal, 1, 103–128.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041.CrossRef

Martin, R. A. (2001). Humor, laughter, and physical health: Methodological issues and research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 127(4), 504–519. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.504.CrossRef

Martin, R. A. (2004). Sense of humor and physical health: Theoretical issues, recent findings, and future directions. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 17(1–2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2004.005.CrossRef

Martin, R. A., & Ford, T. (2018). The psychology of humor: An Integrative Approach. Elsevier Academic Press.

Martin, R. A., & Lefcourt, H. M. (1983). Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(6), 1313–1324. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.6.1313.CrossRef

Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris, P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(1), 48–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00534-2.CrossRef

Nevo, O., Aharonson, H., & Klingman, A. (1998). The development and evaluation of a systematic program for improving sense of humor. (Ed.), The sense of humor: Exploration of a personality characteristic (pp. 385–404). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804607.385. Ruch, W.

Newman, M. G., & Stone, A. A. (1996). Does humor moderate the effects of experimentally-induced stress? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 18(2), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02909582.CrossRef

Papousek, I. (2018). Humor and well-being: A little less is quite enough. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 31(2), 311–327. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0114.CrossRef

Pauker, K., Apfelbaum, E. P., Dweck, C. S., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2022). Believing that prejudice can change increases children’s interest in interracial interactions. Developmental Science, e13233.

Rattan, A., Savani, K., Komarraju, M., Morrison, M. M., Boggs, C., & Ambady, N. (2018). Meta-lay theories of scientific potential drive underrepresented students’ sense of belonging to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(1), 54–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000130.CrossRef

Robert, C., & da Veiga, M., S. P (2017). Conversational humor and job satisfaction at work: Exploring the role of humor production, appreciation, and positive affect. Humor-International Journal of Humor Research, 30(4), 417–438. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2017-0034.CrossRef

Ruch, W. (1998). Foreword and overview Sense of humor: A new look at an old concept. 1998) The Sense of Humor. Explorations of a Personality Characteristic. Berlín: Mouton de Gruyter, 3–14.

Schleider, J. L., Mullarkey, M. C., Fox, K. R., Dobias, M. L., Shroff, A., Hart, E. A., & Roulston, C. A. (2021). A randomized trial of online single-session interventions for adolescent depression during COVID-19. Nature Human Behaviour, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01235-0.

Schumann, K., Zaki, J., & Dweck, C. S. (2014). Addressing the empathy deficit: Beliefs about the malleability of empathy predict effortful responses when empathy is challenging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(3), 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036738.CrossRef

Silvia, P. J., Rodriguez, R. M., & Karwowski, M. (2021). Funny selves: Development of the humor efficacy and identity short scales (HEISS). Personality and Individual Differences, 182(8), 111093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111093.CrossRef

Sliter, M., Kale, A., & Yuan, Z. (2014). Is humor the best medicine? The buffering effect of coping humor on traumatic stressors in firefighters. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1868.CrossRef

Tadmor, C. T., Chao, M. M., Hong, Y., & Polzer, J. T. (2013). Not just for stereotyping anymore: Racial essentialism reduces domain-general creativity. Psychological Science, 24(1), 99–105.CrossRef

Thorson, J. A., & Powell, F. C. (1993). Development and validation of a multidimensional sense of humor scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(199301)49:13.0.CO;2-S.CrossRef

Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students. Science, 331(6023), 1447–1451. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1198364.CrossRef

Williams, M. J., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2008). Biological conceptions of Race and the motivation to Cross racial boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(6), 1033–1047. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.6.1033.CrossRef

Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2012.722805.CrossRef

Yeager, D. S., Johnson, R., Spitzer, B. J., Trzesniewski, K. H., Powers, J., & Dweck, C. S. (2014). The far-reaching effects of believing people can change: Implicit theories of personality shape stress, health, and achievement during adolescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(6), 867–884. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036335.CrossRef

Yeager, D. S., Carroll, J. M., Buontempo, J., Cimpian, A., Woody, S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Murray, J., Mhatre, P., Kersting, N., Hulleman, C., Kudym, M., Murphy, M., Duckworth, A. L., Walton, G. M., & Dweck, C. S. (2022). Teacher mindsets help explain where a growth-mindset intervention does and doesn’t work. Psychological Science, 33(1), 18–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211028984.CrossRef

Title: Essentializing Humor and Implications for Pursuing Happiness
Authors: Yi Cao
Yuanze Liu
Yubo Hou
Li-Jun Ji
Publication date: 01-02-2024
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies / Issue 1-2/2024
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-024-00717-y

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 1-2/2024

Personal Growth and Life Satisfaction among Arab Mothers After Fertility Treatment – The Role of Stress and Optimism

Feeling Important, Feeling Well. The Association Between Mattering and Well-being: A Meta-analysis Study

Benefiting Individuals High in Both Self-Criticism and Dependency Through an Online Multi-component Positive Psychology Intervention: Effects and Mechanisms

Contentment and Self-acceptance: Wellbeing Beyond Happiness

Impact of the Expiration of the SLCP Subsidy on Farmers’ Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hebei Province, China

The Situational Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE): Development and Validation Studies