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Psychology and Humor Flashback: Pranking Ethic Psychology and Humor Flashback: Pranking Ethic

Psychology and Humor Flashback: Pranking Ethic - PowerPoint Presentation

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Psychology and Humor Flashback: Pranking Ethic - PPT Presentation

be safe not damage anything not damage anyone either physically mentally or emotionally be funny at least to most of the people who experience it GABYP Get Authorization Before You Prank ID: 927896

person humor message amp humor person amp message memory behavior play schemas laughter schema humorous persuasion social incongruity psychology

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Slide1

Psychology and Humor

Slide2

Flashback: Pranking Ethic

be safe

not damage anything

not damage anyone, either physically, mentally or emotionally

be funny, at least to most of the people who experience it

GABYP – Get Authorization Before You Prank

Slide3

What is humor?

From

The Oxford English Dictionary

With

reference to action, speech, writing, etc.: the quality of being amusing, the capacity to elicit laughter or amusement. Also: comical or amusing writing, performance,

etc.

And

The

ability of a person to appreciate or express what is funny or comical; a sense of what is amusing or ludicrous. See also 

sense of

humour

 n

Slide4

Psychology and Humor

In terms of psychology, we can approach humor in terms of four components.

A social context

A cognitive-perceptual context

An emotional response

The vocal-behavioral response of laughter

Slide5

Social Context

Humor is very much a social concept.

Although we can laugh when alone, we are much more likely to engage in humor when around others.

Humor serves as a way for people to playfully interact.

Definitions of play vary in the field of psychology, so we will use a simplified version.

Play is a

less serious version of utilitarian behavior.

Playful behaviors

can resemble more serious behaviors (e.g., play fighting vs. real fighting). With play, participants are more engaged with the behavior itself than the potential outcome (

Pelligrini

et al., 2006)

Research has shown a wide variety of benefits from play, many of which come back to play serving as low stakes practice of behaviors.

Slide6

Cognitive-Perceptual C

ontext

In order to produce or understand humor, we have to process a variety of information.

Some of that information comes from the environment, but some of it comes from our own minds.

That means we have to take into account the mind and cognitive processes of any individual involved.

That includes concepts like knowledge, schemas, attention, etc.

We will discuss a few different explanations for what makes something humorous.

Slide7

Emotional

R

esponse

Humor often creates positive emotional responses (Szabo, 2003).

Exposure to humorous information increases activation of the reward network in the limbic system, with higher levels of humor associated with stronger activation (

Mobbs

et al., 2003).

Slide8

Vocal-Behavioral

R

esponse of Laughter

We respond physically to humor with a variety of behavior including laughter and smiles.

Those behaviors vary in intensity.

Chimpanzees and other apes show similar behavior is the context of play.

Many researchers (e.g., van

Hooff

, 1972) have suggested that laughter serves as a signal to others that current actions are playful, not serious.

Slide9

Humor Theories and Hypotheses

Psychoanalytic

Superiority

Arousal

Incongruity

Reversal

Benign-Violation

Slide10

Incongruity Theories

Humor is determined by whether or not incongruity is perceived.

For example, Eysenck (1942) suggested that laughter is the result of the integration of contradictory ideas such as those experienced from a pun.

Why do people become bakers? Because they knead the dough.

Slide11

Another example from

Suls

(1972)

O’Riley

was on trial for armed robbery. The jury came out and announced, “Not guilty.” “Wonderful,” said

O’Riley

, “does that mean I can keep the money?” (

Suls

, 1972, p. 90)

Slide12

Remember Schemas?

Schemas provide a skeleton structure, which is filled in with details from an experience

Schema knowledge also organized around

scripts

Knowledge about what occurs during routine activities

Slide13

Incongruity and Schemas

A number of humor theories connecting incongruity and schemas have been proposed (e.g.,

Wyer

and Collins, 1992).

The general suggestions is as follows.

The setup of a joke leads to the activation of a schema.

The punchline does not match with the activated schema.

This leads to a search through memory for a different schema that will make more sense.

The second schema is often incongruous with the first schema.

Because both schemas remain activated and are incongruous, we perceive humor.

Slide14

Why use humor?

Social probing

Humor can allow us to share or gather information with less risk (Kane et al. , 1977)

Examples:

Decommitment

Using humor to save face after failure or being caught in a lie or inappropriate behavior (Kane et al. , 1977)

Examples:

Slide15

Why use humor?

Breaking Norms

Breaking social norms can be more acceptable if humor is used while breaking them (

Ziv

, 1984)

Examples:

Protecting Norms

Making fun of or teasing others can be used to coerce others to behave in a particular way (Long &

Graesser

, 1988)

Examples:

Slide16

Why use humor in a prank?

Does humor make a message more memorable?

Does humor make a message more persuasive?

Slide17

Humor and Memory

Humor can enhance memory, but it needs to be used effectively.

Schmidt (1994) found that memory was better for humorous sentences only when they were presented together in lists with nonhumorous sentences. Furthermore, memory for nonhumorous sentences decreased when presented in a list with humorous sentences.

Explanations:

Schmidt & Williams (2001) found that participants had better memory for the gist of humorous cartoons but not memory for specific details than for nonhumorous cartoons.

Explanations:

Slide18

Humor and Persuasion

The effect of humor on persuasion is complex.

Humorous ads are more effective than nonhumorous ads if viewers already have a positive attitude. Humor is less effective if the viewers have a negative attitude toward the product (

Chattopadhyay

&

Basu

, 1990).

Humor increases the persuasiveness of low-intensity, soft-sell advertising, but decreased persuasiveness when used with a hard-sell approach (

Markiewicz

, 1974)

Slide19

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion

(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Will a person think

through (and

be

likely to elaborate

on) a persuasive message

?

Use peripheral route if:

Person focuses on

superficial cues

presented

person does

not

have ability (intelligence, time) or motivation to think

message is

not

personally relevant

person is in positive mood

(If the cues are appealing) the resulting attitudes are changed -- but are:

weak

not resistant to counterarguments

not predictive of behavior

Slide20

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion

(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Will a person think through (and be

likely to elaborate

on) a persuasive message?

Use central route if:

Person focuses on

arguments

presented

1) person has ability (intelligence, time) and motivation to think/need for cognition (personality characteristic)

2) message is personally relevant

3) person in neutral or negative mood

(If arguments are strong) the resulting attitudes are:

strong

resistant to counterarguments

predictive of behavior

Slide21

Humor and Persuasion

Humor seems to follow the peripheral route.

Humor doesn’t seem to affect the credibility of the source but it can improve the audience’s liking of the source. (Weinberger &

Gulas

, 1992).

Humor doesn’t appear to improve the comprehension of a message (Weinberger &

Gulas

, 1992).

Humor can put the audience in a more positive mood (Moran, 1996).

Humor can grab the attention of the audience (madden & Weinberger, 1982).

In terms of the ELM, when will humor be most effective in persuading an individual?