A joke for you, a status-boost for men: Men's tendency to tell affiliative jokes is related to their self-promotion style

• Authors: Łukasz Jach , Gabriela Pietrzak

Abstracts

PL

Poczucie humoru jest cechą pożądaną zarówno w związkach romantycznych, jak i przyjacielskich a ludzie komunikują swoje poczucie humoru poprzez opowiadanie żartów. Istnieją jednak różnice płciowe w żartowaniu, gdyż mężczyźni opowiadają dowcipy częściej niż kobiety. Korzyści jakie mężczyźni czerpią z żartów wiążą się z takimi podstawowymi motywami społecznymi, jak poszukiwanie i utrzymywanie partnera, przynależność do grupy i zwiększanie bezpieczeństwa. Mniej wiadomo jednak na temat relacji między skłonnością do opowiadania dowcipów a ogólnymi stylami autoprezentacji, czyli taktycznymi sposobami zachowania, które mogą być wykorzystywane w różnych interakcjach społecznych. W naszym badaniu (N = 139 polskich mężczyzn w wieku od 18 do 60 lat [średnia = 29,94, odchylenie standardowe = 11,66]) chcieliśmy zbadać powiązania między stylami autoprezentacji (autopromocją i autoprezentacją), stylami humory (afiliacyjnym, w służbie ego, agresywnym i samodeprecjonującym) oraz skłonnością do opowiadania dowcipów u dorosłych mężczyzn. Odkryliśmy, że mężczyźni skoncentrowani na autopromocji częściej opowiadali żarty a ich style humoru zawierały więcej aspektów afiliacyjnych i wzmacniających samego siebie. Co więcej, stosowanie przez mężczyzn humoru afiliacyjnego całkowicie zapośredniczało związek między autopromocją a tendencją do żartów. Odkryliśmy również, że mężczyźni zorientowani na autodeprecjację częściej używają samodeprecjonującego humoru, ale ich autodeprecjonujące dążenia nie korelują z ich skłonnością do żartowania. Nasze wyniki sugerują, że mężczyźni mogą opowiadać dowcipy, zwłaszcza te zawierające humor afiliacyjny, aby osiągać swoje taktyczne cele związane z autopromocją.

EN

A sense of humor is a desirable characteristic in both romantic and platonic relationships, and people communicate their sense of humor by telling jokes. However, there are sex differences in joking, so men tell jokes more often than women. Men’s benefits from joking correspond with such fundamental social motives, as mate seeking and mate retention, affiliation, and self-protection. However, less is known about the relation between tendency to tell jokes and more general styles of self-presentation, that is, tactical ways of behaving that can be used in many social interactions. In our study (N = 139 Polish men aged 18 to 60 [M = 29.94, SD = 11.66]), we wanted to examine the relationships between self-presentation styles (e.g., self-promotion and self-depreciation), humor styles (e.g., affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating), and tendency to tell jokes in adult men. We found that men focused on self-promotion produced humor more often and their humor styles contained more affiliative and self-enhancement aspects. Moreover, men's use of affiliative humor completely mediated the relationship between their self-promotion and their tendency to joke. We also found that men oriented on self-depreciation use more self-defeating humor, but their self-defeating motivation does not correlate with their tendency to joke. Our results suggest that men may tell jokes, especially those involving affiliative humor, to tactically achieve their self-promotion goals.

Keywords

EN

humor styles; jokes; public image; self-presentation; social status

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 33-44

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Łukasz Jach

• University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

author

Gabriela Pietrzak

• University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

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Identifiers

DOI

10.21697/sp.2022.22.1.03

Biblioteka Nauki

29433577