Laughing and liking: Exploring the interpersonal effects of humor use in initial social interactions. (2nd July 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Treger, Stanislav; Sprecher, Susan; Erber, Ralph
• Is Part Of: European journal of social psychology. Volume 43:Number 6(2013)
• Page Start: 532
• Page End: 543
• Publication Date: 2013-07-02
• Subjects: Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.1962
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0046-2772

Abstract

Abstract: Humor is a common interpersonal phenomenon that may positively influence the trajectories of social interactions. In two social interaction experiments, we examined the association between humor and liking. The first study was a secondary analysis of data from a prior experiment (originally conducted for another purpose) in which unacquainted participants engaged in a self‐disclosure task and rated each other on various dimensions, including humor. In Experiment 2, unacquainted mixed‐sex dyads participated in a series of either humorous or similar but non‐humorous tasks. In both studies, humor was positively associated with liking and closeness; perceived reciprocal liking and enjoyment of the interaction mediated the association between humor and liking. Likewise, we found a positive association between liking and humor. Men and women did not differ in self‐reported humor use. The findings suggest that humor is a mechanism used to establish connections with others across all relationships and for both sexes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.