MAN, THAT’S FUNNY: THE EVOLVED FUNCTION OF AGGRESSIVE HUMOR
Date
2020
Authors
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
Aggressive humor is humor that reflects an intention to ridicule and insult others. Previous studies found that the use of aggressive humor tends to damage interpersonal relationships and associates with traits typically considered socially undesirable. However, the use of aggressive humor is prevalent, so much so that it is considered one of four major types of humor alongside affiliative, self-enhancing, and self-defeating humor. These findings present an evolutionary puzzle: why has nature preserved a seemingly maladaptive behavior such as aggressive humor?In this thesis, I offered an evolutionary, functional analysis of the use of aggressive humor, and my main argument is that similar to physical aggression and other types of verbal aggression, the use of aggressive humor facilitates intrasexual competition. I conducted a crosssectional survey (N = 400 U.S. adults) to test this intrasexual-competition hypothesis of aggressive humor, and the findings are threefold. First, male respondents, on average, scored significantly higher than female respondents on a self-report measure of the use of aggressive humor, replicating the findings of prior research. Second, a measure of intrasexual-competition (but not courtship) motive positively and significantly correlated with the self-report measure of the tendency to use aggressive humor. This correlation remained significant after I controlled for covariates related to the mating effort and aggression but dropped to non-significance after I controlled for the Dark Triad personality traits. Third, there was no evidence that respondents’ sex moderated the correlation between the motive to intrasexually compete and the tendency to use aggressive humor. Collectively, these findings largely support the hypothesis that the use of aggressive humor is related to intrasexual competition, which could be why nature has preserved the use of aggressive humor despite its negative impact on interpersonal relationships.
Description
Keywords
Communication, Evolution & development, adaptationism, aggressive humor, interpersonal relationship, intersexual competition, sexual selection
Citation
Extent
62 pages
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Collections
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.