Humor as social risk-taking: The relationships among humor styles, sensation-seeking, and use of curse words

Abstract

Abstract The research investigated the view that using humor can be a form of social risk-taking, as the attempt at humor may not always be viewed positively by others. Prior research has shown that individuals’ levels of sensation-seeking, a personality variable related to risk-taking, was related to humor appreciation. Other research has shown that sensation-seeking also predicted the use of curse words, another form of verbal risk-taking. The present research tested two hypotheses: a) sensation-seeking positively relates to each of the four humor styles and b) the use of curse words also positively relates to each of the four humor styles. The results obtained from a large sample of undergraduate students partially supported the hypotheses. Multiple regression analyses using the hierarchical approach further showed that sensation-seeking predicted two of the four humor styles for men (i.e. affiliative, aggressive) and two of the four for women (i.e. aggressive and self-defeating). The use of curse words predicted variance not explained by variation in sensation-seeking in the use of the aggressive humor style in men and women and for the affiliative humor style only for men. Overall, men reported higher levels of aggressive humor, sensation-seeking, and cursing than women. Implications for theoretical perspectives on humor and social risk-taking are discussed.