Explore the Influence of Reading Hellish Gags on Negative Emotions

Abstract

Disparagement humor is a kind of communication that includes denigration but draws forth amusement, while a hellish gag is one of the typical forms of that. A hellish gag is a kind of joke that uses other people's disability, tragedy, illness, racial discrimination, war, occupation, death, etc., as a point of humor. This study modeled a mediation test using reading hellish gags, sympathy, and discrimination against blacks, and designed a single-blind experiment to test the null hypothesis. The results showed that reading hellish gags significantly impaired empathy. In addition, It was determined that diminished empathy fully mediated the relationship between reading hellish gags and increased discrimination against blacks, with the mediating effect accounting for 100% of the total effect. Also, some people may be offended and unable to appreciate the humor when the hellish gags involve something related to the group of people comprehending the humor.