Graphical Humor and the Measurement of Attitudinal Ambivalence

Abstract

The use of graphical humor as an indicator of social and psychological attitudes is reviewed. A novel method for assessing attitudes using cartoons as projective devices is introduced. Analysis of responses from 275 students who were given both discursive, sentence items and graphical humor, projective items, demonstrates the potential of cartoons as stimuli for attitude measurement. The results suggest that graphical humor might be developed successfully in constructing alternative methods for measuring attitudinal ambivalence. Greater attention should be given to the ambivalence dimensions of social attitudes because ambivalence is a common and expected outcome of the inconsistencies and contradictions inherent in social life.