Humor and perceptions of political identity
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- William E., IV Rice (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Thomas E. Ford
Abstract: Political conservatives and liberals appreciate different kinds of humor, as dictated by differing moral values. The amount of value they place on certain morals determines what is and is not okay to joke about. People draw inferences about a person’s traits based on what behaviors they see them doing, and from those inferences make assumptions about other traits that person may possess. The use of humor is one such behavior, and accordingly I discuss relationships between morality, humor, political identities, humor appreciation, and impression formation. The present research consists of a single experiment that investigated participants’ ratings of the likeability and presumed political identity of a person based on the humor they used over social media (via posting a meme) as well as the participants’ own reported political identities. Results partially supported the first hypothesis, showing that people do identify a person as either liberal or conservative based on the type of humor they employ (specifically, what moral they violate with their humor). Furthermore, results supported the second and third hypotheses, revealing that liberals like a person more (and conservatives less) when they observed them mocking a less-prioritized moral foundation because they perceive them as a fellow liberal and that conservatives like a person more (and liberals less) when they observed them mocking a less-prioritized moral foundation because they perceive them as a fellow conservative.
Humor and perceptions of political identity
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Created on 4/1/2022
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2022
- Subjects
- Wit and humor -- Moral and ethical aspects
- Polarization (Social sciences)
- Wit and humor -- Political aspects
- Impression formation (Psychology)
- Party affiliation