Dave Wimer '99 and professor of psychology (and department chair) Barney Beins published an article entitled, "Expectations and Perceived Humor," in the journal Humor.
The research involved creating expectations in research volunteers that jokes would fall somewhere on a continuum from not very funny to very funny. Ratings of the jokes differed depending on what the volunteers expected.
Specifically, when people thought that others had rated the jokes as very funny, the ratings of the volunteers tended to match their expectations. When they thought others had given low ratings to jokes, these participants also provided low ratings.
The volunteers' ratings were not entirely malleable, however. When jokes were supposedly hysterically funny or terrible, the participants ignored that information and rated jokes the same way as participants who did not have particular expectations.
This research reinforces the role of context in humor appreciation. Because there is no objective measurement of humor, people rely on external information and contextual cues in evaluating humor they encounter.
Dave Wimer was a psychology major at Ithaca College. He has since earned a master's degree in social psychology from Miami University (Ohio) and has completed his doctoral dissertation in counseling at the University of Akron.
Article Citation
Wimer, D. J., & Beins, B. C. (2008). Expectations and perceived humor. Humor, 21(3), 347-363.
