Ithaca College

Shawn O'Toole and Barney Beins published a research paper in the Europe's Journal of Psychology on aspects of personality and the sense of humor.  EJOP is an open-access, peer-reviewed online journal.

Researchers have made consistent claims that people do not have an awareness of their humor competence and that the vast majority of people claim to have an above average sense of humor. This study examined (a) whether people’s self reports of humor competence matched an independent measurement of sense of humor and (b) participants’ self-reported personality characteristics in relation to their level of humor competence. Participants completed the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) and several psychological personality inventories.

Their self-perceived humor competence correlated reliably with their scores on the MSHS, indicating that people really know how humorous (or humor impaired) they are. In addition, participants’ levels of neuroticism and extraversion related to their sense of humor.

The findings suggest that people hold implicit theories of the link between humor and personality and apply it reliably both to themselves and to others. Results are consistent with the theory that humor is a multidimensional construct related to evolutionary theory.

This research is part of the research program of the Psychology Humor Research Team.

Shawn O'Toole is currently pursuing his Master’s Degree in Adolescent Education at
St. John’s University.

Citation: Beins, B. C., & O’Toole, S. M. (2010). Searching for the sense of humor: Stereotypes of ourselves and others. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 6, 3/2010, 267-287. Available at http://www.ejop.org/archives/2010/08/index.html