Relationship between humor and proposed punishment for crimes: Beware of humorous people

It was hypothesized that appreciation of the structural basis and of sexual content in humor is related to punitiveness in different ways. Sixty-eight male subjects served as lay judges and stipulated what would be the just minimum and maximum punishment of committing one of 25 criminal acts and filled in scales relating to humor appreciation, conservatism, dogmatism, and intolerance of ambiguity. Funniness of incongruity-resolution correlated positively with minimum and maximum punishment. Aversiveness of nonsense humor correlated positively with minimum punishment only. Appreciation of sexual content in humor correlates negatively with the extent of demanded punishment for rape but not for other sex-related crimes. Personality scales were predictive of the extent of punishment but to a lesser extent than humor appreciation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(95)00145-V Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-77523 Accepted Version Originally published at: Ruch, Willibald; Busse, Peter; Hehl, Franz-Josef (1996). Relationship between humor and proposed punishment for crimes: Beware of humorous people. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(1):1-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(95)00145-V This manuscript was published as: Ruch, W., Busse, P. & Hehl, F.-J. (1996). Relationship between humor and proposed punishment for crimes: Beware of humorous people. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 1-12. Humor and Punitiveness, 2 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMOR AND PROPOSED PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES: BEWARE OF HUMOROUS PEOPLE WILLIBALD RUCH, PETER BUSSE, AND FRANZ-JOSEF HEHL Department of Physiological Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. Summary—It was hypothesized that appreciation of the structural basis and of sexual content in humor is related punitiveness in different ways. 68 male subjects served as lay judges and stipulated what would be the just minimum and maximum punishment for committing one of 25 criminal acts and filled in scales relating to humor appreciation, conservatism, dogmatism, and intolerance of ambiguity. Funniness of incongruity-resolution correlated positively with minimum and maximum punishment. Aversiveness of nonsense humor correlated positively with minimum punishment only. Appreciation of sexual content in humor correlates negatively with the extent of demanded punishment for rape but not for other sex-related crimes. Personality scales were predictive of the extent of punishment but to a lesser extent than humor appreciation. H U M O R , C O N S E R V A T I S M , A N D P U N I T I V E N E S S : W H A T I S T H E " J U S T " P U N I S H M E N T F O R R A P E A N D A R S O N ? Studies aimed at investigating the relationship between punitiveness and humor appreciation face the problem that two lines of thinking exist which lead to opposite predictions. Starting from the first position, one would arrive at the hypothesis that humorous individuals would be less punitive than non-humorous are. Application of the other position, however, allows to predict that punitive individuals will show marked enjoyment of certain forms of humor. The present article will outline these two positions and then provide an empirical examination of the nature of the relationship between humor appreciation and punitiveness.