The Rise and fall of Humor Critique

Summary

The article, “the rise and fall of humor: Psychological Distance modules; Humorous responses to tragedy” by McGraw, Williams, & Warren examines the factors influencing humor experienced by people in a society. In the first part of the article, it is evident that humor is perceived to be evident in the community but there is no adequate information related to the causes and effects of humor in the society (McGraw et al., 2014). The authors of the article focus on conducting research related to the factors influencing humor. The primary objective of the research is to examine the extent to which psychological distance influences humor. There has been a perception that psychological distance may have positive or adverse effects on humor and this determines the manner in which people cope with activities that threaten the lives of individuals. For humor to occur, it is undeniable that there must be an occurrence of a threatening event such as accident, hurricane, or flooding. 

In the research methodology, there is an examination of the experiences that the participants depicted in different threatening events. The online participants consisted of both men and women who were mostly online users and they were examined for their perception about making humor on a particular hurricane that occurred in the region (McGraw et al., 2014). In this case, humor is treated as a dependent variable while psychological distance, stimuli, and offensiveness are perceived to be an independent variable. This data formulation procedure indicates that the extent to which people make humor on a particular event depends on the time and the perception that people will have on people who make funny on the painful event. Since humor is associated with the changing of a painful event, the authors point out that the severity of the event is a determinant of the way people have to make fun of the incidence. Therefore, the variables designed to be used in this research is to determine the variations in humor experienced by people in different situations. In some cases, the level of humor is too high while on other occasions it is too low. 

The findings of the research revealed that there is a close relationship between humor, psychological distance, and offensiveness. The findings indicated that when an event such as natural disaster causes heavy damage and loss of life, there is a possibility that people find it difficult to make funny about the incidence. The results suggested that there are different possibilities for this behavior. For example, society members perceive it as an offense to joke about the event. With time, there is a decline in the perceived offensiveness and humor increases over the period. For example, when a hurricane occurs in a particular region, making funny during the event or after one day of the disaster may be criticized by members of the community. As time elapses, people become used to the incidence and there is a positive view of the jokes that people make regarding the incidence. Despite the findings of the research, it is evident that the article experienced critiques regarding their results. 

Critiques 

The findings of the research reveal that there is a possibility that psychological distance increases humor. There is an explanation that offensive perception of the event is the reason behind the variation of humor in the first period of the event and the increased jokes of the incidence as time elapses. Though this might be the cases in real life situations, there is a limited explanation of the reasons behind the decline of funny as psychological distance increases further. This argument reveals that there are several events that affect humor but the authors limit their explanation to offensiveness and psychological distance. The basic argument of the findings is that humor happens in situations where repressive desires are released and people understand the difference between perceived effects of an event and the reality. Though superiority theory indicates humor requites severe stimuli such as insult, or harm, it is limited in its account because it undermines fun that originates from other events other than hostile occurrences. This argument does not also specify the extent to which pain is acceptable in making funny. The explanation that abstract thinking increases the level of humor, it is evident that the findings do not provide an explanation of why further abstract thinking would decline humor. 

The research limits independent variables of humor to psychological distance and severity of the violation and ignores the influence of an individual’s behavior to the level of humor. The characteristics of an individual determine the extent to which an individual remains committed to the norms governing operations in society (McGraw et al., 2014). Such traits are essential determinants on the perception that such a person will have on a particular event that people are likely to exercise humor. For example, explaining this behavior in the context of church religion, people have different perception regarding immoral behaviors. In this case, churchgoers will find it humorous for people to make jokes about a form of immoral behavior that is highly discouraged by religion. Individual traits reveal that individuals who are strongly committed to violations that are too threatening may be some form of humor to people who are moderately committed to norms. As a result, these people will have different behaviors regarding the creation of humor of a threatening event. Highly committed people will see it as a violation to engage in-jokes about a severe event as opposed to where these people usually where people are moderate or weak in committing to a violation. Though there is an examination of the various aspects that affect the level at which people create and perceive humor, the authors do not consider the role that humor plays in an event where there is a tragic event. As a result, there is a need for examining whether humor plays an essential role in helping people to cope with the situation or not. 

Reference  

McGraw, A. P., Williams, L. E., & Warren, C. (2014). The rise and fall of humor: Psychological distance modulates humorous responses to tragedy.    Social Psychological and Personality Science ,    5 (5), 566-572.