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Humor and the Limits of Incongruity
Creativity Research Journal
Abstract
Humor often plays an important role in creativity and, contrary to the widely held belief that groups interfere with creativity, groups often facilitate humor. This article argues that the Incongruity Theory (IT) of humor comprehension is unable to account for a broad range of humorous events. This argument is supported by detailing the inability of IT to successfully explain a case involving a lack of humor response to a purported incongruity. The notion of the joke-transaction is used as a starting point for an investigation into the psychology and biology of laughter and humor. The findings offer an accurate definition of portions of the joke-transaction concept and contribute to our understanding of creativity in groups.
... Social or superiority theories were the first attempts to explain humor and they emphasize the negative, aggressive element. Superiority theory views humor as a means to triumph over or make judgment of other people to highlight one's own superiority [87]. In short, we laugh at others misfortunes and when someone slips on a banana peel. ...
... Bergson, perhaps the most known contributor to the superiority theory, believes that humor, in the form of humiliation, is a means in which society corrects deviant behavior [86]. Philosophers like Hobbes and Plato viewed humor as a vice and a display of lack of wisdom [87]. Until the 1860s, it was considered impolite to laugh in public in the United States as laughter was even then viewed as aggressive antipathy [20]. ...
... This process is termed "verbal creativity" and it takes place in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (PSTS) shown in Figure 5 [135]. "Verbal creativity" is the basis of creative thought according to some [3][4][5] as well as the basis of wit and humor comprehension according to others [24,87,136]. In separate study, this area was found be involved in "conceptual matching, irrespective of whether the stimuli are audiovisual, auditory-auditory or visual-visual" [137]. ...
It is widely recognized that innovation and creativity is the new competitive battleground for product development firms. Engineers and product designers are now expected to be highly creative, prolific idea generators in addition to being analytically competent. Thus, it is of interest to study methods to improve a designer's idea generation capabilities. It is believed that wit, being spontaneous humor production, is strongly related to creativity as both involve making nonobvious connections between seemingly unrelated things. This thesis looks into the realm of humor and improvisational comedy to suggest means of enhancing creative output in blue-sky product design idea generation. We have found that the ability to quickly generate many ideas is strongly correlated (r2=.82) with being able to come up with a single, promising, creative idea. It was also found that, with appropriate training, individuals may learn to become more prolific idea generators. Furthermore, improvisational comedians were more proficient at new product idea generation than professional product designers, and methods for training comedians can be effectively adapted to product design idea generation. In a study where 84 participants (students, professional designers and improvisational comedians) took a cartoon caption humor test and a nominal product brainstorming test, we found that improvisational comedians on average produced 20% more product ideas and 25% more creative product ideas than professional product designers. Furthermore, the few individuals that were highly prolific in both creative product ideation and humorous cartoon caption production had an improvisational comedy background. Many of the games used in improvisational comedy training are intended to promote associative thinking. We designed an improvisational comedy workshop composed of these association-based games. A group of 11 subjects who participated in this workshop increased their idea output on average by 37% in a subsequent product brainstorming session. Our findings suggest that improvisational comedy games are a useful warm-up for idea generation, that prolific generation is not a domain-specific ability and that it is possible to teach creativity. Ultimately, this work can lead to the development of tools and methods that designers can use to improve their idea generation skills.
... Il tolère donc de basculer dans un registre contrevenant aux normes et valeurs parce que cela lui permet d'en rire (cf. le concept de joke transaction, proposé par Cundall, 2007). Autrement dit, la capacité à apprécier des situations d'humour « irrespectueux » implique de rendre intelligible une incongruité, tout en transgressant les normes qui peuvent lui être associées, afin d'inférer des événements non rationnels, improbables et immoraux, mais qui sont finalement considérés comme amusants (Laplante & Clément, 1992). ...
... En revanche, s'il constate que ce n'est pas le cas comme avec une situation humoristique qualifiée d'humour noir ou d'humour malsain en raison de la thématique abordée (religions, maladie, handicap, sexualité, etc.), il peut en éprouver de la gêne, du dégoût. Il peut aussi accepter ce type de comique en basculant dans un registre contrevenant aux normes sociales (opération de joke transaction selon Cundall, 2007) afin de pouvoir rire. Autrement dit, il apprécie une situation dont la résolution de l'incongruité le conduit à transgresser ses propres normes en inférant des événements non rationnels, improbables et immoraux, mais qu'il considère comme amusants (Aillaud, 2012 ;Aillaud & Piolat, 2012 ;Laplante & Clément, 1992). ...
... Toutefois, là encore, nous avons tenu à capitaliser les résultats des recherches présentées succinctement dans cette synthèse en mettant en évidence, via notre modèle cognitivo-émotionnel, que dans certains cas (non-sens ne pouvant être entièrement résolu, thématique de l'humour, etc.), le ressenti émotionnel pouvait être désagréable et le rire simulé (cf. par exemple Cundall, 2007). Ainsi, selon le type d'humour (humour noir, non-sens) auquel il est confronté, un individu peut éprouver des émotions mixtes (rire et dégoût) et déprécier et rejeter ce qu'il a compris alors même qu'il a résolu l'incongruité. ...
According to Suls (1972), humor relies on the simultaneous perception of a situation from the perspective of two self-consistent but normally incompatible frames of reference, namely incongruity. The subsequent resolution of the incongruity triggers positive emotional states such as mirth. The aim of the present question review is to highlight that Suls’ theory, though crucial, is insufficient, because it does not sufficiently allow to identify the various assessment processes and the range of emotion that may arise. The present question review is based on four parts. The first part presents the Incongruity-Resolution's model and the supporting research. The second presents four sets of results, which cannot be interpreted in the narrow framework of Suls’ theory. The third part presents empirical research on emotion, highlighting the importance of surprise, as well as positive and negative emotions triggered by humor process. Finally, in the fourth part, we propose a cognitivo-emotional model established on the main results described in this article in order to both complete Suls’ theory and to promote the study of the relationship between the cognitive and emotional aspects of humor.
... Il tolère donc de basculer dans un registre contrevenant aux normes et valeurs parce que cela lui permet d'en rire (cf. le concept de joke transaction, proposé par Cundall, 2007). Autrement dit, la capacité à apprécier des situations d'humour « irrespectueux » implique de rendre intelligible une incongruité, tout en transgressant les normes qui peuvent lui être associées, afin d'inférer des événements non rationnels, improbables et immoraux, mais qui sont finalement considérés comme amusants (Laplante & Clément, 1992). ...
... En revanche, s'il constate que ce n'est pas le cas comme avec une situation humoristique qualifiée d'humour noir ou d'humour malsain en raison de la thématique abordée (religions, maladie, handicap, sexualité, etc.), il peut en éprouver de la gêne, du dégoût. Il peut aussi accepter ce type de comique en basculant dans un registre contrevenant aux normes sociales (opération de joke transaction selon Cundall, 2007) afin de pouvoir rire. Autrement dit, il apprécie une situation dont la résolution de l'incongruité le conduit à transgresser ses propres normes en inférant des événements non rationnels, improbables et immoraux, mais qu'il considère comme amusants (Aillaud, 2012 ;Aillaud & Piolat, 2012 ;Laplante & Clément, 1992). ...
... Toutefois, là encore, nous avons tenu à capitaliser les résultats des recherches présentées succinctement dans cette synthèse en mettant en évidence, via notre modèle cognitivo-émotionnel, que dans certains cas (non-sens ne pouvant être entièrement résolu, thématique de l'humour, etc.), le ressenti émotionnel pouvait être désagréable et le rire simulé (cf. par exemple Cundall, 2007). Ainsi, selon le type d'humour (humour noir, non-sens) auquel il est confronté, un individu peut éprouver des émotions mixtes (rire et dégoût) et déprécier et rejeter ce qu'il a compris alors même qu'il a résolu l'incongruité. ...
Selon Suls (1972) l’humour met en scène une incongruité qui pro-voque la surprise. La résolution de cette incongruité provoqueraitle rire. L’objectif de cette synthèse est de souligner que la théoriede Suls (1972) est insuffisante, car elle ne permet pas d’identifiersuffisamment les différentes opérations cognitives et la palette desémotions qui en découle. Cette synthèse comporte quatre parties.La première présente le modèle de Suls (1972) et les recherchesqui le soutiennent. La deuxième partie présente certains résultatsqui ne peuvent être interprétés dans le strict cadre de la théoriede Suls (1972). La troisième partie présente les travaux sur lesémotions associées au traitement de l’humour. Dans la dernièrepartie, certains des résultats majeurs des expériences présentéessont regroupés en un modèle procédural afin d’orienter les futuresétudes vers l’analyse des relations entre les traitements cognitifs etles émotions associées lors de la compréhension de l’humour.
... ts have investigated the cognitive processes involved in humour. One of Cundall's key findings is the relationship between incongruities in situations and humorous responses such as laughter: " Incongruity Theory (IT) claims that our perception of humour is the result of the perception of an incongruity that causes the humorous response " (p. 203). Cundall (2007) discussed another theory of humour called relief theory (RT). He pointed out that Freud and Spencer developed the RT of humour based in the notion that laughter and humour are release responses to built-up nervous energy. However, Freud's RT is a more negative theory, according to Cundall, who suggested that it means that a release such ...
... tive feelings of frustration over an event that does not meet expectations. Although RT is a more negative theory, many researchers on humour and play have found that humour and laughter can help an individual to let go of negative stress (Brown & Vaughan, 2009; Palus & Horth, 2002). Therefore, laughter can be considered a positive stress reliever. Cundall (2007) also believed that humour is very much a social behaviour that is more often shared with others than enjoyed alone. Cundall cited the findings of Cohen that jokes are often an invitation to others to share a kind of intimacy. He explained that what Cohen meant by intimacy is the giving of a social cue through, for example, laughter, whi ...
... Humour and Serious Play 22 foster creativity. Cundall (2007) affirmed that we laugh most of the time, not when we are alone, but in social contexts with others. For instance, Provine (as cited in Cundall, 2007) wrote after years of researching humour and laughter, " Laughter, like speech, is a vocal signal that we seldom use unless there is an audience " (p. 209). According to Asmus and James (as ...
... Mizah, genel olarak güldürü içerikli bir kavram olarak algılanmakta ve mizahın çok çeşitli tanımlarının yapıldığı görülmektedir. İzleyiciyi eğlendirmek amacıyla başlatılan sözsüz iletişim aracı olarak tanımlanmakla birlikte (Evans vd., 2020) bireysel eksikliklerden kaçınmayla ilgili kaygıyı kovmak için oluşturulan bir tür savunma mekanizması (Dziegielewski, 2003), entelektüel oyun ve fikirlerle oynama şekli (McGhee, 2002'den akt.: Chafe, 2011 ve mizahın bilişsel ve duyusal kaynaklardan yararlanan derin zengin bilişsel eylemler dizisi olarak tanımlandığı (Cundall, 2007) görülmektedir. Mizahın küçük yaşlardan itibaren gelişmeye başladığı bilinmektedir. ...
... Platon ve Hobbes, mizahı Üstünlük Kuramı'yla açıklamış ve bireyin, kendi üstünlüğünü vurgulayan olayları mizahi bulduğunu iddia etmişlerdir. Üstünlük Kuramı, kişinin kendini diğerleriyle kıyaslamasını ve diğerlerine göre üstün olduğu durumlara gülmesini içermekte, Rahatlama Kuramı ise bir dizi uyaran sonucu kahkahanın bireyi hazırlıksız yakalaması sonucunda, bastırılmış enerjinin serbest bırakılması olarak açıklanmaktadır (Cundall, 2007;Şahin, 2018). Uyumsuzluk bir an için "öyleymiş gibi" düşünüldüğünden dolayı (Bariaud, 1989), McGhee tarafından oluşturulan uyumsuzluk kuramı, çocuğun bilişsel uyumsuzlukları algılama ve üretmesine odaklanan bilişsel ilerlemeleri kapsamaktadır (Kuchner, 1991). ...
Mizahın, izleyiciyi eğlendirmek amacıyla başlatılan sözsüz iletişim aracı, kaygıyı kovmak için oluşturulan bir tür savunma mekanizması, bilişsel ve duyusal kaynaklardan yararlanan zengin bilişsel eylemler dizisi olmak üzere çeşitli tanımları mevcuttur. Çocukların okul öncesi yaşlardan itibaren mizahı anlama ve algılaması, mizahı tercih edip etmediği, mizah üretme becerisi ve mizahı belli amaçlarla kullanabilme becerisinin belirlenmesi, mizah gelişiminin desteklenmesinde anlamlı veriler sunabilir. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada, 4-12 yaş grubu çocuklar için bir mizah ölçeği geliştirmek ve çocukların mizah eğilimlerinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma grubunu 4-12 yaş grubu çocuğa sahip 352 ebeveyn oluşturmuştur. Ölçme aracı kapsam geçerliği ve yapı geçerliği, güvenirlik katsayıları incelenmiştir. Yapılan analizler sonucunda ölçme aracının 22 madde, beşli likert tipinde ve Mizahi Anlama, Mizahı Tercih Etme, Mizah Üretme, Mizahtan Yararlanma olmak üzere dört alt boyuttan oluştuğu, iç tutarlık katsayısının 0,90 olduğu bulunmuştur. Ölçeğin puanlanması alt boyutlar için ayrı ayrı ve toplam mizah puanı olarak değerlendirilebilir. Alınan yüksek puan o alt boyuta ilişkin mizah özelliğinin (mizahı anlama, mizahı tercih etme, mizah üretme ve mizahtan yararlanma) yüksek olduğu, toplam puanın yüksek olması da çocuğun genel mizah anlayışı ve eğiliminin yüksek olduğu şeklinde yorumlanabilir.
... We focus on identifying instances of humor and elaboration/persuasion because they are two conversational strategies that can affect the overall creativity of discourse (Bench-Capon 2003;Cundall 2007). We link humor and elaboration/persuasion to creativity in order to better understand the linguistic mechanisms that underlie creativity. ...
... For instance, humor allows speakers to communicate potentially sensitive or difficult topics and also serves to help build relationships (Martin 2007), both of which promote more successful conversations. Humor can also play an important role in creativity, especially during collaborative creative sessions, because humor can prompt more conversation and greater idea production (Cundall 2007). ...
Despite being an important component of problem-solving ability, relatively little is known about the linguistic features of creativity and the related constructs of elaboration, humor , and persuasion. In order to better understand the linguistic features of these constructs, two analyses were performed to examine relationships between linguistic features and human judgments of humor, persuasion, creativity, and elaboration. First, linguistic indices derived from automatic text analysis tools were used to predict human categoriza-tions of utterances for humor and persuasion in a corpus of natural dialogue produced during a creative problem-solving and divergent thinking task. Four linguistic indices related to the use of function words, word age-of-acquisition, and spoken word frequency distinguished humor and persuasion with approximately 50% accuracy. These linguistic features, along with incidence scores for humorous and persuasive categories based on human ratings per dialogue were then used to predict human ratings of creativity and elaboration from the same corpus. Less variation in use of function words significantly predicted both creativity and elaboration scores, and lower spoken word frequency and higher incidences of humorous utterances significantly predicted creativity scores. These results demonstrate the potential for linguistic features to explain creativity and elaboration and highlight connections between humor, persuasion, and creativity .
... Several different theories of humor exist, each proposing slightly different mechanisms for its perception and comprehension (Cundall Jr 2007). For instance, superiority theories (see Meyer 2000, for a review) posit that humor serves as a method of asserting one's superiority over others; in this case, mirth arises due to the self-enhancement that occurs as a result of someone else's misfortune. ...
... As another example, Arousal and Relief theories suggest that tension is caused when we encounter a situation that is initially unclear; comprehending the situation leads to a release of tension, often in the form of humor and laughter (Berlyne 1971; see also the benign-violation theory of McGraw and Warren 2010). Although these theories can account for some aspects of humor perception, each theory has limitations in terms of the scope of humorous experiences they can explain (Cundall Jr 2007). Due to its relative comprehensiveness, the incongruity theory (IT ;Suls 1972; see also Wyer and Collins 1992) is among the most widely accepted theories of humor, and is the focus of this paper. ...
Previous research has indicated that the comprehension of humor involves two stages: incongruity detection and incongruity resolution. However, little is known about the temporal parameters of these stages and the degree to which they influence attentional processing. In the current study, 155 participants completed a dot-probe task to examine these questions. On each trial, humor versus control, novel (incongruent but not humorous) versus control, or neutral versus neutral image pairs were presented for 300, 400, or 500 ms. A probe immediately replaced the experimental image (valid trial) or control image (invalid trial). An attentional bias toward humor and novelty by 300 ms was shown by faster probe-detection reaction times (RTs) on valid compared to invalid humor and novel trials for all three exposure times. When com-pared to the neutral trials, humor and novel stimuli elicited slower RTs, indicating a difficulty in attentional disengagement. An exploratory analysis found that subjective humor ratings predicted the disengagement bias at 500 ms, but not at 400 or 300 ms. These results suggest that incongruity detection biases attention by 300 ms, whereas incongruity resolution may only contribute at 500 ms.
... Although the processes behind laughter are separate and distinct from the forces that drive humor-e.g., different brain activity is associated with humor detection (i.e., "getting the joke") and with humor appreciation (i.e., laughter) (Moran et al., 2004)-laughter can act as a social cue to the presence of humor. While hearing laughter may not affect an individual's perception of humor (i.e., how funny he or she finds the joke), it can signal that a humorous stimulus is present (Cundall, 2007;Lieberman et al., 2009). This phenomenon is well known to television producers, who have added "canned" laugh tracks to programming since the 1950s to cue viewers that a scene is meant to be humorous (Lawson et al., 1998;Lieberman et al., 2009). ...
... Because humor often requires cracking jokes at another's expense, a cue like audience laughter indicating the host is making a joke, rather than critiquing the guests, should diffuse possible anger at the host and impact perceptions of that host's aggression (Baron & Ball, 1975;Miron et al., 2008;Sternthal & Craig, 1973). However, while audience laughter may provide a social cue that a situation is meant to be funny, it is less clear whether it will impact perceptions of whether the host himself is actually seen as funny (Cundall, 2007;Lawson et al., 1998;Lieberman et al., 2009;Martin & Gray, 1996). ...
Shows blending humor and information are on the rise, and many such shows incorporate live studio audiences. Using two separate experimental studies, we test whether audience laughter on humorous political talk shows affects audience perceptions. We find that the effects of audience laughter depend on context, boosting perceptions of host and program credibility when a host is unknown, while reminding viewers of the comedic intentions and appeal of a known comedic host. If humor allows the hosts of comedic political talk shows more freedom to pointedly question their guests without turning off viewers, it may better engage and inform audiences.
... Incongruity Theory (Kant 1724-1804) claims that our perception of humor is the result of an incongruity that causes a humorous response; the punch line or resolution is inconsistent or incongruous with the set up (Cundall, 2007;McCreaddie & Wiggins, 2007). Incongruity theory has been the dominant theory of humor for the past two decades, partly because it seems to account for most cases of perceived funniness, since "incongruity" encompasses a variety of conditions (Smuts, 2006). ...
... No theory of humor extends the complete life span. Incongruity Theory, although certainly not capable of explaining all cases of humor, covers the typical and more general occurrences of humor (Cundall, 2007). However, in order to study humor in older adults, we must first recognize its complexity. ...
The older adult population is growing faster than any other cohort of people. By the year 2011, the baby boomers will start turning age 65, presenting a problem for public policy and health care systems. One of the key components of successful aging is the maintenance of good health. Numerous studies have extensively documented the link between good health and high life satisfaction. Humor has also been shown to be a positive coping mechanism used by older adults to combat the stressors of aging. The current study explored the relationship between health status, life satisfaction, and humor as a coping mechanism among noninstitutionalized older adults. The sample consisted of 109 participants over the age of 65. Structural equation modeling with latent variables indicated that health status and life satisfaction were highly correlated with an increase in health status leading to an increase in life satisfaction. However, coping with humor neither correlated nor mediated the relationship between health status and life satisfaction. Reasons for these results are explored and suggestions for future studies are presented.
... The abstract knowledge is more complicated than sensuous knowledge, which is the natural and unshaped way of seeing things: humour is created from the disruption of the casual chain between the two forms of knowledge. Cundall (2007) argues that within this theoretical context, humour recognition requires the perception of an incongruity. This implies that humour arises from experience of normal course of events based on individual subjective interpretation of the world that is juxtaposed in the humour (with what is at variance) or violated. ...
Nigerian stand-up comic artists explore emerging social, religious, and political issues as materials for comic entertainment within their performance space and community of practice. One of the resources for comic performance is the recourse to sexual contents which are deployed to reduce apprehension around stereotyped norms about sex and sexuality in the Nigerian sociocultural context. Drawing on ethnographic qualitative data using social media skits, audio-visual disks and semi-structured interviews, this article examines sexual jokes as ideological texts and rhetorical devices that embody the struggle between conservatism and postmodern conceptions of sex and sexuality. It highlights the recurrent themes and creative discourses of sexual humour which stand-up comedy performers exploit as artistic tools for the engagement of gender roles, sexual myths, sexual politics and social contradictions within a vulnerable socio-political and economic context. We adopt social relief theory and incongruity theory of humour comprehension to provide a nuanced understanding of sexual jokes and the sociocultural inhibitions that surround them. The dominant themes in these jokes include male sterility, faking orgasm, commodification of sex, prostitution, rape, and the use of aphrodisiac. The results indicate that sexual jokes are circulating within the comedy performance space as forms of protest against stereotyped sexual culture. In this way, male and female comedians, working with the tools and ideology of postmodernism, help to satirise conventional sexual values and radicalise their audiences against normative construction of sex and sexuality.
... Humour occurs when the person who makes a remark intends to elicit this feeling of non-seriousness as well as laughter as a response to their remark. Michael Cundall further contends that the perception of humour is largely contingent on social context, which informs what is considered play (or, non-serious) (Cundall 2007). The same act or utterance might, of course, be considered humorous in one context but not another. ...
While humour in the context of illness might be perceived to be insensitive or inappropriate, it is used frequently in the medical setting and discussions of illness. This paper strives to answer why humour is used despite these feelings it might elicit, and attempts to outline conditions that inform the ethics of humour in an illness context.
This paper analyses two Singaporean theatrical depictions of chronic and stigmatised illnesses: Haresh Sharma’s Off Centre (1993), which is about schizophrenia and depression, and Paddy Chew’s monologue Completely With/Out Character (1999), on HIV and AIDS. In these plays, humour functions to: first, dispense information on stigmatised illnesses through mediation; second, implicate audiences in stigma-making through defamiliarisation; and third, to exert discursive control for feelings of empowerment. Furthermore, analysing these plays within their contexts demonstrate that humour is crucial for providing a more nuanced understanding of the stigmatised illness experience, since humour can illuminate culturally held notions of sickness and health.
While humour is necessary for patients who are routinely misunderstood and alienated, it must be used with discretion to prevent abuse. As this paper demonstrates, the ethics of humour is more nuanced than simply possessing certain identity markers that provide the illusion of exoneration or inclusion. It is also affected by multiple axes of privilege and discrimination. In my conclusion, I argue that the ethics of humour in the illness context is contingent on whether imbalanced power relations and systems of oppression were employed and/or reproduced under the guise of non-seriousness.
... Such a shift can be triggered by different kinds of stimuli, where incongruity can be present or not, and its amplitude depends not only on the nature of the stimulus in itself, but can also be affected by social factors, contexts (Cundall Jr, 2007) and current emotional and physical state (Lowe and Taylor, 1997;Weaver et al., 1985), mood (Ruch, 1997) and personality traits (Ruch, 1993). ...
Laughter is a social vocalization universal across cultures and languages. It is ubiquitous in our dialogues and able to serve a wide range of functions. Laughter has been studied from several perspectives, but the classifications proposed are hard to integrate. Despite being crucial in our daily interaction, relatively little attention has been devoted to the study of laughter in conversation, attempting to model its sophisticated pragmatic use, neuro-correlates in perception and development in children. In the current thesis a new comprehensive framework for laughter analysis is proposed, crucially grounded in the assumption that laughter has propositional content, arguing for the need to distinguish different layers of analysis, similarly to the study of speech: form, positioning, semantics and pragmatics. A formal representation of laughter meaning is proposed and a multilingual corpus study (French, Chinese and English) is conducted in order to test the proposed framework and to deepen our understanding of laughter use in adult conversation. Preliminary investigations are conducted on the viability of a laughter form-function mapping based on acoustic features and on the neuro-correlates involved in the perception of laughter serving different functions in natural dialogue. Our results give rise to novel generalizations about the placement, alignment, semantics and function of laughter, stressing the high pragmatic skills involved in its production and perception. The development of the semantic and pragmatic use of laughter is observed in a longitudinal corpus study of 4 American-English child-mother pairs from 12 to 36 months of age. Results show that laughter use undergoes important development at each level analysed, which complies with what could be hypothesised on the base of phylogenetic data, and that laughter can be an effective means to track cognitive/communicative development, and potential difficulties or delays at a very early stage.
... Contrary to the widely held belief that groups interfere with creativity, groups often facilitate humor. Humor can provide an interesting perspective to internal consumers from which could be learnt more about a wide range of human behavior (Cundall, 2007). The other vantage point that has been apparent in research on humor, both in organizations and in marketing, is the focus on the positive effects of humor, with little attention being given to the negative uses of humor. ...
Although humor at workplace provides positive results for the brands and intraorganizational management, there are only a few theorized studies proving this fact in the literature. Studies on humor at workplace can be mostly seen in the organizational behavior literature. Humor can be considered as a very critical component for both the internal customers and external customers in the marketing literature. Humor is effective in creating consumer perceptions and loyalty through various marketing channels and additionally, can be considered as a very important concept for maintaining the holistic marketing approach in internal marketing practices. Behaviors and attitudes of marketing department managers with different humor styles can increase cohesion among employees and maximize their performance. This study examines the effect of humor styles of the marketing department managers on the internal marketing practices under the moderating role of persuasive communication variable.
... [89], [90], [91]), but in the current work we prefer to refer to it as 'arousal' since we believe it allows the interactional partner to derive inferences about the shift of arousal 2 experienced by the laugher in the appraisal of the laughable, typically constituted by an incongruity, [94], [95], and because it avoids confusion with acoustic intensity, i.e. loudness. Laughter arousal can depend on the trigger/argument itself, on the individual current emotional state, and on social context [6], [96], [97], [98]. ...
Laughter is a crucial signal for communication and managing interactions. Until now no consensual approach has emerged for classifying laughter. We propose a new framework for laughter analysis and classification, based on the pivotal assumption that laughter has propositional content. We propose an annotation scheme to classify the pragmatic functions of laughter taking into account the form, the laughable, the social, situational, and linguistic context. We apply the framework and taxonomy proposed in a multilingual corpus study (French, Mandarin Chinese and English), involving a variety of situational contexts. Our results give rise to novel generalizations about the range of meanings laughter exhibits, the placement of the laughable, and how placement and arousal relate to the functions of laughter. We have tested and refuted the validity of the commonly accepted assumption that laughter directly follows its laughable. In the concluding section, we discuss the implications our work has for spoken dialogue systems. We stress that laughter integration in spoken dialogue systems is not only crucial for emotional and affective computing aspects, but also for aspects related to natural language understanding and pragmatic reasoning. We formulate the emergent computational challenges for incorporating laughter in spoken dialogue systems.
... [89], [90], [91]), but in the current work we prefer to refer to it as 'arousal' since we believe it allows the interactional partner to derive inferences about the shift of arousal 2 experienced by the laugher in the appraisal of the laughable, typically constituted by an incongruity, [94], [95], and because it avoids confusion with acoustic intensity, i.e. loudness. Laughter arousal can depend on the trigger/argument itself, on the individual current emotional state, and on social context [6], [96], [97], [98]. ...
... It can be objectively quantified by analyzing the cardiac response to the detection of the punch line (contrasted transient response; Lackner et al., 2013). Links between divergent thinking and humor processing have long been recognized in the creativity literature (e.g., Cundall, 2007;Kellner & Benedek, 2017;O'Quin & Derks, 2011). ...
Although divergent thinking ability in different domains may largely rely on the same basic executive functions, domain-specific functions may also be important, in particular when it comes to more real-life creativity demands. This study investigated if functional executive control of emotion-laden representations may be specifically relevant in cognitive reappraisal, which implies being creative in an affective context. In a sample of 88 healthy individuals, the relation between the participants’ inventiveness in generating positive reappraisals of adverse events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test) and in generating novel ideas without emotional component (conventional divergent thinking test) to their executive functioning in tasks without (Mittenecker Pointing Test) and with emotional contribution (humor processing task) was studied. In line with hybrid models of creative thinking, poorer basic inhibition skills were found to be associated with poorer fluency performance in both divergent thinking tasks. Relations applied more specifically to reappraisal inventiveness when it came to executive processes with a more prominent emotional component. Creative performance in both tasks may have been hampered by time limits. The results support the notion that, in addition to basic executive functioning, more specific cognitive control functions are implicated in more real-life creative performance, according to related domain-specific demands.
... What's more, the weak communication approach elucidates the function that background knowledge plays in processing jokes: whereas shared subject matter (Cundall 2007) or the mutuality of information (Yus 2016) may be important for understanding what is being communicated, inadequate familiarity with the butt inhibits the weak communication impact and jeopardizes the joke's laughter-provoking potential (cf. also fn. 5 above). ...
The paper offers an analysis of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the production and comprehension of verbal jokes in terms of what relevance theorists refer to as weakly communicated import. While pragmatic analyses of humour emphasize the role of the inferential stages that the audience is intended (or even manipulated, Yus 2016) to go through in processing a joke, the weak communication model presented here focuses on the punchline effect, exploring the nature of the “cognitive climax” that is created. On this account, a vast array of weakly communicated assumptions, resulting in a cognitive overload effect, rather than incongruity resolution on its own, is identified as the laughter-inducing mechanism underlying verbal humour. The central idea is that universal and culture-specific humour-generating elements in jokes have one quality in common, viz. their potential to cause a cognitive overload effect, which may, and often does, result in amusement. On this approach, what is typically recognized as national or ethnic humour is posited to recruit the same humour-invoking pragmatic mechanisms as in other kinds of jokes, the principal difference lying in the choice of the target being mocked, which must be well-known to the audience for the cognitive overload effect to be brought forth. © 2018 University of Debrecen, Institute of Mathematics. All rights reserved.
... Humorous situations arise when the outcome is opposite the expected (Gervais & Wilson, 2005). This theory rejects the notion of superiority, basing humor instead on surprising moments within a situation (Cundall, 2007). Recent research, however, indicates limitations of this theory and adds that humor is more about perception and interpretation, rather than the recognition of incongruity (Cohen, 1999;Province, 2000). ...
The field of political cartooning is an important element of editorial commentary in mass media worldwide. The content of cartoons, however, is sometimes disparaging, offensive and hateful toward members of "out groups," whether defined according to race, ethnicity or religious beliefs. As this article illustrates, this disparagement can have serious and unfortunate outcomes-from protest that turns violent-even deadly-to the alienation of those disparaged. This is particularly concerning in an age when media content may be viewed across cultural and national boundaries within moments of its publication. It is important to recognize the absence of cross-cultural sensitivity that often contributes to these situations. This article seeks to identify the ethical dilemmas in disparaging political cartoons by analyzing theoretical perspectives in both humor and ethics. Approaching these dilemmas from a global perspective, the article proposes a multi-point set of ethical guidelines, while also acknowledging the tension between free speech/press and the recommendation that cartoonists, editors and media organizations self-impose standards that, in effect, can limit their freedom. Particularly given that the primary organization promoting the interests of the U.S. political cartoonists-the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists-does not have a code of ethics, it is suggested that the guidelines proposed herein are especially appropriate for consideration. Ultimately, as with any code of ethics, the hope is that this one leads to a product that better respects multiple perspectives worldwide.
... These events are viewed differently by people and presented in several ways (Tarman, 2016). Cartoons are one of the most popular tools that artists use to express their opinion about different situation in a very simple, attractive, critical and meaningful manner (Martin, 2007;Cundall, 2007). These cartoons are used widely in newspapers because they are welcomed by young and old people and are easily understood. ...
The study aimed at investigating the effect of using cartoons on developing grade four students' awareness of water issues. It also aimed at examining their attitudes towards using cartoons in social studies lessons. An experimental design was used with pre-posttest. The experimental group consisted of (33) male and female students while the control group consisted of (33) male and female students. An awareness of water issues’ test and attitudes questionnaire was used to collect data. The results showed that using cartoons were significantly increased students' awareness of water issues. It also found that students had very high positive attitudes toward using cartoons in social studies lessons.
... See f.e. Cundall (2007) and Forabosco (2008). Recently, Ritchie (2009). ...
Can scientific evidence prompt us to revise philosophical theories or folk theoretical accounts of phenomena of the mind? We will argue that it can—but only under the condition that they make a so-called ‘ontological commitment’ to something that is actually subject to empirical inquiry. In other words, scientific evidence pertaining to neuroanatomical structure or causal processes only has a refuting effect if philosophical theories and folk notions subscribe to either account. We will illustrate the importance of ‘ontological commitment’ with the ‘neuroanatomical approach’ to amusement as proposed in a recent paper by Palencik (Dialogue 46(3):419–434, 2007). We will show that the scientific evidence presented in said neuroanatomical approach has no bearing on the conceptual issues, in that the philosophical theories and folk distinction that are criticized do not subscribe to any account of the underlying neuroanatomical structure or causal processes. Our suggestions in this paper are not limited to philosophical accounts of humor but apply to the relationship of philosophy, common sense and science in general.
... Humor and creativity have been often associated with each other (Cundall, 2007; Wicker, 1985). At the theoretical level, Murdock and Ganim (1993) analyzed theories and definitions of humor and concluded that humor can be regarded as a subset of creativity and the similar theoretical frameworks can help to study both. ...
Many things influence organizational creativity. Some are social and literally organizational. The individuals who comprise it bring others to the organization. There is, of course, an interaction, with the social context having an impact on the performances and contributions of the individuals, as well as the organizational productivity and innovation in part being dependent on those same individuals. One important individual factor is ability. To a certain degree, then, organizational creativity depends on the abilities of the individuals within it. Creative ability is a broad label and category, however, and probably for that reason most research is much more focused. The research on divergent thinking is plentiful and says a great deal about the potential for creative accomplishment, both by individuals working alone and those in organizations. Quite a bit of the research reviewed in this chapter involves divergent thinking in social settings and organizations. There is research on the divergent thinking of managers, for example, as well as entrepreneurs and individuals studying business.
... Humorous versus serious and sober. Humor and creativity have been often associated with each other (Cundall, 2007;Wicker, 1985). At the theoretical level, Murdock and Ganim (1993) analyzed theories and definitions of humor and concluded that humor can be regarded as a subset of creativity and the similar theoretical frameworks can help to study both. ...
Previous empirical studies of divergent thinking (DT) have measured originality by identifying ideas that are unusual or remote but not necessarily divergent. The present investigation used the same kind of open-ended tasks as previous investigations but operationalized scores to capture truly and literally divergent ideas. To this end, 13 dimensions were identified and used to categorize ideas from six DT tasks. These 13 categories represented a kind of ideational hyperspace and insured that actual divergence of thought was captured. Interitem and interrater correlations indicated that 11 of the 13 hyperspace categories were reliable. Furthermore, the tendency to give a large number of ideas within each category was positively associated with originality and fluency. When fluency was statistically controlled, several of the categories (i.e., impractical, synthetic, breadth, non-natural, infeasible, playful, and remote) were positively related with originality, whereas the complementary categories (e.g., practical, nonsynthetic, depth) were negatively related to the originality of both verbal and figural DT. A composite Literal Divergent Thinking (LiDT) Index, calculated by taking all categories into account, was positively associated with attitudes about originality, even after fluency was statistically controlled. The present effort was the first investigation of LiDT and both limitations and direction for future research are explored. Given the reliability of the new LiDT scores, future research should be conducted to determine whether or not LiDT will predict creative thinking more accurately than the traditional indices of DT.
... Probably the most interesting critical position towards the concept of incongruity was held by Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi (1990; see also Veale 2004;Cundall 2007). Latta (1999) raised also a case against incongruity, but his arguments have been radically criticized in a close and tough analysis by Oring (1999). ...
Is the Concept of Incongruity Still a Useful Construct for the Advancement of Humor Research?
The perception of incongruity is considered to be a necessary, though not sufficient, component of the humor experience. Incongruity has been investigated in the philosophical tradition for centuries, and it goes back as far as Aristotle's definition of the comic as based on a particular form of απάτη (surprise and deception). In modern times, many theoretical models, as well as empirical works, are based on this concept. The question is here raised whether the concept of incongruity has already been examined and exploited to its full potential, and nothing new, of theoretical or experimental usefulness, may be drawn from it. It is proposed to conceptualize incongruity as follows: a stimulus is perceived as incongruous when it diverts from the cognitive model of reference. In this perspective, a number of observations are advanced which point to a heuristic property of incongruity still open to interesting developments, both for theory and for applications.
... Semantic, linguistic, or literary analyses tend to focus on the structures of the text or specific tropes, such as the use of irony and wit. Such studies tend to favor incongruity theories, although Cundall (2007) critiques the incongruity theory alone as accounting for all of humor in a study that examines creativity and group processes. Similarly, Gagnier (1988) includes an analysis of several humor theories in her discussion of Victorian women's autobiographies. ...
... As some modern scholars have explicitly acknowledged, the idea that "incongruity" plays a role in the phenomena of humour is not new: it traces back to the time of Plato and Aristotle (Attardo 1994: 18-32, Shelly 2003, Perks 2012. However, it is in the last 40 years that this concept has taken on an increasingly significant role in the literature on humour, and paradoxically also in studies that explicitly contrast the idea of incongruity as crucial for explaining humorous phenomena at large, such as Cundall (2007), Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi (1997), Latta (1999), and Veale (2004). Koestler's bisociation theory (1964), Suls's two-stage model (1972), Norrick's frame bisociation (1986) and Attardo's conceptualisation of script opposition (1997,2001) are some of the most important examples of approaches to cognitive and/or linguistic aspects of humour that have applied and operationalised the idea of "incongruity" in one way or another. ...
According to the cognitive approach to humour, the understanding of jokes implies the recognition of an incongruity followed by its resolution. Through our work, we aim to contribute to this strand of research by investigating the link between cognitive processes and the understanding of humour. In particular, we will explore the distinction between the three different types of contrariety (global, intermediate and additive) that has emerged from the research on the psychology of perception and is characterised by different perceptual evidence, and how it applies to the concept of incongruity. We will also discuss what a reading of humorous incongruity in terms of perceptual patterns may add to previous definitions of incongruity and how it helps to contribute to the further operationalisation thereof.
... Probably the most interesting critical position towards the concept of incongruity was held by Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi (1990; see also Veale 2004;Cundall 2007). Latta (1999) raised also a case against incongruity, but his arguments have been radically criticized in a close and tough analysis by Oring (1999). ...
Studies devoted to cognitive aspects in the humor process have attached increasing importance to the perception of incongruity. This concept offers extremely fertile ground for investigation in theoretical-experimental terms, as revealed by studies undertaken mainly in the early 1970s and subse-quently. In particular, a stimulating debate has grown up over its role and over the need for and function of the “resolution” of incongruity in the humor experience (for appreciation and understanding). The terms of the debate are taken up in the light of several classic studies into incongruity (and correlated concepts). The author then submits a contribution based on the definition of “incongruity” as “divergence from a cognitive model of reference” and of “resolution” as “cognitive mastery.” Seen from this perspective, both the perception of the incongruity and its resolution are essential components for the humor process. Last, significant indications are given concerning the need to step up research into the interactions between the cognitive dimension and other aspects of the personality (espe-cially the affective dimension), in which the concept of incongruity appears as a bridge concept.
This study explores the concept of resilient joy, particularly humor, as a coping mechanism for journalists facing challenging work environments. Amidst the ongoing journalism crisis-marked by newspaper closures, job insecurity, and high emotional labor-many journalists continue their work, sustained by moments of joy and humor. Drawing on interviews with 21 U.S. journalists and building on Parks' (2021) theory of "joy as a news value," this research investigates how humor not only serves as an emotional release but also fosters camaraderie in the newsroom, strengthens journalist-source relationships. The findings highlight humor's critical role in contributing to building a supportive work environment, enhancing job satisfaction, and allowing journalists to maintain engagement with their profession. By focusing on resilient joy, this study emphasizes the need to recognize joy and humor as essential components of journalistic practice, with the potential to improve both journalist well-being and the overall quality of journalism.
In this hypothesis, I discuss how laughter from physical play could have evolved to being induced via visual or even verbal stimuli, and serves as a signal to highlight incongruity that could potentially pose a threat to survival. I suggest how laughter’s induction could have negated the need for physical contact in play, evolving from its use in tickling, to tickle-misses, and to taunting, and I discuss how the application of deep learning neural networks trained on images of spectra of a variety of laughter types from a variety of individuals or even species, could be used to determine such evolutionary pathways via the use of latent space exploration.
Bad jokes are not simply non-humorous texts. They are texts that are humorous for someone––their author at least––but not for their audience. Bad jokes thus involve a contextual––pragmatic––dimension that is neglected in the semantic theories of humor. In this paper, we propose an approach to humor based on the Aristotelian notion of surprising enthymemes. Jokes are analyzed as kinds of arguments, whose tacit dimension can be retrieved and justified by considering the “logic” on which it is based. However, jokes are based on specific pragmatic conditions: they are regarded as arguments grounded on a generalization that is at the same time uncommon, retrievable, and acceptable or plausible for the audience. This perspective integrates the “local logic” of jokes within a broader rhetorical theory that ultimately rests on the communicative notion of common ground.
Представлены результаты использования подсказок для исследования процессов распознания юмора в тексте. Распознание юмора понимается в соответствии с моделями когнитивных теорий юмора, представленными в обобщающей модели Дж. Салса. В первом эксперименте в качестве подсказки использовались специфические смайлики – эмодзи. Подсказкой было расположение эмодзи в определенных местах текста (рядом с источником двойного смысла, либо в случайном месте), а также содержание изображения – то, какие именно объекты изображает эмодзи (иллюстрирующие важные аспекты шутки, либо случайные). Содержание изображения облегчает удержание смысла текста в рабочей памяти, что также способствует его пониманию. Выяснилось, что смайлы отвлекали внимание на себя, а не привлекали его к компоненту текста. Отвлечение внимания от источника двусмысленности привело к снижению частоты распознания юмора, а содержание изображения не способствовало более частому распознанию юмора. Эти результаты успешно объясняются с помощью теории разрешения противоречия, представители которой сближают процессы понимания юмора и решения творческих задач. Во втором эксперименте подсказка упрощала некогнитивные аспекты переработки юмора. Подсказывалась реакция на юмор путем упоминания в тексте остроты той эмоции, которая ожидается от слушателя (читателя), т.е. эмоциональной и конкретно позитивной. Реакция на остроты с упоминанием позитивных и негативных эмоций сравнивались с реакцией на остроты, в которых эмоции вообще не упоминаются. Результаты свидетельствуют, что упоминание эмоций, особенно позитивных, ускоряет переработку остроты в процессе прочтения, однако, смеховая реакция существенно чаще возникает в тех случаях, когда подобные подсказки отсутствуют. В выводах обсуждается эффективность использования метода подсказки, традиционно применяемого в исследованиях процессов решения задач, для исследования юмора.
The words, the phrases, and the faces of those delivering news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic from the Ministry of Health—new cases, number of deaths, number of recoveries, and efforts towards “flattening the curve”—became a routine television feature in Kenya. This drove Kenyans to adapt to an abnormal situation as the new norm. Kenyan comedians, especially Eric Omondi, built their jokes around the personalities that delivered the Covid-19 messaging and the expectations and fears of Kenyans regarding the effects of these special Covid-19 announcements. This article, in contrast to the extant literature’s treatment of ethno-centric humour, seeks to explore online jokes surrounding the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 announcements and the monthly presidential addresses, as expressed by Eric Omondi, a Kenyan comedian. The aim is to understand how Kenyans made sense of the pandemic through the creation of incongruous humour.
This paper adopts a relevance-theoretic perspective to analyse how chirigotas – one of the types of bands in Cádiz carnival – exploit a series of verbal and visual comic elements in order to create or reinforce local identity: (i) the names of the bands, (ii) their attire, (iii) gestures and (iv) the lyrics of their comical songs, which satirise, mock, criticise, ridicule, praise, flatter or censure events or states of affairs. These elements will be argued to make manifest assumptions, activate (private) mental frames or express attitudes about those events or states of affairs, which the audience discover are already manifest to, and shared by, its members. Checking that other people entertain similar assumptions about and/or have similar attitudes towards those events or states of affairs – i.e. the ‘joy of manifestness’ – will be shown to be essential for generating a feeling of in-group membership on which that of a local identity greatly depends.
Nuestro objetivo principal en este trabajo es llevar a cabo un análisis empírico de la recepción del humor basado en elementos culturales en la traducción española de la obra de Naguib Mahfuz. Pretendemos medir el grado de percepción de la comicidad en esta traducción en comparación con la versión original y desvelar, al mismo tiempo, cualquier posible relación entre este aspecto y el grado de explicitación de la información relacionada con los culturemas, mediante el uso de ciertas técnicas traslativas. Cuatro cuestionarios constituidos por diez segmentos extraídos de la obra original y sus correspondientes traducciones reales y manipuladas fueron sometidos al juicio de hablantes nativos de ambos idiomas. La tasa de percepción del humor en las traducciones reales no supera el 30%. Los datos también indican que la explicitación de la información es un factor que puede mejorar los resultados, pero su efecto es bastante reducido, puesto que hace que desaparezca del texto la complicidad entre emisor y receptor, que es un elemento esencial para la percepción de la hilaridad.
Both creativity and humor are high-level cognitive functions and complex concepts. Although creativity and humor are generally deemed positively correlated, it has been difficult to explicitly identify their relationship with each other. The cognitive process of creativity includes divergent thinking, insight, and remote association, whereas humor comprehension includes incongruity resolution and nonsense humor. The difference between the 2 types of humor is in whether individuals can understand the content of jokes through logical deduction. This study explored the relationship of the different dimensions of cognitive creativity and incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor comprehension. Furthermore, we examined the influence of divergent thinking, insight, and remote association on incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor comprehension. The scores from 103 participants on a divergent thinking questionnaire, an insight problem-solving task, and the Chinese compound remote associate problems test were used to analyze their comprehension of incongruity resolution and nonsense humor. The results showed a positive correlation between remote association and incongruity-resolution humor comprehension, as well as a positive correlation between insight and nonsense humor comprehension. These findings indicate that each dimension of cognitive creativity has a particular way of connecting to various types of humor comprehension.
Peking opera epitomizes the traditional Chinese performing arts, and all six factors concerning the story and performance of Peking opera, namely plot, role type, song, speech, acting, and combat, can produce humorous effects among the audience. The present paper is a tentative study on humor and sensing humor in Peking opera. The scale study testified that all six factors were able to produce humorous effects and that they had different degrees of comprehension difficulty and humor for different contributing factors. The degree of comprehension difficulty can assert negative influence upon the degree of humor. Different from the traditionally held nonmonotonic (inverted-U) correlation between the two, a monotonic inverse proportion between the two has been detected. The interview analyses revealed that the humorous effects had something to do with incongruity but that resolution might not necessarily be involved. The scale study and the interview analysis both support this finding.
This chapter explores the intersection between judges and humour by focusing on the substance of judicial opinions in the United States. Judges have the opportunity to rule on legal liability for jokes in both the criminal and the civil contexts. Both of these contexts are evaluated, focusing primarily on US law with comparisons to cases from other countries. Criminal prohibitions include putative jokes about inflicting violence on aviation targets, about the President of the United States and about racial minorities. For civil cases, the chapter explores judicial regulation of humour in contract, trademark, employment discrimination, and defamation cases. The chapter’s analytical focus is interdisciplinary and includes discussion of constitutional free speech doctrines as well as humour theories developed in the humanities and social sciences. An overriding goal is to document patterns in humour regulation so as to provide guidance for courts, academics across different disciplines, and for humourists who seek to understand and predict legal regulation.
The current analysis deconstructs creativity and humor from a cul- tural perspective. We first identify two key commonalities between crea- tivity and humor: Both (a) involve appropriate violations of norms and (b) require cognitive flexibility. Because norms and cognitive styles dif- fer across cultures, we systematically analyze how Eastern and Western cultures differ in both creativity and humor, and how cultural differ- ences in creativity often mirror cultural differences in humor. We then review the burgeoning literature on how cross-cultural experiences increase individuals’ creativity, and explore how these experiences can also increase individuals’ humor comprehension, humor usage, and humor production. Our analysis demonstrates that Aha truly meets Haha across the globe.
It is believed that both wit and product design innovation involve making non-obvious connections between seemingly unrelated things. In a study involving 84 participants taking a cartoon caption test and a nominal product brainstorming test, we found that improvisational comedians on average produced 20% more product ideas and 25% more creative product ideas than professional product designers. Individual quantity of product ideas was highly correlated (r 2=.82) with that individual's product creativity scores, and individual quantity of cartoon captions was highly correlated (r 2=.64) with that individual's caption humor scores. It was also found that the few individuals that were highly fluent in prolific creative product ideation were also highly fluent in prolific humorous cartoon caption production. The majority of these prolific generators had improvisational comedy training. Many of the games used in introductory improvisation comedy classes are designed to train people in making prolific non-obvious connections between seemingly unrelated things. A workshop was developed composed of these association-based games with the goal of helping designers be more prolific, and thus creative, idea generators. A group of 11 subjects who participated in this workshop increased their idea output on average by 37% in a subsequent product brainstorming session.
In the 1970s, Hollywood experienced a creative surge, opening a new era in American cinema with films that challenged traditional modes of storytelling. Inspired by European and Asian art cinema as well as Hollywood's own history of narrative ingenuity, directors such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, and Francis Ford Coppola undermined the harmony of traditional Hollywood cinema and created some of the best movies ever to come out of the American film industry. Critics have previously viewed these films as a response to the cultural and political upheavals of the 1970s, but until now no one has explored how the period's inventive narrative design represents one of the great artistic accomplishments of American cinema. In Hollywood Incoherent, Todd Berliner offers the first thorough analysis of the narrative and stylistic innovations of seventies cinema and its influence on contemporary American filmmaking. He examines not just formally eccentric films-Nashville; Taxi Driver; A Clockwork Orange; The Godfather, Part II; and the films of John Cassavetes-but also mainstream commercial films, including The Exorcist, The Godfather, The French Connection, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Dog Day Afternoon, Chinatown, The Bad News Bears, Patton, All the President's Men, Annie Hall, and many others. With persuasive revisionist analyses, Berliner demonstrates the centrality of this period to the history of Hollywood's formal development, showing how seventies films represent the key turning point between the storytelling modes of the studio era and those of modern American cinema.
An integrative introduction to the theories and themes in research on creativity, the second edition of Creativity is both a reference work and text for courses in this burgeoning area of research. The book begins with a discussion of the theories of creativity (Person, Product, Process, Place), the general question of whether creativity is influenced by nature or nurture, what research has indicated of the personality and style of creative individuals from a personality analysis standpoint, and how social context affects creativity. This wide-ranging work then proceeds to coverage of issues such as gender differences, whether creativity can be enhanced, if creativity is related to poor mental or physical health, and much more. The book contains boxes covering special interest items, including one-page biographies of famous creative individuals, and activities for a group or individual to test or encourage creativity, as well as references to Internet sites relating to creativity. Includes all major theories and perspectives on creativity. Consolidates recent research into a single source. Includes key terms defined and text boxes with interesting related material. Single authored for clarity and consistency of presentation.
A synthesis is proposed such that social leafing, social facilitation, and deindividuation are viewed as different ways of arranging social consequences. The effects of such arrangements have been measured in past research through productive output (social leafing and social facilitation) or through antinormative behaviors (deindividuation). All three effects are manipulable by changing individual identifiability, evaluation, social identity, task difficulty, and presence in a group. In general, when people are in groups then there is less individual visibility and therefore fewer negative social consequences individually for reducing output or for increasing socially unacceptable behaviors, even if outputs are not explicitly pooled (traditional social leafing). Whereas social leafing and social facilitation have been empirically linked in past experiments, social leafing and deindividuation have not. An experiment was therefore conducted in which participants worked on a brainstorming task alone or in a group, and with or without individual identifiability. Effects of both a modified social leafing paradigm (reduced output in groups) and a deindividuation paradigm (more socially unacceptable responses in groups) were found simultaneously for the first time. Combined with other good evidence linking social leafing and social facilitation, this supports the idea that the three topics are not separate phenomena but different arrangements of social consequence variables.
Experimental research indicates that people in face-to-face brainstorming meetings are less efficient at generating ideas than when working alone, This so-called productivity loss has led many brainstorming researchers to conclude that there is overwhelming evidence for the ineffectiveness of these sessions, We question this conclusion because it is based on efficient idea generation as the primary effectiveness outcome and on studies that do not examine how or why organizations use brainstorming. We report a qualitative study of a product design firm that uses brainstorming sessions. These sessions had six important consequences for this firm, its design engineers, and its clients that are not evident in the brainstorming literature, or are reported but not labeled as effectiveness outcomes: (1) supporting the organizational memory of design solutions; (2) providing skill variety for designers; (3) supporting an attitude of wisdom (acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows); (4) creating a status auction (a competition for status based on technical skill); (5) impressing clients; and (6) providing income for the firm, This study suggests that when brainstorming sessions are viewed in organizational context and the ''effectiveness at what'' and ''effectiveness for whom'' questions are asked, efficiency at idea generation may deserve no special status as an effectiveness outcome. We propose a broader perspective for assessing brainstorming effectiveness in organizations.
Drawing upon ten years of research into the most common—yet complex and often puzzling—human behavior. Dr. R. Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates various aspects of laughter: (1) its evolution; (2) its role in social relationships; (3) its contagiousness; (4) its neural mechanisms; and (5) its health benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research has shown that individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome are impaired in humor appreciation, although anecdotal and parental reports provide some evidence to the contrary. This paper reviews the cognitive and affective processes involved in humor and recent neurological findings. It examines humor expression and understanding in autism and Asperger syndrome in the context of the main psychological theories (Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, Weak Central Coherence and Laterization models) and associated neural substrates. In the concluding sections, examples of humor displayed by individuals with autism/Asperger syndrome which appear to challenge the above theories are analyzed and areas for further research are suggested.
Given the virtually universal observation that some form of incongruity in the story line of a joke is an essential condition for verbal (or written) humor, it remains to ask how the contradictory logic is treated by the hearer in order to he transformed into humor. Using foundations from both the semantic and pragmatic analyses of linguistics, it is demonstrated that the hearer (or the reader) must sometimes use inference to get the joke at all, and must sometimes inhibit any rational thought to avoid killing the joke entirely. A series of examples are offered to show the degree of fine-tuned discrimination that is used either to exploit or shut off all critical reasoning, depending on the demands of the joke in combination with the listener's general knowledge external to the script.
Despite its strong cognitive orientation in recent years, humor research still has paid relatively little attention to the paradigm of Cognitive linguistics (CL), which in light of its dynamic view on cognitive and semantic aspects of language in use, seems to provide an adequate framework for the analysis of humor. With regard to the "cognitive construal" of human experience as one of the basic notions of CL, this paper describes for three types of humorous texts in what ways construal operations are exploited, combined, and embedded in humorous discourse, as well as the way in which they relate to the achievement of humorous effects. It is demonstrated, accordingly, that CL contributes to a holistic account of humor as a highly marked and complex, yet structurally not irregular kind of language use. In this respect, this contribution is particularly critical about the category of Logical Mechanisms, defined in the GTVH as humor-specific operations that guide the process of incongruity resolution in humor interpretation. Instead, the present account advocates a prototype model of construal operations, in which incongruity and resolution appear as two perspectives of the same cognitive construal.
In three different studies involving exposun to two differcot humorous and comparison videotapes, it was demonstrated that humor arousal signiticantly increases S-IgA in college students. Furthermore significantly more of the subjects exposed to the humor films showed an increese in S-IgA than the subjects exposed to the comparison films. A good sense of humor, measured as a trait, was associated with higher baseline concentrations of S-IgA and with greater increases in S-IgA in response to a humor arousing film. Higher bascline kvels and gains in S-IgA in respoase to humor were associated with lower reported severity of colds in the past twelve months and in the three months following assessment. However, a good sense of humor was related to lesser cold incidence and severity only if it involved appreciation rather than production of humor. While those who actively tell jokes also show higher S-IgA levels, they show greater susceptibility to colds than those who only appreciate humor probably because they sodalize more often under conditions that expose them more to cold infections.
We studied the impact on project quality of whether course project teams used the Nominal Group Technique (NGT—a systematic approach to soliciting individual inputs into group project design and planning) for executing projects with a significant creative component. Social-loafing mediation of NGT effects on project quality also was examined. Sixteen project groups in 4 laboratory sections (total N = 62) for a social psychology course took part in Study 1, and 16 project groups from a lecture class in environmental psychology (N = 78) took part in Study 2. Half of the project groups in each class were randomly assigned to use NGT for executing a required class project. Social loafing was measured by both self- and peer-evaluations of effort exerted by individuals toward project success. In Study 1, NGT had a significant effect on social loafing, and average loafing levels within groups were significantly related to rank order project quality. Because NGT was assigned and project quality evaluated within laboratory sections, direct NGT relations to project quality could not be tested. In Study 2, NGT affected both loafing levels and rated project quality, and social loafing seemed to have mediated the effects of NGT on project quality.
under certain circumstances, disturbance and tension can facilitate creative effort / reviews the research on tension [in creativity] and related concepts, including asynchrony, marginality, resilience, and problem gaps / attempt to integrate the various views of tension / present the controversial argument that [intrinsic motivation follows from cognitive involvement in a task, rather than the other way around] / although both affect and cognition are involved in creative acts, [the author argues] that the latter in fact causes the former (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abe and his friend Sol are out for a walk together in a part of town they haven't been in before. Passing a Christian church, they notice a curious sign in front that says "1,000?" Indignantly Abe replies, "Money. That's all you people care about." Ted Cohen thinks that's not a bad joke. But he also doesn't think it's an easy joke. For a listener or reader to laugh at Abe's conversion, a complicated set of conditions must be met. First, a listener has to recognize that Abe and Sol are Jewish names. Second, that listener has to be familiar with the widespread idea that Jews are more interested in money than anything else. And finally, the listener needs to know this information in advance of the joke, and without anyone telling him or her. Jokes, in short, are complicated transactions in which communities are forged, intimacy is offered, and otherwise offensive stereotypes and cliches lose their stingâat least sometimes. Jokes is a book of jokes and a book about them. Cohen loves a good laugh, but as a philosopher, he is also interested in how jokes work, why they work, and when they don't. The delight at the end of a joke is the result of a complex set of conditions and processes, and Cohen takes us through these conditions in a philosophical exploration of humor. He considers questions of audience, selection of joke topics, the ethnic character of jokes, and their morality, all with plenty of examples that will make you either chuckle or wince. Jokes: more humorous than other philosophy books, more philosophical than other humor books. "Befitting its subject, this study of jokes is . . . light, funny, and thought-provoking. . . . [T]he method fits the material, allowing the author to pepper the book with a diversity of jokes without flattening their humor as a steamroller theory might. Such a book is only as good as its jokes, and most of his are good. . . . [E]ntertainment and ideas in one gossamer package."âKirkus Reviews "One of the many triumphs of Ted Cohen's Jokes-apart from the not incidental fact that the jokes are so good that he doesn't bother to compete with them-is that it never tries to sound more profound than the jokes it tells. . . . [H]e makes you feel he is doing an unusual kind of philosophy. As though he has managed to turn J. L. Austin into one of the Marx Brothers. . . . Reading Jokes makes you feel that being genial is the most profound thing we ever do-which is something jokes also make us feel-and that doing philosophy is as natural as being amused."âAdam Phillips, London Review of Books "[A] lucid and jargon-free study of the remarkable fact that we divert each other with stories meant to make us laugh. . . . An illuminating study, replete with killer jokes."âKevin McCardle, The Herald (Glasgow) "Cohen is an ardent joke-maker, keen to offer us a glimpse of how jokes are crafted and to have us dwell rather longer on their effects."âBarry C. Smith, Times Literary Supplement "Because Ted Cohen loves jokes, we come to appreciate them more, and perhaps think further about the quality of good humor and the appropriateness of laughter in our lives."âSteve Carlson, Christian Science Monitor
Investigated examples of naturalistic humor in a group of 6 young children with autism and 6 age- and language-matched children with Down syndrome, who were videotaped while interacting with their mothers in bimonthly 1-hour sessions over the course of 1 year. Humor episodes were analyzed on three dimensions: cognitive developmental, social, and intentionality. The autistic children produced significantly less humor overall and less humor involving nonverbal incongruity. The only jokes in the study were told by 2 of the children with Down syndrome. Results indicate that while children with autism can produce and appreciate humor to a limited extent in a naturalistic setting, they do so at a significantly reduced level compared to matched controls. Findings are discussed in relation to the social-cognitive deficits in autistic children, which are among the primary characteristics of the syndrome.
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