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Towards a better understanding of racist and ethnic humor

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Abstract

This paper argues for a broader understanding of racist and ethnic humor (or blason populaire) that takes into account research from areas in folklore studies, philosophy and psychology. It argues that part of the general view that racist and ethnic humor is thought to be problematic comes from a conservative reaction by researchers focusing on racist and ethnic humor in the United States. Since the arguments against racist and ethnic humor are broadly consequentialist in nature, it takes issue with the evidence for such claims. Further, it is argued that not all racist and ethnic humor has negative outcomes and that some certain forms are not so problematic as one might initially expect. The paper then shows that the consequentialist view does not evenly apply to all forms of racist and ethnic humor despite their claims that all forms of racist and ethnic humor are blameworthy.

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... A recent report by Borgella et al. (2020: 114-115) finds that "the literature exploring humour in intergroup contexts has focused almost exclusively on humour that targets a person or persons based on their membership in a social group". This is often referred to as disparagement humour (Ford & Ferguson 2004) that maligns a group at the social level (Cundall 2012), whether playfully or maliciously (Borgella et al. 2020, after Janes & Olson 2010. Disparagement humour is usefully defined as "communication that is intended to elicit amusement through the denigration, derogation, or belittlement of a given target" (Ford 2015; see also Zillmann 1983). ...
... Ethnic humour against supposedly 'inferior' social groups initially conveyed the thrusts of the wellentrenched members of society, the white, mostly Protestant 'haves,' against the newly arriving immigrants or their imperfectly assimilated offspring, or against black slaves, freedmen, their children, and children's children (Boskin & Dorinson 1985: 81). Cundall (2012) however argued differently. He criticises the conventional wisdom that all ethnic or racist humour is problematic, categorising such studies as a conservative reaction that is consequentialist in nature. ...
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Serving as introduction to this Special Issue, this article presents a thematic review of topics involved in studies on humour and belonging. It briefly elaborates on the intricacies of concepts such as humour, sense of humour and belonging and their relationships. It then provides a selective review of some major relevant studies. Finally, the themes and contents of the Special Issue are introduced.
... A recent report by Borgella et al. (2020: 114-115) finds that "the literature exploring humour in intergroup contexts has focused almost exclusively on humour that targets a person or persons based on their membership in a social group". This is often referred to as disparagement humour (Ford & Ferguson 2004) that maligns a group at the social level (Cundall 2012), whether playfully or maliciously (Borgella et al. 2020, after Janes & Olson 2010. Disparagement humour is usefully defined as "communication that is intended to elicit amusement through the denigration, derogation, or belittlement of a given target" (Ford 2015; see also Zillmann 1983). ...
... Ethnic humour against supposedly 'inferior' social groups initially conveyed the thrusts of the wellentrenched members of society, the white, mostly Protestant 'haves,' against the newly arriving immigrants or their imperfectly assimilated offspring, or against black slaves, freedmen, their children, and children's children (Boskin & Dorinson 1985: 81). Cundall (2012) however argued differently. He criticises the conventional wisdom that all ethnic or racist humour is problematic, categorising such studies as a conservative reaction that is consequentialist in nature. ...
Article
Full-text available
Serving as introduction to this Special Issue, this article presents a thematic review of topics involved in studies on humour and belonging. It briefly elaborates on the intricacies of concepts such as humour, sense of humour and belonging and their relationships. It then provides a selective review of some major relevant studies. Finally, the themes and contents of the Special Issue are introduced.
... Not every ethnic humor is problematic (Cundall, 2012), yet its contribution to producing and reproducing ethnic prejudice and hatred cannot be ignored. Ethnic humor does not strictly state hostility. ...
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This study proposes to explain that Indonesian ethnic humor show cultural violence on the target group, in addition, to establishing an interethnic dialogue. Cultural violence is defined as the entire cultural aspect that can be used to legitimize violence, whether direct or structural. Forms of cultural violence can include religion, ideology, language, empirical sciences, formal science, and cosmology. The problems questioned are (1) how cultural violence is depicted in the language structure of Indonesian ethnic humor and (2) how are the forms of cultural violence in the discourse of Indonesian ethnic humor. Data on ethnic humor were from books, magazines, websites, and social media. All were analyzed using critical discourse analysis. The results show that the potential for cultural violence in ethnic humor can be traced by its content and context. The content relates to the expressed substance and language, while context is under users' social and historical formation. Ethnic humor in Indonesia targets ethnic minorities such as Chinese and Madurese. When it comes to racist circumstances, ethnic humor can normalize structural discrimination and violence against the referred ethnicities. Cultural violence includes stigmatization, normalization of discriminatory policies, and social exclusion. This finding suggests that nonserious discourse, such as humor, has a severe social impact, therefore it must be used wisely. Budaya kekerasan dalam humor etnis Indonesia: Analisis wacana kritis Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan bahwa humor etnis Indonesia menunjukkan kekerasan budaya pada kelompok sasaran, selain itu, untuk membangun dialog antar-etnis. Kekerasan budaya didefinisikan sebagai seluruh aspek budaya yang dapat digunakan untuk melegitimasi kekerasan, baik langsung maupun struktural. Bentuk kekerasan budaya dapat mencakup agama, ideologi, bahasa, ilmu pengetahuan empiris, ilmu pengetahuan formal, dan kosmologi. Pertanyaan yang diajukan adalah (1) bagaimana kekerasan budaya digambarkan dalam struktur bahasa humor etnis Indonesia dan (2) bagaimana bentuk kekerasan budaya dalam wacana humor etnis Indonesia. Data tentang humor etnis berasal dari buku, majalah, situs web, dan media sosial. Semua dianalisis menggunakan analisis wacana kritis. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa potensi kekerasan budaya dalam humor etnis dapat dilacak melalui konten dan konteksnya. Konten terkait dengan substansi dan bahasa yang diekspresikan, sedangkan konteks berada di bawah pembentukan sosial dan sejarah pengguna. Humor etnis di Indonesia menargetkan minoritas etnis seperti Tionghoa dan Madura. Dalam situasi yang rasis, humor etnis dapat memperkuat diskriminasi struktural dan kekerasan terhadap etnis yang disebutkan. Kekerasan budaya mencakup penstigmaan, normalisasi kebijakan diskriminatif, dan eksklusi sosial. Temuan ini menunjukkan bahwa wacana yang tidak serius, seperti humor, memiliki dampak sosial yang serius, oleh karena itu harus digunakan dengan bijak.
... Sometimes, they are borrowed from other ethnic groups and adapted or modified before their proliferation in another location, group, or culture. There may be published or unpublished "jokelore" involving the repeated telling and re-telling of the same jokes, humorous sayings or remarks, allegories, parables, fables, insults, puns, acrostics, riddles, slurs, comics, absurdities, or caricatures on the targeted groups (Littleton & Holder, 2019;Pérez, 2016;Friedman, 2014;Cundall, 2012; RWith changing times in contemporary times, new forms of ethnic humor are appearing as "forwards" in the virtual or online mode, filling electronic mailboxes (Boxman-Shabtai & Shifman, 2015). In a corporate setting, they are observed to create an amiable atmosphere, remove intimidation, enhance work camaraderie, increase productivity, stimulate creativity, and improve employee performance (Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995). ...
Article
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Humor is the quality of being amusing or comic. Although it is a universal phenomenon, humor takes different forms and styles at different ages or stages in an individual's or society's life. More specifically, ethnic humor is based on ideas, beliefs, and stereotypes about racial or specific groups. The goal of this narrative review was to seek internet search engines for peer-reviewed research articles, books, and publications on ethnic humor's meaning, characteristics, types, sources, dynamics, measurement, benefits, applications, and negative aspects. The results showed a collection of 97 publications with an abundance of narrative essays or descriptive qualitative studies. A topic or theme-wise, and the analysis of results by timelines is reported. The contemporary status of research on ethnic humor appears to be plagued by limitations. There is paucity of studies on data-based, empirical, survey-type, hypothesis-driven, case-controlled, experimental, or higher-order randomized control designs within and across groups in the community of nations. The future of research is recommended as a promise and an invitation to cover ethnic humor in advertising, mass media, digital, or the virtual social worlds.
... In the settings that I observed, students used the term 'racist joke' to indicate the potentially harmful, inappropriate or disturbing nature of the joke or the references to racial, cultural, ethnic or language differences framed as jokes and teasing. In the scholarly literature on humour, the term 'racial humour' is a broad category which includes references to ethnic, cultural or linguistic differences 1 (Anderson, 2015), although other terms are also used in the literature such as ethnic humour or Blason populaire, the latter used specifically in folklore studies to refer to humour based on group stereotypes (Cundall, 2012). ...
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Posing the rhetorical question ‘Have we lost our sense of humour?’ this article analyses senses of racial humour through the use of affect theory. Despite the common use of the idiom ‘a sense of humour’ within everyday speech, there is a lack of social and cultural analysis of the senses that guide understandings of whether or not something is funny. Through the lens of affect theory, this article explores sensory experiences of humour, showing how senses of humour are both affective corporeal experiences – such as laughter – and an affective relational flow between and among bodies. Drawing on interview material gathered in diverse schools in Denmark, the article analyses how students negotiate the use of racial humour with particular focus on tonalities of humour and the affective stakes involved in laughter and unlaughter. The article argues that affect theory can help bridge a gap in the literature on humour, which either reduces humour to bodily, mental and cognitive predispositions, or to social and cultural functions.
... Los estudios sociológicos también han identificado posibles factores que pueden influenciar el tipo de humor usado en una situación dada, como por ejemplo la observación de que el humor es probable que sea más mordaz cuando el objeto del humor no está presente (Fine 1984). Las relaciones de poder entre individuos y grupos probablemente influyen en el tipo de humor usado (Cundall 2012). Amenazas percibidas contra la identidad, por ejemplo, pueden llevar a formas más denigrantes de humor (Ferguson y Ford 2008). ...
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¿Está el mundo en el que vivimos tan secularizado como lo creía la sociología de la religión del siglo pasado? ¿qué hace la gente cuando vive eso que llama religión? ¿cómo y qué estudia la sociología de la religión actual? Para la sociología, la religión es una forma de práctica humana que tiene como referencia una dimensión sobrenatural, a veces entendida como sagrada. Sirve para cualquier fin humano, desde la salvación después de la muerte, el fortalecimiento de un matrimonio, o la reconstrucción del sí mismo. Es un fenómeno relevante en cualquier sociedad, con iglesias y asociaciones religiosas que controlan amplios recursos y que proveen servicios sociales de importancia. Pero también es un medio a través del cual la gente puede trabajar y reconstruir su micro-contexto social, incluyendo su propia identidad. Los capítulos de este libro son traducciones de artículos originalmente publicados en la revista académica Qualitative Sociology entre 2011 y 2018, período en el cual David Smilde fue su director. Reflejan las tendencias más recientes en metodología cualitativa y la dirección conceptual en los estudios de la religión que se ha denominado “la religión vivida.”
... Explanations typically center on the way such humor functions to devalue the partner, creating hurt feelings. Since much disparagement humor trades on stereotypes (Cundall 2012), directing such humor at a partner positions that person as an outgroup member. Then, consistent with prejudiced norm theory (Ford and Ferguson 2004), such humor may release further prejudicial behavior. ...
Article
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This study investigated relational uncertainty as a mechanism through which perceived partner humor use affects recipient's relationship satisfaction. Two hundred individuals completed measures of their partners' perceived positive and negative humor use, their relational uncertainty and relationship satisfaction. Results reveal that perceived partner's positive relational humor use predicted greater relationship satisfaction, and perceived partner's negative relational humor use predicted diminished relationship satisfaction. Further, relational uncertainty mediated relationships between perceived partner positive humor and satisfaction and perceived partner negative humor and satisfaction.
... Though many types of humor have the potential to influence interpersonal outcomes (e. g. Martin and Kuiper 2007), the literature exploring humor in intergroup contexts has focused almost exclusively on humor that targets a person or persons based on their membership in a social group and, more specifically, disparagement humor, defined as humor that denigrates or maligns social groups (e. g. Cundall 2012;Martin 2007), whether playful or malicious (e. g. Janes and Olson 2010). ...
Article
We explore the idea that humor focused on social group disparities can be a viable tool to reduce some of the negative outcomes associated with interracial interactions. These interactions are crucial in promoting common understanding about the causes of social, educational, and economic disparities and crafting solutions to redress them. However, investigations have demonstrated that interracial interactions can be emotionally and cognitively taxing, and for these reasons are often avoided. When not avoided, these interactions often result in negative outcomes. Anxiety has been identified as a key factor in these outcomes as majority group members cope with concerns over appearing biased and minority group members cope with concerns over being discriminated against. Humor may be able to alleviate anxiety that contributes to negative outcomes associated with intergroup dialogue. To explore this claim, we first review the literature on interracial interactions and the role of anxiety in shaping them. We then discuss investigations exploring the impact of group-related humor, specifically disparagement humor, on intergroup perceptions. Finally, we draw from both literatures to consider factors that might determine race-related humor’s potential to facilitate positive interracial dialogue through anxiety reduction. We conclude with some possible areas for further research.
... Etninen ja erityisesti rasistinen huumori on klassinen esimerkki stereotypioiden varaan rakentuvasta diskurssista (blason populaire), jonka yleisesti (ja osin virheellisesti) ajatellaan olevan kohdettaan alistavaa puhetta (Cundall 2012). Etnisiin ryhmiin kohdistetulle huumorille, erityisesti vitseille, on ominaista, etteivät niiden sisällään pitämät viestit pysy yhteiskunnallisen kehityksen kyydissä (Kuipers & van der Ent 2016). ...
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Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan, kuinka kielellisten vähemmistöjen tilallinen identiteetti rakentuu ja muotoutuu huumorin kautta. Tutkimuskohteena on Ruotsin puoleisessa Tornionlaaksossa meänkieltä puhuvat kielelliset vähemmistöt. Tutkimuskysymystä lähestytään narratiivisen identiteetin käsitteen kautta, jolla viitataan siihen, kuinka yksilöt ja ryhmät rakentavat kertomuksen itsestään suhteessa laajempiin yhteiskunnallisiin ja kulttuurisiin diskursseihin. Tutkimus perustuu kahdeksaan syyskuun 2015 ja helmikuun 2016 välillä eri kulttuuritoimijoiden kanssa käytyyn ryhmäkeskusteluun, joissa huumoria lähestyttiin sekä keskustelun temaattisena aiheena että kerronnan muotona. Keskusteluissa kävi ilmi, että meänkieliset kokevat omaavansa erityisen, omanlaatuisen ja poikkeavan huumorintajun, jota luonnehtii mm. härskiys ja rankkuus sekä toiseuden kokemiseen yhdistyvä itseironisuus. Samoin yhdeksi keskeiseksi keskustelun aiheeksi nousi kysymys siitä, onko meänkieli hauska kieli jo itsessään ja tällä tavoin meänkielisten narratiivista identiteettiä luonnehtiva ominaispiirre. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa tuli esille, kuinka itseironia toimii merkittävänä työkaluna vähemmistöidentiteettiä käsiteltäessä.
... Sociological studies have also identified possible factors that may influence the kind of humor used in a given situation, such as the observation that humor is likely to be more biting when the target of the humor is not present (Fine 1984). Issues of power relations between individuals and groups likely influence the kind of humor used (Cundall 2012). Perceived threats to identity, for example, may lead towards more disparaging humor (Ferguson and Ford 2008). ...
Article
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Humor is widely used as a means of supporting group solidarity, but what determines the direction that this humor takes (i.e. its quality and targets)? I suggest that the answer lies in an interaction between self-concept, perceptions of outgroups and micro group culture. Aspects of self-concept that are central for a group’s identity work, especially how the group imagines outsiders, open possibilities for certain types of humor while closing off others. Then micro-cultural processes, heavily dependent on the exact persons present in a given interaction, influence the humorous forms used. This process explains why groups in roughly similar structural positions often make use of humor to generate solidarity in strikingly different ways, as well as why styles of humor vary, within limits, within groups. I provide illustrations of this process in two religious minority groups with very different humorous styles: atheists in the Bible Belt and evangelical Christians in Chicago.
... El grupo étnico que es objeto de las burlas es proyectado como inferior y, como consecuencia, sus miembros no se llegan a integrar cabalmente en la sociedad global. Sin embargo, hay otros autores como Davies (1990Davies ( , 2002 o Cundall (2012) que defienden todo tipo de humor étnico señalando que este es siempre una forma de expresión social. Por último, la teoría de la incongruencia explica la percepción de la comicidad en referencia a la incongruencia entre esquemas socioculturales de interpretación de la realidad que surgen simultáneamente en una situación y se resuelven mediante una interpretación humorística. ...
Article
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Resumen Los textos televisivos interpretan y analizan la realidad circundante e influyen en la visión que la audiencia tiene del mundo (Harwood y Giles, 1992, p. 409; Mintz, 1985). Es más, los programas cómicos basados en la burla y el sarcasmo hacia grupos étnicos minoritarios refuerzan estereotipos negativos y promueven la discriminación cultural (Billig, 2005). En este artículo se estudia el humor étnico en La paisana Jacinta (1999–2015). Esta serie peruana ha sido acusada de racista por diversas personas y grupos, entre ellos, la excongresista indígena Hilaria Supa, LUNDU (Centro de Estudios y Promoción Afroperuanos) y CHIRAPAQ (Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú ). Primero, se analizan las estrategias pragmático-lingüísticas empleadas en la construcción del humor étnico en una selección de diálogos y monólogos de Jacinta, el personaje principal de la serie. Para ello, se utiliza la Teoría General del Humor Verbal (Attardo y Raskin, 1991; Attardo 2001; Attardo, Hempelmann y Maio, 2002; Attardo, 2008). Asimismo, dado que todo texto es multimodal, se tiene también en cuenta cómo imágenes, gestos, y elementos musicales y prosódicos en la serie contribuyen en la producción de la comicidad (Kress 2010, 2012). Finalmente, a partir de estos resultados, se examina el contenido cómico del programa desde una perspectiva crítica (Billig, 2005) para determinar si este es discriminatorio.
... The specific term blaison populaire is from a 1884 publication by Gaidoz and Sebillot, who noted that 'slurs can be directed against a small village, a large city, a region, or an entire country' (Dundes 1987, 97). The term is still in use within humour scholarship (Cundall 2009) and it has many similarities with simple English phrases such as 'intergroup humour' (Barron 1950). Whereas Dundes calls the French work a landmark in humour scholarship, he himself uses the term 'international slur' in his well-known early work (1987 [1975]). ...
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First screened in 2007 on HBO television, Flight of the Conchords has received the best international reception of any New Zealand-based television comedy. The series shows the two Kiwis, Bret and Jemaine – a musical duo – bumbling their way through trying to make it in New York. This article selects the ‘Unnatural Love’ episode of series two as a case study, and through close consideration of the material in that episode, argues that it constitutes transnational joking. The target or butt of the humour is Australians. However, also through a consideration of detail, it is argued that no one is likely to take offence at such a portrayal. Televisual equivalents of transnational jokes do share much in common with written or told jokes, but also have additional subtleties, partly because of the very nature of the televisual medium.
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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.
Chapter
This Chapter puts humor under the scientific lens to understand how a typical humor event unfolds. In doing so, the Chapter reviews humor theories and research and develops the Workplace Humor Events Frameowork.
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Most ethnic humour that has been studied so far consists of jokes which use ethnically non-specific qualities such as stupidity or canniness in order to ridicule an ethnic group and thus to preserve and perpetuate ethnically based social hierarchies in western industrial societies. In light of this dominant logic in ethnic humour theory, the objective of this study is to problematize the relation of such non-ethnic qualities and the notion of ethnic identity, as well as their relation to a specific type of society, in an attempt to convincingly argue in favour of the need to differentiate between ‘ethnically-empty’ functional joke scripts and genuine ethnic joke scripts that are related to the ethnic identity of the target. In so doing, I extend ethnic humour theory by introducing and testing the notion of genuine ethnic joke scripts in order to motivate future research that will tackle other potential ethnic humour idiosyncrasies. Toward this end, I have collected and analysed joke material (N=369) coming from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania, societies with histories and relations very different that those in the western industrial societies. Additionally, the study incorporates two questionnaires with members of the two largest ethnicities in the Republic of Macedonia, Macedonians and Albanians, to ascertain the relation between the genuine ethnic humour and ethnic identity.
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The aim of the present study was to analyze the link between the five moral codes proposed in the Moral Foundations Theory and moral judgement of disparagement humor. We presented racist, sexist, homophobic, religion-disparaging and neutral jokes to a group of 108 participants, asking them whether they found laughing at a particular joke moral or immoral. Additionally, participants rated the level of amusement and disgust evoked by each joke. We also measured participants’ moral foundations profiles (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity). The results confirmed that Care and Fairness were significantly linked to moral judgment of racist, sexist and homophobic jokes, whereas Loyalty, Authority and Sanctity were associated with moral judgment of religion-disparaging jokes. Moreover, these relationships were mediated by emotional responses of amusement and disgust (except for racist jokes, for which we observed no mediating role of amusement).
Article
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Most ethnic humour that has been studied so far consists of jokes which use ethnically non-specific qualities such as stupidity or canniness in order to ridicule an ethnic group and thus to preserve and perpetuate ethnically based social hierarchies in western industrial societies. In light of this dominant logic in ethnic humour theory, the objective of this study is to problematize the relation of such non-ethnic qualities and the notion of ethnic identity, as well as their relation to a specific type of society, in an attempt to convincingly argue in favour of the need to differentiate between 'ethnically-empty' functional joke scripts and genuine ethnic joke scripts that are related to the ethnic identity of the target. In so doing, I extend ethnic humour theory by introducing and testing the notion of genuine ethnic joke scripts in order to motivate future research that will tackle other potential ethnic humour idiosyncrasies. Toward this end, I have collected and analysed joke material (N=369) coming from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Albania, societies with histories and relations very different that those in the western industrial societies. Additionally, the study incorporates two questionnaires with members of the two largest ethnicities in the Republic of Macedonia, Macedonians and Albanians, to ascertain the relation between the genuine ethnic humour and ethnic identity.
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Examples of teasing, bullying and sexual harassment were collected from 147 secondary school students to determine how students distinguish among these forms of peer victimization. The inclusion of physical and sexual behaviours, references to fun/play, repetition of victimization, the number and gender of the actors, the gender of the targets, gender difference between the actors and targets and reasons for victimization were dependent upon victimization category. Few example elements were related to participants' gender or school. The results are discussed in relation to researchers' definitions of teasing, bullying and sexual harassment.
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Two studies examined fifth- and sixth-grade students’ perceptions of antisocial and prosocial teasing among peers and potential correlates of individual differences in their tendencies to engage in both forms of teasing. The children were rated as showing a greater tendency to be prosocial teasers than antisocial teasers by both teachers and peers. In addition, the children indicated that they generally experienced and observed prosocial teasing more frequently than antisocial teasing at home and in school. Although boys were perceived to tease in a hostile, antisocial manner to a greater extent than were girls, the evidence for a gender difference in affiliative, prosocial teasing among these children was relatively weak. Additionally, systematic relations were found among ratings of the children's tendencies to engage in antisocial and prosocial teasing with peers, teachers’ ratings of their general level of antisocial and prosocial behavior with peers, ratings of the frequency with which they experienced antisocial and prosocial teasing at home and at school, and their attitudes toward antisocial and prosocial teasing.
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Humor among friends is typically regarded as a means of strengthening friendships. However, there may be a side of humor that is used to compete rather than bond (R. D. Alexander, 1986; C. R. Gruner, 1997). In the present studies, the participants were asked to imagine that they were sitting with a group of mixed-sex peers. One of the group (a same-sex friend) made a comment about the participant. Different groups of participants were told that the remark did or did not involve teasing. While the participants imagined they were the target of the remark, they rated their emotional reactions as well as their perceived relationship with the teaser and the character traits attributed to the teaser. The outcomes from analyses of variance of perceived competitiveness, emotional responses, and expected social outcomes largely supported superiority perspectives of humor.