Original article
Production and appreciation of humor as sexually selected traits

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Both men and women prefer someone with a “good sense of humor” as a relationship partner. However, two recent studies have shown that men are not attracted to funny women, suggesting the sexes use the phrase good sense of humor differently. To investigate this question, we measured the importance participants placed on a partner's production of humor vs. receptivity to their own humor. Men emphasized the importance of their partners' receptivity to their own humor, whereas women valued humor production and receptivity equally. In a second task, participants chose whether they preferred a person who only produced humor or a person who only appreciated their own humor for several types of relationships. Women preferred those who produced humor for all types of relationships, whereas men preferred those who were receptive to their own humor, particularly for sexual relationships. Our results suggest that sexual selection may have operated on men's and women's preferences during humorous interaction in dramatically different ways.

Introduction

Studies of mate choice reveal a puzzle. When asked to describe traits they value in a relationship partner or asked to choose preferred traits from a provided list, people report that a “good sense of humor” is highly valued (e.g., Buss & Barnes, 1986, Feingold, 1981, Goodwin, 1990, Hendel, 1978). Men and women typically report this preference with about equal frequency (e.g., Daniel et al., 1985, Feingold, 1992). However, two studies that experimentally manipulated humor production yielded a contradictory result: Women preferred relationship partners who produced humor, but men showed no such preference (Bressler & Balshine, 2004, Lundy et al., 1998). Thus, men say they value a partner with a good sense of humor, yet do not rate funny women as more desirable.

Why would ranking the importance of a good sense of humor in a partner produce different results than asking about the desirability of someone who produces humor? One possible resolution is that, by good sense of humor, a man denotes not a partner's humor production, but rather her receptivity to his own humor.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between humor appreciation and interpersonal attraction (e.g., Bippus, 2000, Murstein & Brust, 1985, Priest & Thein, 2003, Rust & Goldstein, 1989), but none have examined sex differences. One exception is the work of Grammer and Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1990) who found that during mixed-sex dyadic conversations, the amount of laughter a woman produced was more predictive of both sexes' interest in dating each other than was the man's laughter. This suggests that a woman's receptivity to humor may signal her sexual interest.

Miller, 2000a, Miller, 2000b, Miller, 2000c, Miller, 2001 suggests that the capacities to produce and appreciate humor have both evolved via sexual selection. He argues that those who carry relatively few deleterious genetic mutations are more competent at the set of cognitive skills—such as intelligence and creativity—required to produce entertaining humor. As a result, sexual selection has favored those who produce humor because it elevates their mating success and those who preferentially mate with funny people, because doing so provides offspring with genetic benefits.

If humor production signals genetic quality and humor receptivity signals sexual interest, the sexes may respond differently to these signals. Signals of genetic quality may have more impact on women's mating decisions, because women's higher minimum parental investment imposes higher costs from suboptimal mating (Trivers, 1972). Conversely, signals of receptivity may be more important in men's mating decisions because male reproductive success is more limited by access to mates (Bateman, 1948, Trivers, 1972). Thus, sexual selection may have more strongly favored women who reacted positively to humor producers and men who attended preferentially to women who appreciated their humor.

In this study, we examined two related questions about men's and women's responses to humor production and receptivity. First, we examined sex differences in the impact of humor production and humor receptivity on men's and women's categorization of others as having a good sense of humor. We measured participant's preferences for a relationship partner's “sense of humor,” humor production, and receptivity to humor. If men's and women's use of the phrase good sense of humor differs, then both sexes may prefer a partner with a sense of humor but have different preferences for humor production and receptivity. Second, we examined men's and women's preference for humor production or receptivity in partners for a variety of sexual relationships. Furthermore, because humor production and appreciation are hypothesized to have evolved for mate attraction, we examined whether preferences would be most apparent in sexual relationships rather than friendships.

Section snippets

Participants

One hundred twenty-nine McMaster University undergraduate students (74 women and 55 men; mean age=18.9; range=17–25) who spoke English fluently participated in all three tasks in this study in exchange for course credit.

Procedures

After completing the informed consent process, participants completed three questionnaires at a self-directed pace. The order in which participants completed the questionnaires was counterbalanced.

Are there sex differences in how men and women use the phrase a good sense of humor?

Men and women both valued a good sense of humor in a relationship partner [one-sample t test: women, t(73)=15.4, p<.001; men, t(54)=7.10, p<.001] as well as their partners' receptivity to their own humor [women, t(73)=11.1, p<.001; men, t(54)=6.56, p<.001]. However, only women valued their partner's ability to produce humor [women, t(73)=8.40, p<.001; men, t(54)=0.70, p=1] (see Fig. 1).

There was a significant interaction between the sex of the participant and the scores on the subscales

Discussion

Our two experiments suggest that the sexes differ in the value they place on a partner's humor production vs. receptivity. The results of the categorization questionnaire suggest that women value a partner who can produce humor and who is receptive to their own humor, whereas men value only a partner's receptivity to their own humor. Therefore, the apparent discrepancy between men's valuation of a good sense of humor (e.g., Daniel et al., 1985, Feingold, 1992) and their lack of attraction to

Acknowledgments

We thank Pat Barclay, Pat Bennett, Diane Bressler, Andrew Canastar, Andrew Clark, Philip Cooper, Martin Daly, Julie Desjardins, Steve Gaulin, John Johnson, Daniel Krupp, Susan Marsh-Rollo, Richard Sosis, Kelly Stiver, Margo Wilson and an anonymous reviewer for their contributions to this study. This research was funded by a National Science and Engineering Research Council discovery grant awarded to S.B. All materials and procedures were approved by the McMaster University Research Ethics Board.

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