Citation

Hackney CH. J. Soc. Psychol. 2011; 151(1): 51-62.

Affiliation

Briercrest College and Seminary, 510 College Drive, Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada S0H 0S0. chackney@briercrest.ca

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

21375125

Abstract

The motivational aspects of humor are considered from the perspective of terror management theory, testing the hypothesis that exposure to the mortality salience manipulation will result in an alteration in participants' appreciation of humorous material. Participants rated several comic strips, indicating how funny they found the jokes. The differential relevance of various forms of jokes to the process of terror management was also examined by having participants rate their appreciation of jokes that address issues of varying applicability to existential concerns. Results indicate that mortality salience results in an exacerbation of the evaluation of humorous material, and that jokes' relative centrality to terror management processes produces differing evaluative responses. Theoretical and practical implications are examined.

Language: en