We investigate presentations of spiritually grounded character (SGC) in a very large international sample of children and adolescents. Two-hundred ninety-seven thousand, eight hundred and seventeen youth aged eight to seventeen from 12 countries completed the VIA Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA-Y-R) and the nine-item Youth Spirituality Scale (YSS-9). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied using youth spirituality and the six virtues of the VIA-Y-R as indicator variables. LPA generated a best-fitting solution with five non-overlapping profiles of SGC, where spirituality and character strengths generally went hand in hand. Spirituality scores matched virtue scores in three out of five profiles (i.e. High, Low, and Very Low SGC). At moderate-to-high levels of SGC, two mirror-image profiles emerged: one with relatively high spirituality, wisdom, and transcendence and the other with relatively high courage, humanity, justice, and temperance. Findings suggest that SGC may be a meaningful latent construct in youth populations.

This study extends a previous one revising the VIA-Youth. Goals of the revision included reducing length and extending age range down to 8. After an initial revision, further discussion suggested the need for a more secular version of the spirituality scale. Based on evidence of changes in the understanding of spirituality during adolescence, separate sets of candidate items were generated for ages 8-12 and 13-17 with two overlapping items. The revised materials were administered to 94,487 youth online and through two school districts. Retaining the two overlapping items in both sets did not reduce fit. The result is two versions of the inventory for ages 8-12 (VIA-Y-1) and 13-17 (VIA-Y-2) that differ only on two items included in the spirituality scale. These offer a measure of spirituality in youth that is developmentally sensitive without relying on items referencing a religious framework.

The present study aimed to characterize the relationship between mystical experience and psychopathology measures in a general-population sample of 763 U.S. adults. The participants were assessed across various domains including psychopathology, spirituality, personality, and life experience. The analysis revealed three distinct profiles among individuals: Transcendent Wellness, Transcendent Struggle, and Non-Transcendent Wellness. The Transcendent Wellness profile demonstrated higher scores in belongingness, mindfulness, and lived/integrated spirituality compared to the Transcendent Struggle profile. Belongingness and mindfulness were identified as mitigating factors, reducing the positive association between mystical experience and depression and anxiety symptoms. Additionally, lived/integrated spirituality attenuated this association, particularly in relation to anxiety. Conventional religiosity measures, however, did not exhibit the same moderating effects. The authors propose a framework in which relationally grounded spirituality, manifesting in the form of connection to fellow human, self, and higher power, constitutes a foundation for processing of and sense-making around mystical experience.

Extending prejudiced norm theory, we hypothesized that memes diminishing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic promote tolerance of unsafe pandemic behaviors (as in contrary to contemporary advice of public health agencies, i.e., not wearing a protective mask) by establishing a perceived norm of tolerance for such behaviors. In Spring 2021, members of several Reddit communities (n = 106) reported their perceived threat of COVID-19 and then completed a roleplay exercise in which they imagined they were with a group of friends in a church setting. In this context, participants viewed memes shared among their friends that belittled COVID-19 (COVID-19 disparagement condition) or memes unrelated to COVID-19 (control condition). Then, participants responded to a vignette describing a woman confronting an usher about a couple who violated protocol by not wearing masks. The results supported our hypothesis. First, participants in the COVID-19 disparagement condition perceived a greater norm of tolerance of the mask protocol violation among others in the immediate context compared to those in the control condition. Second, for participants who viewed COVID-19 as a low threat, that local norm resulted in greater personal tolerance of the mask protocol violation. However, for participants who view COVID-19 as a high threat, the local norm had no impact on their personal tolerance.

Two studies tested the hypothesis that disparagement humor increases the acceptability of prejudice against groups that occupy a position in society of “normative ambiguity”; prejudice against them is shifting from being completely acceptable to being completely unacceptable. In Study 1 we found that residents of Santiago, Chile perceive the group, gay men, as occupying this position of normative ambiguity. In contrast, they perceive prejudice against politicians as completely acceptable. Supporting our hypothesis, Study 2 showed that participants viewed an prejudice against gay men as more acceptable after reading jokes disparaging gay men in comparison to serious disparaging comments or no disparagement. Jokes disparaging politicians, however, did not make participants view prejudice against them as more acceptable compared to serious disparaging comments or no disparagement. Study 2 also revealed that jokes disparaging gay men increased the acceptability of prejudice against other normative ambiguity groups not targeted by the humor.

Abstract An experiment (n = 202; 136 women; 66 men) demonstrated that people use implicit theories about liberals and conservatives to guide their impression of another person based on their humor, specifically, the degree to which their humor violates the individualizing and binding moral foundations described by Moral Foundations Theory (e.g., Graham, Haidt and Nosek 2009. Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96(5). 1029–1046). Supporting Hypothesis 1, participants perceived a target person as more conservative when he posted to social media an immigrant-disparaging meme. They perceived him as more liberal when he posted a religion-disparaging meme. Supporting Hypotheses 2, liberals liked the target person more and conservatives less when he posted the religion-disparaging meme. Similarly, in keeping with Hypothesis 3, liberals liked the target person less and conservatives more after he posted the immigrant-disparaging meme.

Social media has increased its popularity among politicians. If they wish to succeed in the political arena, politicians need to present themselves to citizens as attractive individuals through these platforms. This study examined how politicians present themselves using humor on Twitter. We analyzed tweets (n = 6,443) from 27 politicians to determine their use of different types of humor and its relationship with age, gender, or political position. We also present changes in humor use in relation to the publication of a political survey in which politicians who were part of this study were evaluated. Results showed politicians' use of humor is relatively low in frequency and primarily aggressive. Politicians who are male, younger, and in the opposition tend to use more aggressive humor. We discuss the results considering the role of aggressive humor in political messages. Based on the analyses of tweets and the publication of the survey, we propose as a hypothesis for future studies that politicians' use of humor on Twitter could be affected by the publication of these kinds of surveys.

Two experiments (N = 449; 246 men, 198 women) examined how political identity moderates appreciation of disparagement humor that violates different moral foundations described in moral foundations theory. In Experiment 1, liberals evaluated memes violating the individualizing moral foundations as more offensive and less funny than conservatives, whereas conservatives rated memes violating the binding moral foundations as more offensive and less funny than liberals. Moreover, conservatives judged the memes across all experimental conditions more favorably than liberals because they more strongly endorse cavalier humor beliefs. Experiment 2 examined the mediating role of perceived personal moral violations. Specifically, liberals evaluate humor violating the individualizing foundations as more offensive than conservatives because they see it as a greater personal moral violation. Similarly, conservatives judged humor violating the binding foundations as more offensive compared to liberals because they see it as a greater personal moral violation.

Abstract This paper details the results of an 18-month program impact evaluation (n = 72) on Armed Services Arts Partnership’s “Comedy Bootcamp,” a popular stand-up comedy course specifically tailored to military veterans. Based on literature around the benefits of sense of humor and humor training (e.g., 7 Humor Habits), we anticipated that participants in Comedy Bootcamp would show greater well-being relative to a control group, and that this effect would be mediated by an increase in sense of humor (i.e., self-enhancing humor style). Results largely supported the hypotheses, showing that Comedy Bootcamp participants experienced an increased self-enhancing humor style, which in turn yielded improved self-esteem, resilience, depression, and stress (though not anxiety). Further, longitudinal analyses demonstrated the benefits of the program persist at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Disparagement humor refers to humor that attempts to amuse through the denigration of a social group or individual (Ferguson & Ford, 2008). It represents a paradox by simultaneously communicating two conflicting messages. It communicates both an explicit message of denigration through its content along with an implicit message inherent in humor that the explicit message is not real. Because of this paradox, humor can function as a 'sword' or a 'shield' in intergroup settings (Rappoport, 2005), capable of serving both detrimental and beneficial social functions. In this chapter, we will review advances in theory and research on the impact that disparagement humor has on prejudice. Specifically, disparagement humor can have detrimental effects functioning as a sword in intergroup settings in two ways. First, it releases or disinhibits prejudice by loosening the norms (the 'rules') of a social setting to permit expressions of prejudice. Second, it legitimises prejudice by making targeted social groups seem more deserving of prejudice. Disparagement humor also can have beneficial consequences, functioning as a shield in intergroup contexts: it subverts prejudice when people use it constructively to expose the ugliness of prejudice. We conclude the chapter by discussing potential next steps for future research focusing on the detrimental consequences of disparagement humor from the target's perspective, focusing on how it can affect the way people view themselves in relation to others in the immediate social context.

Abstract A correlational study (n = 180 adults) in the United States tested the hypothesis that self-directed humor styles predict emotional responses to COVID-19, specifically stress and hopelessness, and in turn predict engagement in protective behaviors. Results from a sequential mediation analysis supported our hypotheses. First, to the extent that people have a self-enhancing humor style they perceived less stress and hopelessness associated with COVID-19 and as a result reported engaging in more protective behaviors. Second, people higher in self-defeating humor style showed the opposite pattern; they perceived more stress and hopelessness due to COVID-19 and thus reported engaging in less protective behaviors. Implications for theory and application are discussed.

Two experiments (Total N = 393) demonstrated that disparagement humor can trigger a social identity threat for members of the targeted group resulting in perceptions of a diminished possible self and feeling socially excluded. Experiment 1 (N = 278) revealed that, upon exposure to humor disparaging one's political in-group (versus political out-group disparagement humor or non-political disparagement humor), both conservatives and liberals perceived a social identity threat manifested in more negative representations of their possible selves and feelings of social exclusion. Experiment 2 (N = 97) provided a conceptual replication of these findings showing that women exposed to sexist humor experienced social identity threat exhibited in a more negative representation of their possible selves and feelings of social exclusion.

Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N = 7813), by testing the revised BenCor (BenCor-R), and by adding two criterion measures to assess life satisfaction and four broad humor dimensions (social fun/entertaining humor, mockery, humor ineptness, and cognitive/reflective humor). As expected, the BenCor-R showed mostly promising psychometric properties (internal consistency and factorial validity). Consistent with previous studies, benevolent humor correlated positively with life satisfaction in most countries, while corrective humor was uncorrelated with life satisfaction. These relationships were only slightly changed when controlling for social fun/entertaining humor and mockery, respectively. Benevolent humor was mostly positively associated with cognitive/reflective humor, followed by social fun/entertaining humor and mockery. Corrective humor was mostly positively associated with mockery, followed by cognitive/reflective and social fun/entertaining humor, although these relationships differed between the countries. Overall, the present study supports the viability of benevolent and corrective humor, which has yet received insufficient attention in psychology, for cross-cultural investigations and applications of humor, well-being, and morality.

Women often ignore gender harassment (i.e., sexism). Two studies tested whether ignoring real or imagined sexism increases tolerance of sexual harassment and decreases support for survivors. In Study 1 (n?=?252) undergraduate women were randomly assigned to receive a?sexist or offensive remark delivered in a?serious or humorous manner. Compared to women who confronted sexism, women who ignored it aligned attitudes with behavior and reported more tolerance of sexual harassment. In Study 2 (n?=?384), women reported more dissonance when they imagined ignoring a?sexist remark compared to having no chance to confront or confronting. Regardless of whether humor was present, the more dissonance, the more they endorsed sexually harassing attitudes and the less they supported survivors.

This chapter introduces the psychology of humor and briefly outlines the content of the other book chapters. Humor is a universal human activity that most people experience many times over the course of a typical day. From a psychological perspective, humor is fundamentally a social phenomenon; it is a form of social play comprised of the perception of playful incongruity that induces the positive emotional response of mirth and the vocal-behavioral expression of laughter. In social interactions, humor takes on many different forms, including canned jokes, spontaneous witticisms, and unintentionally funny utterances and actions. There is a good deal of evidence suggesting that humor and laughter confer adaptive cognitive and social benefits for individuals, including a way to relieve tension, regulate emotions, and cope with stress. In addition, humor has important social–psychological consequences for interpersonal relationships and broader group processes. Humor can serve as both positive (adaptive) and negative (maladaptive) social functions; it can both unite people by solidifying bonds and the sense of belonging to a group, and divide people by establishing social boundaries and fostering discrimination.

In the first section of this chapter, The Nature of Laughter, we discuss the relationship between laughter and emotion, followed by an overview of research on the facial expressions of laughter and smiling, the acoustics of laughter, and pathological laughter. In the next section, Laughter in Animals, we underscore the close connection between humor, laughter, and play. Then, in the section Where do Humor and Laughter Occur in the Brain?, we address the different areas of the brain that are implicated in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral (laughter) processes of humor. Finally, we discuss evolutionary psychology theories that attempt to account for the origins and adaptive functions of humor and laughter. Also in this chapter, the brain regions and neural circuits underlying humor, mirth, and laughter are discussed. Recent advancements in fMRI and EEG technology have allowed physiological psychologists to make significant advancements in our understanding of the brain regions responsible for the cognitive processes of humor comprehension. Consistent with cognitive theories of humor (e.g., incongruity theory, comprehension-evaluation theory), studies have shown that incongruity detection and resolution occur in different brain regions. In addition, research using neuroimaging technology has distinguished the neural circuitry and brain regions involved in mirth and consequent laughter from the cognitive processes involved in humor comprehension. In sum, physiological psychology has made considerable progress in advancing our understanding of the underlying brain structures and biochemical processes implicated in humor and laughter.