Diminished Self-Concept and Social Exclusion: Disparagement Humor from the Target’s Perspective

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.