Covariation between formidability inferences and perceptions of men's preferred humor styles

Preliminary evidence for neck musculature in shaping functional stereotypes of men's relationship motives

Neck musculature is reliably diagnostic of men's formidability and central to several inferences of their physical prowess. These inferences facilitate stereotypes of men's social value from which perceivers estimate their abilities to satisfy reproductive goals related to mate acquisition and parental care. Participants evaluated men's interest in various mating and parenting strategies, wherein men varied in the size of visible neck musculature through trapezii and sternocleidomastoids for perceivers to identify potential reproductive interests and goals. Large trapezii elicited perceptions of men as more effective at protecting offspring, albeit at the expense of nurturance and interest in long-term pair bonds. Results extend previous findings implicating formidability as central to relationship decisions by considering a novel modality.

Motivated Social Affordance Judgments of Humor Styles

Despite the ingratiating function of humor, not all humor is created equal. Individual differences in humor styles may inform perceptions of whether prospective group members afford affiliative opportunities, with affiliative humor being regarded as especially beneficial. In this research, we tasked participants with evaluating social targets espousing different humor styles to identify these targets' abilities satisfy and impede both affiliative and social goals (Study 1) while determining if individual differences in these motives foster heightened preferences (Study 2). Affiliative and self-enhancing humor afforded the most affiliative and self-protection opportunities, whereas aggressive humor afforded more threats. Additionally, higher need to belong heightened preferences for affiliative humor. Results provide evidence for assortative sociality in the identification of optimum group members based on humor displays.

The motive of competition but not courtship positively correlates with self-reported use of aggressive humor: A critical test of the contests- vs. mate-choice hypotheses

Introduction

The use of aggressive humor (e.g., teasing, schadenfreude, and sarcasm) is a spiteful behavior because it inflicts costs on both others and the self. To explain the existence of this spiteful behavior, two hypotheses derived from sexual selection theory-namely Mate-Choice and Contests-posit that the use of aggressive humor helps one attract mates or repel competitors. Both hypotheses have merit, but extant data are unable to discriminate between them.

Methods

We critically tested those two hypotheses with a survey study that measured 509 U.S. MTurkers' self-reported tendencies to use aggressive (and other types of) humor, the motives to engage in competition and courtship, and the Dark-Triad personality traits. The final sample was N = 439.

Results

We found that (1) the motive of competition but not courtship positively and significantly correlated with the self-reported tendency to use aggressive humor. (2) Subclinical psychopathy-a personality trait positively associated with competition-mediated the correlation between the motive of competition and self-reported use of aggressive humor. These results were held in both female and male respondents.

Discussion

Our findings favored the Contests Hypothesis and helped reveal the psychological mechanism that generates the use of aggressive humor as a form of verbal aggression and spiteful behavior.