Comment on Priest's article: "election jokes: the effects of reference group membership"

Candidate Preference and Hostile Humor in the 1968 Elections

Hostile jokes about Wallace, Nixon, Humphrey, and Senator McCarthy's “disaffected liberal” were rated by college students on the day before the 1968 election. The difference in their response to jokes about Humphrey and Nixon correlated .42 with candidate preference for psychology students ( n = 120), .58 for political science student volunteers ( n = 35). The difference in response to jokes about “disaffected liberals” vs jokes about other groups correlated significantly with attitude toward the Democratic party but not with candidate preference. The results support reference group theory, replicate two other studies of election humor and suggest that the enjoyment of hostile humor depends upon who is being aggressed against.