No abstract

Thirty-two pairs of strangers were videotaped during a 15-minute interaction during which one of the pair, acting as a 'confederate' of the experimenters, inserted a pre-designated 'boast' into the conversation. Male and female confederates were observed to differ significantly on some aspects of their approach to the task: Women were significantly more likely to be calculating, top-down planners, while males were more likely to offer boasts as 'answers' to unprompted questions from their partners. Although there were trends for women to use more reciprocal questions and more topical control strategies than men, the obtained differences were not significant.

Humour is an important social phenomenon. Humorous people are likely to be perceived as spontaneous, honest and likeable (Kane, Suls & Tedeschi, 1972), and the tactical use of humour can enhance a speaker's persuasiveness and credibility, reduce tension, demonstrate solidarity, and provide pleasure (Civikly, 1983; Gruner, 1978). Generally, studies of humour have focused on theories of humour appreciation applied to incongruity resolution, arousal reduction and superiority (McGhee & Goldstein, 1983; Suls, 1983; Wicker et al., 1981; Zillmann, 1983). However, little is known about humour types, social functions, or introductions. Since most joke recountings function to promote ‘positive face’ (Brown & Levinson, 1978), it is highly probable that jokes are adapted to audiences by preface devices which explicitly affirm their purpose as a means of gaining positive face. How humour is prefaced, then, may reflect its social function. Thus, this paper explores joke-prefacing devices and joke types, and how both relate to perceptions of amusement, offensiveness, and speaker insensitivity.