Humor Styles, Perceived Threat, Funniness of COVID-19 Memes, and Affective Mood in the Early Stages of COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

Existing psychological research has long considered humor as a useful strategy for individuals in coping with adverse circumstances and life stressors. However, empirical studies are called for to better understand the role of humor in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a community sample of 527 Spanish adults, we investigated the associations between humor styles, perceived threat from COVID-19, funniness of COVID-19 memes, and individuals’ affective mood. Data were collected during the third week of lockdown in Spain (from 26 to 31 March 2020). Our results suggest that intrapsychic humor styles were associated with better coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling showed that self-enhancing and aggressive humor styles were related to perceiving COVID-19 as less psychologically threatening, which, in turn, was associated with a greater perceived funniness of COVID-19 memes, thus predicting higher levels of happiness. Interestingly, the opposite pattern of connections was found for self-defeating humor. These findings suggest that humor styles aimed at boosting one’s own self, irrespective of their potentially lighter or darker nature, may contribute to alleviating adverse psychological consequences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coping and Anxiety During Lockdown in Spain: The Role of Perceived Impact and Information Sources

“…In particular, it is unclear how frequently and effectively coping strategies were actually used by participants over the course of the lockdown. Other studies could also consider more detailed analyses of coping strategies that were applicable to COVID-19 lockdown life (ie, fine-grained classifications including specific types of secondary vs primary coping strategies: eg, humor 41 ). This might improve our understanding of how people face COVID-19.…”

Loneliness and Fear of COVID-19 in Polish Adults. The Mediating Role of Generalized Mood

“…These results are worth using for education of future professional helpers (e.g., nurses, doctors, social workers, psychologists) who, as yet, have not been prepared for work during a pandemic nor for using remote support tools on as large a scale as needed now. Recent research reports suggest that these educational activities should be directed at strengthening in adults their personality resources such as optimism (Alves et al, 2022), hope (Marciano et al, 2022), resilience (Satici et al, 2022), humor (Saricali et al, 2020;Torres-Marín et al, 2022) and wisdom (Brudek & Steuden, 2022;Fowers et al, 2021). It turns out that these mental resources have helped adult individuals coping with pandemic stress.…”

“…Fear is a fundamental emotion that ensures the survival of an individual (Butter 2012;Öhman 2008). However, when experienced at an excessively high level, fear may result in maladaptive behavior (Lum and Tambyah 2020;van Meurs et al, 2014). Isolation-related precautions introduced by national authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic have made people spend a lot of time in loneliness due to the quarantine and refraining from direct social contacts.…”

The association between social media use and well-being during quarantine period: testing a moderated mediation model

“…Furthermore, personality factors such as trait optimism can play a key role in the creation and circulation of humor, in that optimistic individuals tend to interpret situations more humorously and are more likely to create and circulate humor materials compared to pessimistic people (Torres-Marín et al, 2022). Optimistic trait reflects an individual's overall positive expectations for the future, which has been confirmed to have a positive effect on subjects' well-being, even when people are under quarantine (Forgeard and Seligman, 2012;Reizer et al, 2022).…”