Psychometric intelligence and verbal humor ability

Feingold, Alan; Mazzella, Ronald

doi:10.1016/0191-8869(91)90060-o

Cited by 66 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We first computed the inter-rater reliability for each of the eleven humor task items individually, finding an average Cronbachs Alpha (α) = .58 and average inter-rater correlation ( r i ) = .28 across all seven rating blocks. Although these reliabilities are below the commonly accepted reliability criterion for psychological measurements, they are consistent with past humor production measures (Feingold and Mazzella, 1991;Köhler and Ruch, 1996;Masten, 1986), and possibly reflect the varied nature of humor preferences. Next, we looked at inter-rater reliabilities among mean scores of each humor subtask across all seven rating blocks, with α = .72 and r i = .39 for the six character profiles, α = .63 and r i = .32 for the three e-mail responses, and α = .71 and r i = .40 for the two pages of humorous drawings.…”

Section: Humor Ratingsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…However, only two studies have explicitly looked at the relationship between humor and intelligence. Feingold and Mazzella (1991) found a positive correlation between measured verbal intelligence and rater-judged humor production in a college age sample (r = .40). Masten (1986) reported substantial positive correlations among IQ, academic achievement, and rater-judged humor production in 10 to 14-year-old children (r = .50 -.53).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current method provides a clearer estimation of general intelligence relative to the Feingold and Mazzella (1991) study, and unlike the pre-adolescent sample in the Masten (1986) study, the college-age sample is consistent with Miller's model that costly displays of humor would manifest primarily during peak reproductive years (Miller, 2000c). We assessed humor with open-ended verbal and drawing tasks and measure general intelligence using an 18-item version of the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (Raven, Raven, and Court, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Humor as a Mental Fitness Indicator

Howrigan

MacDonald

2008

Evol Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:To explain the pervasive role of humor in human social interaction and among mating partner preferences, Miller (2000a) proposed that intentional humor evolved as an indicator of intelligence. To test this, we looked at the relationships among rater-judged humor, general intelligence, and the Big Five personality traits in a sample of 185 collegeage students (115 women, 70 men). General intelligence positively predicted rater-judged humor, independent of the Big Five personality traits. Extraversion also predicted raterjudged humor, although to a lesser extent than general intelligence. General intelligence did not interact with the sex of the participant in predicting rating scores on the humor production tasks. The current study lends support to the prediction that effective humor production acts as an honest indicator of intelligence in humans. In addition, extraversion, and to a lesser extent, openness, may reflect motivational traits that encourage humor production.

show abstract

Section: Humor Ratingsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Humor as a Mental Fitness Indicator

Howrigan

MacDonald

2008

Evol Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since E and N can be expected to be related to general funniness and aversiveness, respectively, aggregation across the three humor categories seems to be necessary for a more appropriate testing of the hypotheses. 5 Humor creation behavior and the PEN system of temperament Predictors of "wit" or "humor creativity" might be found in the domain of general ability or creativity (Feingold and Mazzella 1991; O'Quin and Derks in press). However, there are also grounds to assume that Extraversion and Psychoticism are associated with quantity and quality of humor creativity, respectively.…”

Section: Sense Of Humor and Personalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of variance in current sense of humor inventories: How much substance, how much method variance?

Köhler¹,

Ruch²

1996

Humr

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study investigates the relationship of self-report inventories of "sense of humor" and behavioral measures of humor as well as their location in the Eysenckian PEN system. 110 male and female adults in the ages from 17 to 83 years answered the following inventories: SHRQ (Martin and Lefcourt 1984), SHQZ (Ziv 1981), SHQ-3 revised (Svebak 1993), CHS (Martin and Lefcourt 1983), MSHS (Thorson and Powell 1993), HIS (Bell, McGhee, and Duffey 1986), 3 WD-K (Ruch 1983), CPPT (Köhler and Ruch 1993), TDS (Murgatroyd, Rushton, Apter, and Ray 1978), STCI-T (Ruch, Freiss, andKöhler 1993), and EPQ-R (Eysenck, Eysenck, and Barrett 1985). Reliability of the humor scales is examined and convergent and discriminant validity of homologous scales of humor appreciation and humor creation is determined. Behavioral measures and self-report instruments yield only meager correlations. While humor appreciation and humor creation form distinct traits in the behavioral measures, they can not be validly discriminated in the self-reports. Factor analysis of self-report inventories yields that the sense of humor is composed of the two orthogonal dimensions of cheerfulness and seriousness.Extraversion is predictive of cheerfulness, low seriousness, and quantity of humor production. Psychoticism is associated with low seriousness, wit and quality of humor production. Finally, emotional stability correlates with cheerfulness. All in all, the general state of the art in the assessment of the sense of humor and its components appears to be far from being satisfactory. Sources of variance -2 -

show abstract

“…Humor cognitive activity occurs when one listens to and tries to understand oral humor, and when one creates humor. In both cases the person perceives humor or absorbs humor through humor reasoning ability (Feingold & Mazzella, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humor Creator and the Audience - A Multi-dimensional Model Supported by In-vivo Methodology

Inglis¹,

Zach²,

Kaniel³

2014

EDUCATION

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to reevaluate the multi-dimensional model of humor creation, which is comprised of three dimensions: humor motivation, humor cognition, and humor communication, using in vivo (natural setting) methodology. Thirty-four lecturers from colleges and universities completed a questionnaire. Additionally, 1530 students observed these lecturers and evaluated their sense of humor. Judges also evaluated the degree of humor in 750 video clips excerpted from 91 filmed lessons taught by the lecturers. Two path-analysis models substantiated the multidimensional model. A person's role -humor creator or humor receiver -was the strongest variable explaining the variance in humor creation. This study suggests that not only the humor creator, but also the humor receiver, contributes to variance in humor creation. In addition, the study expands the toolbox of humor measurement.

show abstract

Psychometric intelligence and verbal humor ability

Cited by 66 publications

References 23 publications

Humor as a Mental Fitness Indicator

Humor as a Mental Fitness Indicator

Sources of variance in current sense of humor inventories: How much substance, how much method variance?

Humor Creator and the Audience - A Multi-dimensional Model Supported by In-vivo Methodology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About