Sociological Indicators of Ethical Attitude toward Ethnic Humor: An Empirical Study on Persian Jokes

Abstract

People's ethical attitude toward ethnic humor (EATEH) is not well-investigated. The present article explores the relation of gender, anomie, socioeconomic status, ethnocentrism, and national identity to ethical attitude toward ethnic humor. 500 high school students were surveyed from 10 high schools of Ahvaz, Iran. Findings revealed that attitudes toward jokes are significantly related to the dimensions of ethnocentrism, anomie, socioeconomic status, national identity, and gender. A significant proportion of the EATEH's variance was predicted by socioeconomic status and anomie, whereas ethnocentrism was still significant but played only a minor role. Further, on average men show prejudice more openly than women. Findings show that ethical attitude of individuals toward ethnic humor have been rooted and influenced by sociological factors most notably their social context and feeling of anomie.

Socioeconomic status, perceived parental control, and authoritarianism: Development of authoritarianism in Iranian society

“…To assess the subjective dimension of socioeconomic status, Nabavi, Hosseinzade, and Hosseini's (2009/1387) 6‐item scale was used (see the ). The scale measures individuals' perception of their socioeconomic status and has been used in other studies in Iran (Haghish, Heydari, Pfuhl, Biegler & Teymoori, 2012; Heydari, Teymoori & Nasiri, in press; Heydari, Teymoori, Nasiri & Haghish, ). The items were measured on a Likert scale from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high) and summed up in which the higher score indicates a better socioeconomic status.…”

“…() reported a reliability coefficient of 0.83 and obtained face validity for the scale by obtaining confirmation from five criminology and sociology experts. In addition, the scale was shown to have significant relationship with anomie and socioeconomic status (Heydari et al ., ), external source of moral reasoning (Teymoori, Shahrazad & Heydari, ), positive attitude toward ethnic jokes, positive association with in‐group and out‐group ethnocentrism, and negative association with dimensions of ethno‐cultural empathy (Haghish et al ., 2012) all of which are consistent with the literature of authoritarianism and confirm the content validity of the scale. The internal consistency of the scale in the current study is 0.78.…”

Influential factors on ethnocentrism: The effect of socioeconomic status, anomie, and authoritarianism

“…Despite generating a regrettable number of problems and issues for Iranian society, the existence and prevalence of ethnocentrism have not been taken into consideration, and even when phenomena such as ethnocentrism are included, many researchers have overlooked its pathological aspect (Navah & Taghavinasab, 2007). In general, research has shown that Iranian ethnic groups are ethnocentric and pessimistic toward out-groups (Amirahmadi, 1987;Asgharzadeh, 2007;Fokoohi & Amoosi, 2009;Haghish et al, 2012;Koutlaki, 2010;Moghadas Jafari et al, 2008;Rabani et al, 2009;Shaffer, 2002). It would therefore be interesting to examine how structural factors could facilitate a change in individual attitudes.…”

“…Anomie derives its meaning from anomia, a Greek word for absence of law (Caruana et al, 2000). Anomie has been studied, at a micro level, by taking people's perspective toward one another and their society into account and, at a macro level, discussing how anomie hurts society's functionality and groups of people (Haghish et al, 2012). In fact, in an anomic society people lose their faith in their society's norms, rules, and boundaries, and develop feelings of distrust toward one another and their society (Durkheim, 1951(Durkheim, [1893(Durkheim, ], 1984(Durkheim, [1893; Morrison, 1995), which can promote ethnocentrism and distrust or bad attitudes toward out-groups.…”

Humor and Peace in Kars

“…In a study with 500 students from ten different high schools in Iran, the social indicators of ethnic humor were examined. In the article published at the end of this study, it was found that the ethnic jokes are not only funny and laughing, but also jokes have meaningful a relation with ethnocentrism felt against the outer groups, authority, alienation, socio-economic status [12].…”