The traditional sexual script and humor in courtship

Abstract

To account for sex differences in the production, receptivity, and preference for humor in potential mates during courtship, past research has often adopted an evolutionary approach. The present manuscript will attempt to integrate evolutionary explanations with proximal social and cultural influences using the traditional sexual script and ambivalent sexism theory. The results of both Study 1 (N=227) and Study 2 (N=424) suggest that trait masculinity is positively associated with humor production in courtship, while trait femininity is associated with humor receptivity. Study 1 indicated that the traditional flirting style was associated with less humor production by women, and Study 2 indicated that hostile sexism was related to a lower preference for a humor-producing potential partner by men. A sex difference in humor production in potential partners in Study 2 was no longer detectable once trait gender and hostile sexism was accounted for. Taken together, gender roles, over and above biological sex, influence one’s own humor use in courtship and preference for humor in potential partners.

The motive of competition but not courtship positively correlates with self-reported use of aggressive humor: A critical test of the contests- vs. mate-choice hypotheses

“…This research adds to prior work on the use of aggressive humor by providing evidence that differentiates the Contests Hypothesis of the use of aggressive humor from the Mate-Choice Hypothesis. Prior research on aggressive humor under the framework of evolutionary psychology ( Bressler and Balshine, 2006 ; Bressler et al, 2006 ; Greengross and Miller, 2008 , 2011 ; Wilbur and Campbell, 2011 ; Cowan and Little, 2013 ; DiDonato et al, 2013 ; Zeigler-Hill et al, 2013 ; Hone et al, 2015 ; Ross and Hall, 2020 ) almost exclusively focused on the effect of using aggressive humor on users’ perceived desirability as a long- or short-term mate and mating success. However, those findings do not support either the Contests Hypothesis or the Mate-Choice Hypothesis.…”

“…Thus, by mating with a funnier person, one is more likely to mate with a higher quality partner and produce higher quality offspring. In this process, men would generally be more motivated than women to produce humor ( Greengross et al, 2020 ; Ross and Hall, 2020 ) because men typically face more intense intrasexual competition and thus more motivated to invest in courtship display, including humor production. In response, women should value men’s ability to produce humor ( Bressler and Balshine, 2006 ; DiDonato et al, 2013 ; Hone et al, 2015 ; Tornquist and Chiappe, 2015 ), perceive romantic interest in men producing humor ( Tornquist and Chiappe, 2020 ), and find men with relatively high humor capability to be attractive ( Bressler and Balshine, 2006 ; Driebe et al, 2021 ).…”

Cheesy Does It? Comparing Women’s Preferences for Men’s Use of Successful and Unsuccessful Humor Displays

“…The friendliness of a humor display could implicate men as exhibiting the requisite kindness for long-term pairbonds, which would correspond with the desirability of extraversion in romantic relationships (DiDonato et al, 2013;Figueredo et al, 2006). Conversely, the dynamics of humor in mating domains could have masculine undertones that could connote a dominance that limits the desirability of extraversion to short-term pairbonds (Brown & Sacco, 2017;Ross & Hall, 2020). Masculinity is broadly an ambivalent cue in mating connoting both heritable fitness and extraversion while similarly connoting the potential for hostility and disinterest in long-term relationships (Brown et al, 2022c;Frederick & Haselton, 2007;Geniole & McCormick, 2013).…”

“…The competence connoted through humor could implicate funny men as capable of satisfying LTM goals, as shown by the previous study. Conversely, the general masculinity of humor as a mating display from men could implicate them as particularly dominant (Ross & Hall, 2020), which would limit their desirability to STM (Frederick & Haselton, 2007). Additionally, previous research has suggested that humor displays in mating domains could implicate men as disinterested in monogamous pairbonding and untrustworthy in LTM (Bressler & Balshine, 2006;Medlin et al, 2018).…”

“…Additionally, although women are more likely assume the role of the evaluator (Wilbur & Campbell, 2011), this descriptive norm could have become prescriptive, leading to men oftentimes discounting funny women (see Pratto & Hegarty, 2000;Ross & Hall, 2020). Future research would benefit from identifying potential similarities in men's interest in women's humor production.…”