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Subject:
Sense of Humor and Intelligence
Category: Science > Social Sciences Asked by: bagelred-ga List Price: $5.00 |
Posted:
17 Mar 2005 13:17 PST
Expires: 16 Apr 2005 14:17 PDT Question ID: 496348 |
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There is no answer at this time. |
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Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: pinkfreud-ga on 17 Mar 2005 18:24 PST |
I truly don't think there's much of a relationship between intelligence and a sense of humor. Goodness knows there are quite a few humorless wretches in Mensa, and I've met several mentally handicapped people who had a wonderful sense of humor. It's undoubtedly true that well-developed verbal skills are helpful in creating amusing material, but high verbal aptitudes exist in people who have no more sense of humor than a slab of beef has. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: myoarin-ga on 18 Mar 2005 08:49 PST |
Yeah, it would be (have been)a fun question, bagelred-ga, if pinkfreud-ga hadn't immediately answered it so succinctly. I might have tried to claim that there is a direct correlation between having a sense of humor and being intelligent (kind a liking to think that I'm above average on both - NO comments, please!*), but Pinky shot that down before it flew, and I was forgetting that I also have know humorous mentally retarded. * Was it Hobbes who explains that everyone is happy with his level of intellect? I remember it as a delightful passage. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: bagelred-ga on 18 Mar 2005 09:47 PST |
Thanks for the comments guys. However, I'm looking for scientific studies and scientific theories of humor and how it relates to intelligence. Or in other words, why does someone have a fantastic sense of humor and others simply don't get it or don't find it funny? Is it levels of intelligence, brain function, genetic, etc? So I thought the easiest way for someone to research was to simply see if scientists or sociologists or whoever have studied if there is a correlation between sense of humor and intelligence. In addition, you hve to be careful of cause and effect. IN other words, I'm not saying all smart people have a sense of humor, but does having a great sense of humor link to being intelligent in some way. Understand? Also, some people who we might consider funny might not be intelligent, but still find humorous. For example, Conan O'Brien has what I consider one of the best sense of humor of anyone I know either in person or through celebrity AND he is extremely bright considering his quick wit, breadth of knowledge, his ability to get into and graduate Harvard, and considering genetically his parents are professor and lawyer, respectively. ON the opposite spectrum, let's say, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, we might find funny and may elicit humor because of actions, comments, etc, but it's because of situations or their clueless nature that elicits the laughs, not a quick with or ability to put two incongrous items together to crack a joke. Anyway, hopefully someone can research this for me from more of a scientific nature instead of from personal experience, but I do appreciate everyone's comments and thoughts nonetheless. Is $5.00 enough or should I raise the price? |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: pinkfreud-ga on 18 Mar 2005 10:54 PST |
There have been studies of jokes and humor, but the problem with studying anything related to a sense of humor is that it is not possible to define "sense of humor" in any scientific fashion. There just isn't any litmus test. Funny is in the eye of the beholder. For example: Recently I was told, on a messageboard, that I have no sense of humor. This came after I admitted that I don't find "South Park" to be vastly amusing. It would be possible to design a scientific study that might indicate a relationship between intelligence and a fondness for "South Park." However, such a study would be meaningful in a larger sense only if one grants that liking "South Park" and having a sense of humor are essentially interrelated. If you'd like a Google Answers Researcher to undertake a thorough search for studies of intelligence in relation to sense of humor, it would probably help if you'd raise your price considerably. I doubt that such a project can be adequately researched in less than an hour or two. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: guzzi-ga on 18 Mar 2005 16:09 PST |
We all have anecdotal examples of some sort of correlation, but a detail which perhaps should be factored in is that animals (other than humans) also can be shown to have a sense of humour. Recent studies have identified a high pitched squeak in rats as laughter. Most humans are more intelligent than rats. Best |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: mochilero-ga on 18 Mar 2005 17:33 PST |
"Anyway, hopefully someone can research this for me from more of a scientific nature instead of from personal experience...Is $5.00 enough or should I raise the price?" Now there is a sense of humor. My guess is that you won't find many studies in this area because "sense of humor" is one of the most difficult human traits to quantify. Common sense says that there is likely to be a connection between sense of humor and creative thinking (Einstein certainly had both). Most humor, after all, requires lateral thinking of a sort, at least to create it. I'm not so sure about a link to intelligence though. Steve <a href="http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com">http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com</a> |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: mochilero-ga on 18 Mar 2005 17:34 PST |
"Anyway, hopefully someone can research this for me from more of a scientific nature instead of from personal experience...Is $5.00 enough or should I raise the price?" Now there is a sense of humor. My guess is that you won't find many studies in this area because "sense of humor" is one of the most difficult human traits to quantify. Common sense says that there is likely to be a connection between sense of humor and creative thinking (Einstein certainly had both). Most humor, after all, requires lateral thinking of a sort, at least to create it. I'm not so sure about a link to intelligence though. Steve http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: myoarin-ga on 19 Mar 2005 08:57 PST |
You really want to know... That's kind of humorless ... ;) Sorry, but it does raise a point: in the company of dour persons (not you), wit can just sort of sink into the sand, whereas in other company, which may not be so witty itself, it finds a response. And with all respect for actively and passively humorous mentally handicapped, Pinkfreud's "well-developed verbal skills" do lend themselves to being able to express something witty when the speaker can "put two incongruous items together," (lateral thinking, thanks Mochilero)which, of course, the ingenuous sometimes also do, to our amusement, that - admittedly - may be a little different when we hear the same knowingly said. See/read Shakespeare's fools. A fool could have spoken the lines, but it took great wit to write them intentionally. Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of being Earnest, an extended misunderstanding about the word/name "Earnest", was a work of great intelligence. But when wit falls on unappreciative ears, could it be that the intellectual deficit is with the listeners? A sense of humor is two things, the active wit to create humor and the passive recognition of humor, even it none was intended. And what about professional comedians and clowns? Producing humor by preplanned design is an entirely different situation. The pratfall of a clown we accept as humorous because we know it is intended, although in another situation it would be an embarrassing situation that empathy and tact would not allow us to find humorous. I digress, but still maintain that Pinkfreud has covered the ground. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: braindoc-ga on 19 Mar 2005 12:58 PST |
There is actually some research germane to the question, though perhaps not as wide in scope as the questioner would like. There are a number of studies of the neuropsychology underlying particular types of humor comprehension (not all types of humor by any means) and there are several cases in the literature of brain damage that resulted in loss of particular types of humor appreciation. For instance, a punch line requiring comprehension of pun, sarcasm, or double-entendre appears to require an intact right hemisphere. Individuals with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex are more struck by slap stick and 3 stooges style humor. Some humor requires "role taking" behavior, the ability to correctly understand the situation of another individual-- to put oneself in someone else's shoes. This, too, requires intact prefrontal cortex. Some individuals become flat and humorless because of neurologic damage.... absolutely nothing is funny to them anymore. These people tend to have limbic system damage. A search of medline for humor and right hemisphere or humor and frontal should yield some of the relevant papers. There are currently some researchers using functional MRI to study the areas of the brain that are used in interpreting various types of humor. This does not directly lead to a connection between humor and intelligence (other than the requirement to have a normally functioning brain) but does get at what underlies the question. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: braindoc-ga on 25 Mar 2005 13:12 PST |
To tell the truth, BagelRed, I am interested in this field and do not know of much research into the production of humor. It is much more straight forward to study the appreciation of humor since standard samples can be generated. That being said, I doubt there would be too much difference in the brain areas involved. The areas involved with humor appreciation should also be involved in making certain that the anterior language, gesture, and facial expression areas of the brain transmit the humor appropriately. Pun, sarcasm, double-entendre, cognitive dissonance, and inferential reasoning all have a good deal to do with the right hemisphere--frontal moreso than temporal lobes and those much moreso than the other areas. The WAIS-R standard measure of IQ includes a verbal and non-verbal reasoning subscore. One would expect a low non-verbal reasoning subscore, which should correlate with the above right hemisphere functions, to predict a lower ability to utilize those types of humor. Interesting that puns are repeatedly castigaed as a "low"form of humor. Yet their comprehension says something about higher brain function. Paragraph level stories are much more of a bihemispheric type of humor and would still be seen as cognitively at a higher level. But, in the hierarchy of humor and brain function, I would definitely put the 3 stooges type lower in the order, since this requires only certain parts of the frontal lobe and the limbic system to appreciate. There are a few functional MRI studies beginning to appear in which attempts are made to localize the parts of the brain that come on line when being exposed to various types of humor but there is a long way to go in this area. I know a researcher who did a pilot fMRI of someone looking at cartoons, for example. Not enough to base any conclusions on, though. |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: academentia-ga on 15 Aug 2005 17:11 PDT |
A quick search through Web of Science for an intersection of the terms "humor" and "intelligence" pulls up only 24 citations. Nothing that directly addresses the question that I can see. Sounds like a potentially fruitful research topic? Who wants to write up the grant? |
Subject:
Re: Sense of Humor and Intelligence
From: upnatom-ga on 26 Oct 2005 00:54 PDT |
Here is a reference and abstract that may interest you bagelred-ga An exploration of the relationship between humor and giftedness in students. Holt, Dan G.; Willard-Holt, Colleen; Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Vol 8(3), 1995. pp. 257-271. [Peer Reviewed Journal] Abstract: Describes the interrelationships among intelligence, humor and giftedness. Intellectually gifted students possess a number of common characteristics, one of which is an advanced sense of humor. Many theories believe that the key concept of humor is understanding incongruity, and this involves a mental process similar to problem solving. Research evidence on the relationship between intelligence and humor is equivocal. However, many researchers (e.g., Piaget) have related cognitive development to changes in humor comprehension and in what is considered as humorous; the association of humor with giftedness is also supported. Issues such as the inconsistency with which researchers define and measure humor, the distinction between humor appreciation and production, and differences in humor related to developmental stages need to be resolved before actual interrelationships can be understood. |
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