Is there a correlation between having a sense of humor and
intelligence?  Any scientific studies, theories, etc. would be
appreciated.  Think this might be fun for a google researcher to look
for.

And conversely, does a lack of sense of humor mean less intelligence?

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Clarification of Question by bagelred-ga on 19 Mar 2005 21:48 PST

Yeah, braindoc, that's more at what I'm getting at...sort of the
biology of humor.    And I'm thinking more of humor production (the
ability to create and think of humorous items) more so than humor
appreciation.  And I guess I am thinking more along the lines of humor
from a pun, sarcasm, situational humor moreso than simply three
stooges slapstick humor.

I realize this is too broad in one question, but I figured someone at
some time might have tried to figure out where sense of humor comes
from in the brain.  One good test would be to take let's say 1000
stand up comedians, who of course would vary in type of humor
production, and give them a battery of intelligence, personality type
tests and see what results were.  Wonder if anyone's done that.

Thanks for all comments and would love to hear more thoughts.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

"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>

"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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.