A sense of humour is a much admired asset. But do the same things make people laugh all over the world? And can we measure our ability to appreciate the funny side of life?
Monash University Education PhD scholarship student Mr Ben Leung aims to answer these questions via his research into the links between sense of humour, personality and psychological well-being in different cultures.
Mr Leung has just finished a preliminary study of sense of humour which shows some notable differences in individual humour appreciation results linked to gender and nationality. The survey found that written jokes were more appreciated by men than women, and by people of Chinese heritage rather than Australian. It also showed that jokes containing sexual connotations were more appreciated by men than women.
He surveyed more than 400 people using a self-developed psychometric scale - a tool for measuring mental states - comprising 25 written and 25 cartoon-type jokes. Participants were asked to score the jokes on a scale ranging from 1-5, with 1 being 'not at all funny' and 5 'very funny'. They also had to identify whether the main humour element in the jokes was aggression, sex or double meaning, and provide demographic data about factors such as gender, age and nationality.
With the preliminary study complete, Mr Leung has begun his main study to survey more than 1000 people all around the world via a controlled-access online questionnaire to be distributed through a network of university colleagues in Australia, Hong Kong and the US from late September onwards.
The questionnaire will feature a revised version of his psychometric scale with 10 written and 10 cartoon-type jokes, in conjunction with existing validated measures of sense of humour, personality traits, psychological well-being and social adjustment.