Humor can be dissected, as a frog can,” E. B. White wrote, “but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the purely scientific mind.” True to form, philosophers, scientists, and certain left-brained comedians have been scrutinizing humor’s innards for centuries, seeking a serious More
Laurie Menser was a 7- or 8-year-old in Rockville, Md., when she wandered over to a neighbor’s house one day, slipped a glass eye in her mouth and got the attention of the grown-ups in the room. Then she smacked the back of her head and stuck out her tongue More
Thinking about spicing up your next empirical article with a catchy title? Results from two studies show how a humorous title might affect the impact of your paper. More
Laugh it up! Humor is universal across human cultures — and fuels psychological research on everything from social perception to emotion regulation. More
The Wall Street Journal: The use of jokes and comedy affects how confident we appear, how productive and creative we are and even how much status we achieve. Brad Bitterly and Maurice Schweitzer of the Wharton School join us with details. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal More
Naïve participants were highly accurate at judging an individual’s social rank just by listening to their laughter. More
