The "Far Side" of Science: How One's Attitude toward Science Affects One's Perception of Humor in G. Larson's "Far Side"

Overview

Objectives/Goals For centuries, researchers have been trying to find the factors of humor. Many of those studies, however, look at what in the jokes themselves strikes a nerve, such as incongruities and affect. The present study, however, attempted to see what affect a person's attitude toward science has on the perceived funniness of a singe panel cartoon. Methods/Materials State-of-the-art attitude scales were used, as well as precedents from leading humor scientists to find participants' attitudes towards science and their perception of the humor in ten cartoons that use the scientific language register and ten that use the conversational language register. In total, 20 pairs of conjugate cartoons, each pair having one version for each register, were used in the study. Results Results point to the conclusion that people's attitudes towards science affect the perception of humor. In particular, the more positively one regards science, the more one will like cartoons in the scientific language register. Conclusions/Discussion Based on the results of this study, jokes interact with people's attitudes to create humor. In contrast, gender does not affect the perceived funniness of cartoons.

Awards (1)

• Third Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0404

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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