Women gossip and men brag: Perceived gender differences in the use of humor by Romanian older women

Abstract

The present study investigates perceived gender differences in the producion and social use of humor in the interpersonal communication of Romanian older women, aged 60 and above. The study is a qualitative investigation, based on semi-structured interviews. The aim was to understand the perceptions and motivations that women have when using humor in social interactions, and to explore the functions that humor serves in their day-to-day communication. Aprevious quantitative investigation found statistically significant gender differences between Romanian older men and women on a sense of humor scale, and suggested that the use of humor in interpersonal communication had stronger social benefits for women (Schiau, 2016a). Drawing on these findings, and keeping in mind other studies that discuss the different use of humor by men and women, this study aims to investigate specific gender differences in the production of humor, as perceived by the participants.