Associations between personality and humor structure appreciation

Abstract

The current study investigates the associations between personality and humor structure appreciation. A total of 509 participants completed the Big Five Inventory–2 and the Humor Structure Appreciation Scale. The results showed that, as expected, open-mindedness was associated with a preference for nonsense (NON) over incongruity-resolution (INC-RES) humor, and it was negatively related to the aversiveness scores of NON humor. On the other hand, conscientiousness correlated with a preference for INC-RES over NON humor, and the facet of organization accounted primarily for this relationship. Focusing on the facets of open-mindedness, we found that aesthetic sensitivity and intellectual curiosity were related to preferring jokes with residual incongruities (NON humor) over jokes with a full resolution (INC-RES humor). Finally, we confirmed that extraverted individuals enjoyed humor more of all types, whereas negative emotionality related to generally finding both types of humor as not funny, but there was no significant association between negative emotionality and the total aversiveness score. The results are discussed in relation to previous theoretical accounts and empirical findings, and future avenues for further research are considered.