The enjoyment of sexist humor, rape attitudes, and relationship aggression in college students

Abstract

The current study tested Freud's (1905/1960) theory that sexist humor may be associated with hostility toward women and extended previous research showing a link between hostile humor and aggression. Colleges students (N = 399 - approximately 92% white, 5% African American, and 3% other minorities) rated 10 sexist jokes on their perceived funniness. Results showed that the enjoyment of sexist humor was positively correlated with rape-related attitudes and beliefs, the self-reported likelihood of forcing sex, and psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in men. For women, the enjoyment of sexist humor was only positively correlated with Adversarial Sexual Beliefs and Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence. Women also found the jokes to be less enjoyable, less acceptable, and more offensive than the men, but they were not significantly less likely to tell the jokes.