Relationships Among Humor Styles, Funniness Ratings of Jokes, and Fatigue�

Shelia M. Kennison, Ph.D.

Oklahoma State University

Shelia.Kennison@okstate.edu

HRC 2026

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Question

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Does arousing language (e.g., humor, stimulating stories, and curse words) function to provide temporary relief from fatigue through activation of the sympathetic nervous system?

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Prior Research

• Recent research found a link between how often people use humor and other forms of arousing language (e.g., curse words) and their level of sleep quality.

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Kennison and Hurtado Morales (2024)

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Prior Research

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• Those with the poorest sleep quality reported using negative humor styles and curse words more frequently than others.

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Kennison and Hurtado Morales (2024)

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Prior Research

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• Using two measures of sleep quality, they found those reporting poorer sleep used self-defeating humor and curse words more often than others.

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Kennison and Hurtado Morales (2024)

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Prior Research

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• The results suggested that people may use humor and other arousing language because doing so can stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, providing a temporary physiological boost counteracting feelings of tiredness.

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Kennison and Hurtado Morales (2024)

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The Present Study

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• Taking a more in-depth approach on the question of how fatigue may relate to the use and experience of humor, we investigated:

• the role of fatigue (rather than sleep quality)

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• individual differences in chronotype (i.e., morningness-eveningness, Horne & Östberg, 1976)

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in the use of the four humor styles in daily life and funniness ratings for a set of jokes.

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What is Chronotype?

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• Chronotype refers to an individual’s circadian rhythm cycle associated with being a morning person (i.e., early riser) or an evening person (i.e., night owl) and is assessed using Horne and Östberg’s (1976) morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ).

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• Questions pertain to participants’ ideal times for waking up, feeling at their best, doing work, etc.

Hypotheses

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• Those reporting higher levels of fatigue or sleepiness would rate the jokes as funnier and report more frequent use of humor than others.

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• Chronotype would be related to funniness ratings and use of humor.

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• People with different chronotypes might complete the survey at different times of the day, which could be related to funniness ratings.

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Participants

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• The participants were 550 undergraduates (414 women, 121 men, 8 other, 7 prefer not to respond).

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• The average age of participants was 20.74 years (SD = 5.74).

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• The sample was composed of the following groups: White (69%), more than one group (20%), Black (4%), Asian (1%), Native American (4%), and other (2%).

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• All participants received course credit for participating.

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Materials

We assessed the following variables

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• Fatigue (Fatigue Assessment Scale, Michielsen et al., 2003)
• Chronotype (i.e., Morningness-Eveningness, Horne & Östberg, 1976)
• Sleepiness (Stanford Sleepiness Scale, Hoddes et al., 1972)
• Humor styles (i.e., Humor Styles Questionnaire, Martin et al., 2003)
• Funniness ratings for 12 jokes and 12 nonjokes

Materials

We had participants rate the funniness of 12 short jokes and 12 nonjokes

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Joke Example

Did you hear they arrested the devil?

Yeah, they got him on possession.

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1= not at all funny

2= slightly funny

3 = moderately funny

4 = funny

5 = extremely funny

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Funniness ratings for 12 jokes and 12 nonjokes

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Nonjoke Example

Why were the teacher’s eyes crossed?

She couldn’t control them.

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1= not at all funny

2= slightly funny

3 = moderately funny

4 = funny

5 = extremely funny

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Nonjoke Construction

Non-jokes were constructed by making minimal changes to jokes, removing the humorous content and replacing it with non-humorous content.

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Original Joke

Why were the teacher’s eyes crossed?

She couldn’t control her pupils.

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Nonjoke

Why were the teacher’s eyes crossed?

She couldn’t control them.

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Nonjoke Construction

Non-jokes were constructed by making minimal changes to jokes, removing the humorous content and replacing it with non-humorous content.

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Original Joke

It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs

because they always take things literally.

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Nonjoke

It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs. because they always take things.

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Procedure

• Participants were recruited via a Sona system enrolling about 1500 students from all majors on campus.

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• They completed an online Qualtrics survey. The study lasted an average of 30 minutes.

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• The order of questions within each scale were randomized. The ordering of the scales was the same for each participant with the funniness ratings occurring at the beginning of session.

Results: Hypothesis 1

Partially Supported

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• H1a: Those reporting higher levels of fatigue or sleepiness would rate the jokes as funniest and report more frequent use of humor.

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Fatigue Sleepiness

Affiliative: r = -.10, p = .02 r = .05, ns

Self-Enhancing: r = -.09, p = .03 r = -.02, ns

Aggressive: r = .10, p = .02 r = -.01, ns

Self-defeating: r = .33, p < .001 r = .12, p = .006

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Results: Hypothesis 1

Not Supported

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• H1b: Fatigue and sleepiness would be related to joke funniness ratings:

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Fatigue Sleepiness

Jokes: r = -.01, ns r = -.02, ns

Nonjokes: r = -. 003, ns r = -.04, ns

Diff (jokes-nonjokes): r = -.01, ns r = -.02, ns

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• Overall, jokes were rated as funnier than nonjokes, but ratings were low for both (jokes: 2.32 vs. nonjokes: 1.71, t = 26.973, p < .001).

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Results: Hypothesis 2

Partially Supported

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• H2: Chronotype (MEQ*) would be related to use of humor.

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MEQ

Affiliative: r = -.15, p < .001

Self-Enhancing: r = .05, ns

Aggressive: r = -.13, p < .001

Self-defeating: r = -.06, ns

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• * higher scores on the MEQ reflect more preference for morningness.

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Results: Hypothesis 2

Not Supported

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• H2: Chronotype (MEQ*) would be related to funniness ratings.

MEQ

Jokes: r = .07, ns

Nonjokes: r = .05, ns

Diff (Jokes-Nonjokes): r = -.02, ns

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• MEQ was related to fatigue (r = -.26, p < .001) and sleepiness (r = -.14, p < .001)

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• * higher scores on the MEQ reflect more preference for morningness.

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Results: Hypothesis 3

Partially Supported

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• People with different chronotypes might complete the survey at different times of the day, which could be related to funniness ratings.

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# of Participants

8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 289

4:00 p.m. to midnight 233

Midnight to 8:00 a.m. 28

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Chronotype (MEQ) was related to time of day: r = -.14, p = .001

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Funniness ratings did not differ as a function of time of day (i.e., when the survey was completed).

Results: Multiple Regression

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• We carried out five multiple regression analyses to explore how fatigue, sleepiness, chronotype score, and gender predicted each of the four humor styles and the difference in funniness ratings for jokes vs. nonjokes.

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Humor Style Model R²

Affiliative: F(4,541) = 7.37^*** .05^***

Self-Enhancing: ns ns

Aggressive: F(4,541) = 12.89^*** .09 ^***

Self-defeating: F(4,541) = 15.72^*** .11^***

Diff (joke-nonjoke) ns ns

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^***p < .001, ^**p < .01, ^*p < .05

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Summary

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• Fatigue was related to all four humor styles. More fatigue was related to less frequent use of the positive humor styles and more frequent use of the negative humor styles.

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Summary

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• Fatigue was related to all four humor styles. More fatigue was related to less frequent use of the positive humor styles and more frequent use of the negative humor styles.
• More sleepiness was related to more frequent use of the self-defeating humor style.

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Summary

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• Fatigue was related to all four humor styles. More fatigue was related to less frequent use of the positive humor styles and more frequent use of the negative humor styles.
• More sleepiness was related to more frequent use of the self-defeating humor style.
• Greater morningness was related to less frequent use of the affiliative and aggressive humor styles.

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Summary

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• Fatigue was related to all four humor styles. More fatigue was related to less frequent use of the positive humor styles and more frequent use of the negative humor styles.
• More sleepiness was related to more frequent use of the self-defeating humor style.
• Greater morningness was related to less frequent use of the affiliative and aggressive humor styles.
• The time of day in which participants completed the study was related to their chronotype.

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Implications

• The relationship between fatigue and humor is not fully understood.

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• Future longitudinal research could shed more light on the relationship.

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• Examining the source of the fatigue (e.g., mood disturbances vs. other sources of fatigue, such as illness or exhaustion/sleep pressure) would be illuminating.

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