Cultural Variations in How Humour Affects Us

In Tuesday’s article, I explained and gave examples of the benign violation theory. We now know that a violation can include social norms, moral standards, physical boundaries, or even linguistic rules. Violations create a sense of surprise, incongruity, or tension, which causes us to laugh if we feel safe. 

Finding the sweet spot between the benign and a violation is difficult enough in your own culture, but it’s a whole lot harder in a culture different from your own. Culture not only influences acceptable power and social distance but also influences the norms for expressing amusement.

For example, in the Ted Talk “Intercultural Guide to Humor (at Home and Abroad),” Piotre Pluta tells the following Norwegian Joke: 

When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that: a. He is drunk b. He is insane. 3. He is an American d. … all of the above. 

He goes on to explain what smiles mean to people from various cultures. For example, Polish people might think you’re stupid if you smile at them.

… And it seems they’re not the only ones.

Cohen’s d for the difference in intelligence ratings of smiling and non-smiling individuals across cultures. Red lines separate cultures in which smiling individuals are rated as significantly more intelligent (on the right) or significantly less intelligent (on the left).

Cohen’s d for the difference in honesty ratings of smiling and non-smiling individuals across cultures. The red line separates cultures in which smiling individuals are rated as significantly more honest (on the right) (Krys et al., 2015). 

Although I’ve never consciously judged a person’s intelligence based on their smile, I sure have judged their honesty. 

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