Paco Dennis
SF VIP
- Location
- Mid-Missouri
I started wondering if my sense of humor was a little weird. When scanning the web for funny pics and vids etc, I find some I think are hilarious but I wonder if they would be on the forum. They might seem in bad taste, or misconstrued. So I don't post most of them. 
This ties in with what we think IS funny to each of us and the reactions others have to it. I find it fascinating how this plays itself out in how we make friends, or not. Does the SF have a general sense of a certain kind with boundaries? What is distasteful to one might be very funny to anther. Who is the better person/STATUS? Sometimes people feel offended by being challenged, others don't. Are they bad? STATUS. Which leads us back to our personal and social conditioning. So I asked Hal2022 and found some interesting stuff. Here is an abstract of an essay I found that says pretty much what I am pondering.
"Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status.
Citation
Bitterly, T. B., Brooks, A. W., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2017). Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 431–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000079
Abstract
Across 8 experiments, we demonstrate that humor can influence status, but attempting to use humor is risky. The successful use of humor can increase status in both new and existing relationships, but unsuccessful humor attempts (e.g., inappropriate jokes) can harm status. The relationship between the successful use of humor and status is mediated by perceptions of confidence and competence. The successful use of humor signals confidence and competence, which in turn increases the joke teller’s status. Interestingly, telling both appropriate and inappropriate jokes, regardless of the outcome, signals confidence. Although signaling confidence typically increases status and power, telling inappropriate jokes signals low competence and the combined effect of high confidence and low competence harms status. Rather than conceptualizing humor as a frivolous or ancillary behavior, we argue that humor plays a fundamental role in shaping interpersonal perceptions and hierarchies within groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)"
This ties in with what we think IS funny to each of us and the reactions others have to it. I find it fascinating how this plays itself out in how we make friends, or not. Does the SF have a general sense of a certain kind with boundaries? What is distasteful to one might be very funny to anther. Who is the better person/STATUS? Sometimes people feel offended by being challenged, others don't. Are they bad? STATUS. Which leads us back to our personal and social conditioning. So I asked Hal2022 and found some interesting stuff. Here is an abstract of an essay I found that says pretty much what I am pondering."Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status.
Citation
Bitterly, T. B., Brooks, A. W., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2017). Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 431–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000079
Abstract
Across 8 experiments, we demonstrate that humor can influence status, but attempting to use humor is risky. The successful use of humor can increase status in both new and existing relationships, but unsuccessful humor attempts (e.g., inappropriate jokes) can harm status. The relationship between the successful use of humor and status is mediated by perceptions of confidence and competence. The successful use of humor signals confidence and competence, which in turn increases the joke teller’s status. Interestingly, telling both appropriate and inappropriate jokes, regardless of the outcome, signals confidence. Although signaling confidence typically increases status and power, telling inappropriate jokes signals low competence and the combined effect of high confidence and low competence harms status. Rather than conceptualizing humor as a frivolous or ancillary behavior, we argue that humor plays a fundamental role in shaping interpersonal perceptions and hierarchies within groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)"