An amiable joke can be much more effective than darker humor at improving mood, according to recent research from Stanford University.

In the study, led by psychologist Andrea Samson and James Gross and published in February in Cognition & Emotion, 40 people in Switzerland and 37 people in the U.S. looked at photographs of upsetting things such as car accidents, corpses and dangerous animals. They were instructed to either say nothing about the images, use good-natured humor focusing on the absurdity of life or the human condition, or use mean-spirited humor. The experimenters offered examples of each type of response to help coach the subjects; given a picture of a snake with its prey, for instance, “Looks like someone's bitten off more than they can chew” exhibits positive humor, whereas “Nourishing my future handbag” has a negative spin.

In both countries, those who made benevolent jokes about the images had more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions afterward than those who laughed mockingly at the pictures, although both groups who used humor fared better than those who simply looked silently.

The upshot: when something upsets you, humor can help. The next time you try to laugh off a grim situation, reflect on whether your jokes skew negative (“My boss isn't just dumb; he has terrible body odor, too!”) or positive (“No matter what happens at work, I've got it better than a politician these days …”). You might find tweaking your comedic style could give more of a boost.

5 Comments

1. 1. julianpenrod 12:19 PM 7/20/12

   Among other things, whoever provided the jokes doesn't know the first thing about humor. Neither joke about the snake was light. Depending on the form of the photo, vastly superior light jokes can be provided. If the snake has not yet attacked its prey, you could provide the caption, "So this is what 'speed dating' is like!" If the snake has partly swallowed its prey, you could say, "Stop fidgeting! You're the one who elected for the cheap tonsillectomy!"
   An important point overall. Pain and discomfort have a strong connection to fatigue and tiredness. In fact, "chronic fatigue syndrome", which has been artificially metamorphosed into "fibromyalgia" has discomfort as a component. And the rise has coincided with the growth of coarseness, fatalism and general bad humor. The self congratulatory abomination they called "dramedy" was based on mockery, founded in a genuinely dark and despairing view of life. It left "The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd" and became things like "The Middle", "Modern Family" and "Suburgatory", but the general sense of life as nothing but desperate tragedy remains. And, between the unrestrained viciousness toward individuals like Cliff Clavin and "Seinfeld" actually qadmitting they got humor at others' expernse, even traditional comedies have become largely, unrelievedly cruel.
   If wretched, hate filled homor can fail to relieve pain, it can be the case that an unalloyed atmosphere of dark humor can produce discomfort.

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2. 2. panlac01 in reply to candide 09:10 PM 7/20/12

   this clever joke shall never pall

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3. 3. rlene 12:01 AM 7/26/12

   You know what a Swiss Army Knife looks like,,,
   Do you know what a French Army Knife looks like?
   Open it up and everything is a corkscrew.

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4. 4. jackvandijk 12:10 PM 7/26/12

   ...and the next error is that the researchers claim that they used European subjects. That is not so, Switzerland is Switzerland, as far as humor is concerned, each country has its own brand, based on their individual language. This is not up to the standard Sciam should be.

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5. 5. collettedesmaris 05:32 PM 7/26/12

   This article is so inappropriate that it is pathetic. There is nothing even remotely humorous about "photographs of upsetting things such as car accidents, corpses and dangerous animals." That any researcher would instruct an observer of such photographs to "use good-natured humor focusing on the absurdity of life or the human condition, or use mean-spirited humor", suggests that the researcher needs a refresher course on basic humanity. When something is described as being "absurd", that thing has a leaning towards being contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish or false. One can hardly refer to a car accident or a corpse as "laughably foolish or false." As well, you stated that there were individuals in the research project who "laughed mockingly at the pictures." If that is even a valid statement, it reveals that the research subjects are in dire need of education on humanity as well.
   
   I reiterate: the devastation that a car accident can render on those involved in it; and corpses, should NEVER be targets for applying humor. The application of any kind of humor to either is not only in extremely poor taste, but it just simply isn't done.
   
   What were you people at Scientific American thinking, to presume that subject matter such as this is worthy of publishing under your umbrella? It gives rise to me really taking a second look at you people - I find it absolutely reprehensible that your organization is okay with making mockery of car accidents and corpses.
   

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