ABSTRACT

It has been found that people who are more pessimistic react positively to darker jokes and humor than those who are optimistic. But is that entirely true? Does optimism and pessimism have an effect on how an individual reacts to humor? This study investigates whether optimists are more likely to be attracted to light humor and pessimists to dark humor. The hypothesis of this study states that pessimistic individuals will enjoy dark humor more than optimistic individuals. To do this, the study consisted of 60 participants (70% female and 28% male) who were introduced to four comedic skits by different comedians, two of light humor and two dark humor. A small pilot study was completed to categorize comedic skits into light vs dark humor. Only skits unanimously determined to be dark humor and skits unanimously determined to be light humor were included. Participants were asked a series of questions concerning the videos: to what degree they enjoyed the video, to what degree it was found funny or offensive, their comfort level, etc. They completed the Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) to determine reported optimism or pessimism. Correlations between optimists and pessimists and different types of humor were analyzed using a Spearman Correlation Co-efficient. Results show that there is neither a significant correlation between how pessimists and optimists react to light and dark humor. It was found that optimistic individuals find dark humor just as funny as individuals who are pessimistic.