Individual Differences in Verbal Irony Use: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Psycholinguistic Studies

ABSTRACT

We carried out a systematic review of psycholinguistic, empirical, quantitative studies on verbal irony use and individual differences (i.e. psychological, not demographic, traits that significantly differentiate individuals). Out of 5,967 publications screened, 29, comprising 35 studies in total, were included. Following a qualitative content analysis, six thematic clusters were identified, representing areas of research in individual differences in irony use: (a) psychological well-being, (b) personality traits, (c) humor-related traits, (d) cultural factors, (e) social skills, and (f) cognitive factors. The results of the studies in each cluster are summarized and conclusions for further research are presented. In particular, the systematic review suggests that irony and sarcasm should be clearly delineated as separate, yet related phenomena due to differing patterns of correlations with specific individual differences. Additionally, significant methodological heterogeneity between the studies suggests the need for greater standardization of irony use measures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The study was pre-registered in the Open Science Framework. The pre-registration and supplementary material for the study can be accessed at the following link: https://osf.io/fa9cx/. No data set other than the information presented in the manuscript was produced during this study.

Notes

¹ Since Google Scholar does not allow for exporting search results, there was no way to add them to the combined list of records from the three databases and remove duplicates. Therefore, for the sake of transparency and clarity, the Google Scholar results were subjected to the initial screening separately. The results of the initial screening were then included in the list of publications subjected to full-text screening. At this point, any duplicates between the publications screened from Google Scholar and the other databases were removed.

² We thank the authors of Bosco, Berardinelli, and Parola (2019) and Bosco, Gabbatore, Angeleri, Zettin, and Parola (2018) for sharing the results of the analyses of the healthy control samples upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The work on the manuscript was possible thanks to the grant no. 2019/35/D/HS2/01005 within the SONATA Program funded by the National Science Center and awarded to the final author.