Being religious implies being different in humour: evidence from self- and peer-ratings

Abstract

Previous research indicated negative associations between religiosity and humour creation and appreciation. The present studies on 175 students (study 1) and 196 adults from married couples (study 2) investigated the links between religiosity and spirituality and the use of specific humour styles (assessed on the basis of Martin et al. (2003) Humor Styles Questionnaire and Craik et al. (1996) Humorous Behavior Q-Sort Deck). In study 1 (self-reports), men's spirituality and religiosity were found to be negatively related respectively to the use of hostile and social humour. In study 2 (self- and/or spouse-ratings), there was weak but meaningful evidence that both religious men and women did not tend to use hostile and earthy humour nor, to some extent, social humour. Religious men tended to use self-defeating humour, a finding partially due to their high insecurity in attachment. Moreover, religiosity and/or spirituality was found to be related to between-spouse similarity in many humour styles. The discussion points out the willingness of religious people to share similar values and ways of enjoyment with their partners as well as the fact that the ‘discomfort’ of religion with humour seems to encompass a large number of humour styles.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Christelle Lacour, Isabelle Roskam, and Christel Scariot for their help with data collection and to Robert Hogenraad for his helpful comments to the manuscript.