gender differences in humor the cheerleader effect

the
cheerleader
effect!
gender
differences in
humor!
the cheerleader effect:
hierarchical encoding
of individuals in groups
drew walker & ed vul
department of psychology, ucsd
the
cheerleader
>
p
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o
r
g
in
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n
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l
a
a social
explanation
•  social
•  cognitive
cognitive
cognitive
explanation
explanation
ensemble coding+
cognitive
appeal
of average =
explanation
cheerleader
effect ensemble
coding
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
(ariely, 2001)
seeing the mean: ensemble
coding for faces
(haberman&whitney,2009)
averaged faces are
attractive
(langolis&roggman,1990)
(brady & alvarez, 2010)
(brady & alvarez, 2010)
(brady & alvarez, 2010)
(brady & alvarez, 2010)
summary: 1)  people automatically form an average
representation of a group of faces
2)
an averaged face is more attractive than
the faces that comprise it
3)  judgment s of individual items
presented in a group are biased toward
this group average
hypothesis: a face presented in a group of
faces will be judged as more
attractive than the same face
presented alone.
method • 
experiments 1 & 2: within subject design,
subjects rated 300 faces, once alone and
once in a group
• 
experiment 1: 25 undergrads (4 ♂) rated
female faces
• 
experiment 2: 19 undergrads ( 6 ♂ ) rated
male faces
design
a unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
unattractive
attractive
unattractive
attractive
a unattractive
attractive
unattractive
attractive
results:
experiment #1
attractiveness of females alone v. in a group
480
470
460
450
attractiveness rating
490
*
alone
group
t (24)= 2.53, p = .0182
“the cheerleader effect” is real :
a face presented in a group is
perceived as more attractive than the
exact same face presented alone!
results:
experiment #2
420
430
*
410
400
attractiveness rating
440
attractiveness of males alone v. in a group
alone
group
t (18)= 2.13, p = .047 “the football team effect” exists :
a male face presented in a group is
also rated as more attractive than the
same face presented alone!
conclusions is the “cheerleader effect”
real? C
is it happening at a cognitive
level? C
Humor is Attractive!
Gender Differences!
•  Gender differences
in mate preference!
–  Women say they
prefer men who
make them laugh,
men prefer women
who laugh at their
jokes!
–  Personal ads:
women seek, men
offer!
–  Female laughter
correlates with
attraction, males
doesn’t !
Influence of Humor on Desirability Bressler, E. R., & Balshine, S. (2006)!
Gender Differences in Laughter •  Laughter in conversation!
–  Speakers laugh the most!
–  Females laugh the most!
•  Laughter in children ! –  Girls laugh more with boys ! –  Girls reciprocate more •  Young boys ins>gate humor more cross-­‐
culturally •  Comedians are overwhelmingly male http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comedians)!
Some Theories of Humor!
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Relief!
Superiority!
Incongruity!
Benign violations!
Detection of mistaken reasoning!
An evolutionary explanation!
•  Detection of mistaken reasoning!
•  Creative intelligence (miller 2000)!
•  Humor: do males compete to display it for
choosy females?!
Humor and Social Rank •  Humor at work –  Downward humor –  Superiors crack the most jokes –  Males crack the most jokes •  Would laugh paHern reverse? -­‐low-­‐caste Indian males giggle Are men actually funnier?!
!
•  UCSD undergrads say men are funnier!
–  89% women say men are funnier!
–  94% of men say men are funnier!
•  Are there actual gender differences in ability?!
–  Comedians?!
–  Men attempt more!
–  Women more emotionally responsive?!
•  No direct tests of actual ability !
Who’s funny: gender stereotypes,
humor production and memory bias
!
Study 1: humor produc>on •  32 undergraduate (16 males, 16 females) •  20 cartoon images from the New Yorker magazine •  Told to be as funny as possible •  Males predicted there cap>ons would be rated as funnier ______________________________ Study 1: humor apprecia>on •  81 UCSD undergraduates •  Rated all of the cartoon cap>ons for funniness Yes, men are a bit funnier…. •  Both male and female’s rated cap>ons wriHen by males about 2% funnier •  Males preferred male cap>ons to a greater degree than females did •  Males used more sexual humor and profanity, however, these were not the cap>ons that drove the effect •  But are they THAT much funnier…? Study 2: Memory encoding • 
• 
• 
• 
72 UCSD undergraduates Viewed a bunch of different cap>ons Half wriHen by each gender Half funny, half not Study 2: Memory test •  Presented with a cap>on –  Had either seen the cap>on or not –  Was presented with the correct gender, or not Study 2: results •  Both males and females over aHribute funny cap>ons to males Overall Interpreta>on •  Men do seem to be slightly funnier •  However, a genuine small difference in humor ability might be perpetuated by have a strong prior belief thanks!!