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Three attitude dimensions of sense of humor as predictors of laughter
Author(s) -
SVEBAK SVEN
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1974.tb00574.x
Subject(s) - laughter , psychology , social psychology , personality , sense of humor , style (visual arts) , entertainment , emotional control , developmental psychology , cognition , art , archaeology , neuroscience , visual arts , history
.— A theory of sense of humor was made the basis for construction of an exploratory attitude test. The theory distinguishes between three dimensions of a comical situation and their personality equivalents, the latter being (1) sensitivity to humorous messages (M p ), (2) personal likings of comical situations (L p ), and (3) need for emotional control (E p ). From a group of 96 subjects, 30 were selected for observation of the occurrence of laughter in an entertainment situation. The attitude dimensions were tested as predictors by a combined factorization and regression approach. No prediction was obtained for the total group. Laughter in men was, however, predicted by the L p ‐variable, and in women by the E p ‐variable, as expected on the basis of an avowed sex difference in style of social behavior.