The relationship between humor and the expression of hostility.

Abstract

This study explored the relationships among the expression of hostility in behavior, the extent to which hostile cartoons are judged funny, and the ability to recognize hostility in cartoons. 3 groups of 15 male psychiatric patients each were rated as expressing hostility overtly, coveretly, or not at all. They were asked to judge the funniness of 32 cartoons and also to indicate which of the cartoons expressed hostility and which did not. Relationships were found between the expression of hostility and the tendency to judge hostile cartoons as funny, between estimated IQ and the ability to differentiate hostile and non-hostile cartoons, between the expression of hostility and the differentiation of hostile and non-hostile cartoons, and between the tendency to judge hostile cartoons as funny and the ability to differentiate hostile and non-hostile cartoons.