Empathy Through Satire: How Empathy in Satire May Catalyze More Persuasion, Enjoyment, and Understanding
Open Access
Author:
Wilcox, Gordon
Area of Honors:
Psychology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Reg Adams, Thesis Supervisor Susan Simkins, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Satire Empathy humor
Abstract:
Previous work assessing the persuasiveness and perceived funniness of satirical comedy has chiefly focused on gender. (Becker 2023). The present study seeks to expand the scope of the research to focus on the interaction of empathy, gender, and the persuasiveness of satire. Employing a 2x2 mixed factorial design, this study seeks to determine if participants will find satire funnier, empathize more with the comedians, find it more informative, and elaborate more on the messages from comedians if they are exposed to the adversity a comedian has overcome in their rise to fame as opposed to only knowing the comedian’s accolades. We hypothesized that those exposed to the high-empathy backstories would find the satire more persuasive, funnier, and more important. Participants (N=112) showed no statistically significant difference in how they rated informativeness, perceived funniness, or state empathy of satirical comedy between the high and neutral empathy conditions. (All ps>0.1). As a result, analysis of the results shifted to differences in how participants who identified themselves as conservative or liberal rated satirical comedy.
