Exploring the Effects of Priming on Humorous Content

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Miller, Jennifer
Area of Honors:
Psychology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Reg Adams, Thesis Supervisor
Sean Laurent, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Humor
Priming
Repetition priming
Order effects
Abstract:
Previous work assessed the relationship between priming the cognitive accessibility of certain concepts and appreciation of humor related versus unrelated to those topics (Goldstein et al., 1972). The current study primed concepts in two ways: 1) by having participants rate photos related to certain concepts first, and by examining repetition effects. First, we examined whether viewing photographs of either fish or cars would lead to cartoons being viewed as funnier when focused on congruent information (i.e., fish versus cars). To do this we employed a 2 (photographs: cars versus fish) x 2 (cartoons: cars versus fish) between-subjects factorial design. We hypothesized that those exposed to photographs that were congruent to the cartoons would rate these cartoons as being funnier than those who were exposed to photographs that were incongruent to the cartoons. Additionally, in the present study, we sought to assess repetition priming effects on humor appreciation. To do this, participants rated five stats-related jokes in two different orders (i.e., either 1-5 or 5-1). We hypothesized that participants would rate later jokes as funnier than earlier jokes. Although participants showed no statistically significant priming effect for appreciation of cartoons involving cars following photos of cars versus fish (p > 0.1), there was a one-tailed trend for rating fish related cartoons as funnier following photos of fish versus cars (p = .069). There was also a one-tailed trend showing the repetition of stats jokes did increase how funny they were rated (p = .06).