College Students' Perception of Lecturers Using Humor

Humor use in an audio-taped lecture by a male or female professor was varied to produce versions with (a) no humor, (b) sexual humor, (c) other-disparaging humor, and (d) self-disparaging humor. After exposure to the lecture materials, male and female subjects' perception of the lecturer's intelligence and appeal was assessed. On measures of appeal, significant transverse interactions between sex of speaker and sex of respondent were obtained for both sexual and self-disparaging humor. Effects were in opposite directions, however, for these two types of humor. The use of self-disparaging humor led to higher ratings of appeal when speaker and respondent were of the same sex. In contrast, the use of sexual humor led to higher ratings of appeal when speaker and respondent were of opposite sex. The variations in humor had no appreciable effect on the perception of the lecturer's intelligence.