The roles of humor and sense of humor in responses to stressors

Sense of humor and a humorous external event were evaluated as possible factors affecting individuals' emotional responses to a stressor. Participants' anxiety and affective state were assessed prior to and after observing a stress-arousing segment from a movie. Following this stressor, participants received a treatment which involved viewing either a humorous videotape, a nonhumorous videotape, or waiting without distraction, before providing ajinal measure of affect and anxiety. The results revealed that the stressor elevated anxiety and lowered positive afect. The humor treatment successfully reduced anxiety and raised positive afect relative to the waiting condition. The nonhumorous videotape treatment also reduced anxiety, but did not increase positive afect. Nine measures of sense of humor were used in regression analyses to predict anxiety and affect at each point in the procedure (pre-stressor, post-stressor, posttreatment). The Metamessage Sensitivity scale of the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (Svebak 1974) was the most useful predictor across the dzfferent measures of anxiety and affect, although other measures were significant at some points in the procedure or for participants receiving one of the treatments. The overall results from the regression analyses, and a comparison of the relationships among the various measures of sense of humor, suggest that there is a common element of sense of humor that involves an appreciation for the personal and social utility of humor that may be closely related to emotional responses to life events. Taken together with the results from the treatment manipulation, the results indicate that an external humorous event can have a significant impact on negative emotional responses to stressors, but that one's sense of humor also plays an important role.