Humor in politics? Styles of humor versus political preferences and values – mediation analyses

Humour it constitutes a tool used by politicians. Previous research has confirmed the relations between the styles of humour and political beliefs. Humour is related to the values, which in turn show a correlation with political beliefs. The aim of the conducted research was to attempt to describe the relationship between humour styles and value-mediated political beliefs. A of 1,038 people participated in the study, 534 women and 504 men between the ages of 18 and 83. The Humour Styles Questionnaire, the Political Belief Questionnaire and the Portrait Value Questionnaire were used to measure the analysed variables. The correlational analyses presented not very strong but significant relationships between styles of humour and political beliefs, mainly in the cultural dimension. Significantly weaker relationships were observed between humour styles and values, and moderate ones between values and political beliefs. The mediation analysis indicated a mediation of values in the relationship between humour styles and political beliefs. The results indicate that, in attempting to understand the relationship between humour style and beliefs, it is important to have regard to the values of the individuals under study, as in some cases they may reinforce the relationship between these variables.