Mind Maverick
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Here's one that addresses the question of whether or not it's a stereotype based on misogyny. This study basically provides evidence that these claims are unrelated to gender biases.
Think about someone you know who has a great sense of humor. Are you thinking of a man or a woman? Most people, when asked this question, imagine a man. There is a prevalent stereotype that men are funnier than women. This stereotype is shared by both men and women—but of course, just because it exists does not mean it is true.
Humor is a complex phenomenon that involves social, emotional, physiological, cognitive, cultural and evolutionary influences, to name a few. One important aspect is the ability to make others laugh. Humor production ability is a distinct cognitive ability that is largely uncorrelated with appreciation and enjoyment of humor. When looking at who is the funnier sex, we focus then on humor production ability.
To do so, we conducted a systematic review known as meta-analysis, a method in which researchers collect all available data on a given topic that meets certain criteria defined by the researchers. In our case, we only included studies that objectively evaluated humor ability. We excluded studies where people evaluated their own humor ability, as most people believe they have an above-average sense of humor. We also did not include studies where the sex of the person was known to the evaluator. For example, the sex of a teacher may have an effect on how funny he or she is perceived.
We were able to find 28 studies with 36 independent samples that met our criteria. The combined sample included 5,057 participants (67 percent women). Studies were from various countries (U.S., U.K., Hungary, Germany, Israel and more). Most of the data (60 percent) came from data that was never published before in a peer-reviewed journal, which helps to minimize the effect of publication bias.
We then calculated sex differences on the combined sample and found that men were, overall, rated as funnier than women. How big was the difference? In statistical technical terms, the effect size was 0.32, or roughly one-third of the standard deviation. In plain English, this means that 63 percent of men score above the mean humor ability of women. This is considered a small to medium difference.
We also looked for a long list of possible confounding variables that might explain the difference. The countries where the data come from, the sex of the authors doing the research, age of participants, whether there were more men or women judging the humor—none of it made a difference in our analysis.
What does it all mean? It means that to the best of our knowledge, on average, men appear to have higher humor production ability than women. Note that I emphasized the word average because the study does not mean, as Christopher Hitchens famously proclaimed, that women are not funny. The fact that men, on average, appear to be funnier than women, does not imply that every single man is funnier than every single woman. There are many great female comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Ali Wong and historically, Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers, and many, many more. All these great comedians are funnier than 99.9 percent of all men.
Are Men Really Funnier Than Women? | Psychology Today
Think about someone you know who has a great sense of humor. Are you thinking of a man or a woman? Most people, when asked this question, imagine a man. There is a prevalent stereotype that men are funnier than women. This stereotype is shared by both men and women—but of course, just because it exists does not mean it is true.
Humor is a complex phenomenon that involves social, emotional, physiological, cognitive, cultural and evolutionary influences, to name a few. One important aspect is the ability to make others laugh. Humor production ability is a distinct cognitive ability that is largely uncorrelated with appreciation and enjoyment of humor. When looking at who is the funnier sex, we focus then on humor production ability.
To do so, we conducted a systematic review known as meta-analysis, a method in which researchers collect all available data on a given topic that meets certain criteria defined by the researchers. In our case, we only included studies that objectively evaluated humor ability. We excluded studies where people evaluated their own humor ability, as most people believe they have an above-average sense of humor. We also did not include studies where the sex of the person was known to the evaluator. For example, the sex of a teacher may have an effect on how funny he or she is perceived.
We were able to find 28 studies with 36 independent samples that met our criteria. The combined sample included 5,057 participants (67 percent women). Studies were from various countries (U.S., U.K., Hungary, Germany, Israel and more). Most of the data (60 percent) came from data that was never published before in a peer-reviewed journal, which helps to minimize the effect of publication bias.
We then calculated sex differences on the combined sample and found that men were, overall, rated as funnier than women. How big was the difference? In statistical technical terms, the effect size was 0.32, or roughly one-third of the standard deviation. In plain English, this means that 63 percent of men score above the mean humor ability of women. This is considered a small to medium difference.
We also looked for a long list of possible confounding variables that might explain the difference. The countries where the data come from, the sex of the authors doing the research, age of participants, whether there were more men or women judging the humor—none of it made a difference in our analysis.
What does it all mean? It means that to the best of our knowledge, on average, men appear to have higher humor production ability than women. Note that I emphasized the word average because the study does not mean, as Christopher Hitchens famously proclaimed, that women are not funny. The fact that men, on average, appear to be funnier than women, does not imply that every single man is funnier than every single woman. There are many great female comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Ali Wong and historically, Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers, and many, many more. All these great comedians are funnier than 99.9 percent of all men.
Are Men Really Funnier Than Women? | Psychology Today
Gotta compensate for my lack of looks.
