Humour and gender stereotypes

Humour can convey subliminal, but significant, messages that reinforce attitudes and behaviours. Humour is used as a defence mechanism to convey, through jokes, desires otherwise unacceptable to our conscious mind. This paper examines the mutual influence of humour and gender stereotypes. Following quantitative research methodology, data was collected using a questionnaire on humour and gender related attitudes and behaviours, including 12 sample internet jokes, from 60 emerging adults. Statistical analysis showed that except for one of the sample jokes, perceptions of humour and offensiveness of jokes were not related, attributed to the influence of situational factors in humour. Investigation of gender differences showed that it was not biological sex, but pro-feminist attitudes that determined the people's perceptions of humour and offensiveness of jokes. Humour related behaviours and unconscious attitudes were not found to be related. The results are significant in the fields of social psychology, socio-linguistics, humour psychology and gender studies.