Humor, aggression, defense, and conservatism: group characteristics and differential humor appreciation

A Humor Appreciation Inventory consisting of 54 jokes representing 9 joke categories was administered to a broad sample of participants. In addition, a conservatism scale was employed. The major finding revealed that with few exceptions humor appreciation scores were remarkably similar. League of Women Voters and policemen, persons on skidrow and successful businessmen, and students and military officers had practically identical is basically unrelated to the implicit differences between such groups, much of humor research must be reevaluated in this light. In addition, the correlation between humor and conservatism was found to be unclear; fanaticism and humor appreciation tended to be mutually exclusive; and many professional cartoonists seemed unable to judge popular taste in humor accurately.