The Effects of Sexist Humor on Gender Attitudes 1 The Effects of Sexist Humor on Attitudes Towards Gender

Humor is a unique form of communication because; in order for it to have an impact the receiver is required to suspend logic and reasoning. Humor also allows for negative sentiments such as sexism to be expressed without social repercussions, creating implicit tolerance of the negative sentiment. This tolerance may lead to a change in attitudes toward a disparaged group. The present study attempts to confirm this theory, and expand it to determine if the same is true of humor disparaging men. 110 participants were asked to read jokes or statements disparaging either men or women, and then rate their attitudes towards men and women, and their tolerance of a sexist event. Results supported the hypothesis, that participants viewed sexist jokes as significantly less sexist than sexist statements. However, results indicated that no significant effect was obtained for attitudes towards gender, nor for tolerance of a sexist event