Expectations and perceived humor

Without an objective metric for identifying how funny humorous material really is, a person may rely on external information in evaluating the humor of a particular humorous joke. In two experiments, we examined the effect of expectations on participants\u27 ratings of jokes. When participants received a message that jokes had previously been rated as either funny or unfunny, they rated the jokes accordingly. In addition, participants who were told less plausible messages about the jokes ( hysterically funny or horribly unfunny ) tended to discount the messages and give ratings comparable to the control group. In a second experiment, we examined the effect of testing participants individually or in groups. As predicted from previous research, group effects, which may be social and emotional, did not influence participants\u27 ratings of jokes. We discuss the findings in terms of the role of information in cognitive evaluation versus affective appreciation of humor. © Walter de Gruyter