Individual differences in the comprehension and categorization of sarcasm

The present study investigated whether exposure to sarcasm can predict a person’s categorization of sarcasm. Participants (N = 44) were asked to complete a picture matching task. In this task, they would listen to a sentence and look at two images. Sentences had pause durations along a six-point continuum scale. One image was a sarcastic interpretation of the sentence, and one was a literal interpretation. They were asked to choose the image they felt best fit the sentence they heard. Afterwards they were asked to fill out a sarcasm self-report scale. It was predicted that stimuli would follow a linear trend, with ratings linearly decreasing as pause duration increased. While participants did display some of this linear trend, the results were not statistically significant. Future research is needed to better understand which individual differences can predict someone’s sarcasm comprehension. Keywords: Sarcasm, picture-matching paradigm, sarcasm categorizatio