The Role of Identity of the Victim in the Development of Disparagement Humor

These studies examined the effect of degree of similarity between Ss and cartoon characters depicted as victims of an accidental mishap, on appreciation of humor occurring in connection with the mishap. In Study 1, low-income white, black, and Mexican-American boys and girls between 3 and 6 years of age were presented with pairs of drawings differing only in the identification of the victim of the mishap and were asked to choose the funnier of the two. Study 2 followed the same procedure with a middle-income group of 4- to 6-year-old white boys and girls. The pairs of humorous drawings included the following comparisons of victims: boy vs girl, son vs father, son vs mother, daughter vs father, and daughter vs mother. Findings for middle-income children and low-income boys from all three racial-ethnic backgrounds were consistently in the direction predicted by the disposition theory of humor: humor victimizing a parent was funnier than humor victimizing a child, and humor victimizing the opposite sex was funnier than humor victimizing one's own sex. For low-income girls, however, humor victimizing one's own sex was funnier than humor victimizing the opposite sex. Sex-difference data are interpreted in terms of the importance of extent of traditional sex-role development.