Startseite Apples versus oranges, normative claims, and other things we did not mention: a response to Purser and Harper (2023)
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Apples versus oranges, normative claims, and other things we did not mention: a response to Purser and Harper (2023)

  • Dean Baltiansky

    Dean Baltiansky is a Ph.D. student in the Management Division of Columbia Business School. His work explores how people would rewrite the social contract if given the chance. Within that broad question, his research examines how people might reimagine the role of the state, how they see their workplaces, and how humanity can cooperate to overcome the societal challenges ahead.

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    , Maureen A. Craig

    Maureen A. Craig is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at New York University. Her primary research interests are in understanding the ways in which diversity and inequality shape individuals’ relations with other people, basic social cognitive processes, and how these processes impact political attitudes and behavior.

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    und John T. Jost

    John T. Jost is Professor of Psychology, Politics, and (by affiliation) Data Science and Co-Director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University. His research addresses stereotyping, prejudice, social justice, political ideology, and system justification theory. He is also interested in the underlying cognitive and motivational differences between liberals and conservatives. His most recent books are A Theory of System Justification (Harvard University Press, 2020) and Left & Right: The Psychological Significance of a Political Distinction (Oxford University Press, 2021).

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 17. Januar 2023
HUMOR
Aus der Zeitschrift HUMOR Band 36 Heft 1

Abstract

In a previous article, we observed that system justification was positively associated with the appreciation of humor targeting low-status groups (Baltiansky, Craig, & Jost, 2021). We are pleased to learn that other researchers took interest in our study, reanalyzing the data set we made publicly available and writing a commentary. We are also pleased that, using Bayesian statistical analyses, Purser and Harper (2023) reached the same conclusion we did based on frequentist analyses, namely that low system-justifiers found jokes targeting low-status groups to be less funny than high system-justifiers did. However, we object to the commentators’ use of value-laden language in characterizing the pattern of results and to several unsubstantiated insinuations and allegations of an ideological nature that they make about our motives and opinions about “cancel culture” and the deplatforming of professional comedians.


Corresponding author: Dean Baltiansky, Management Division, Columbia Business School, 665 West 130th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA, E-mail:

Reply prepared for HUMOR (Ed. Christian F. Hempelmann).


About the authors

Dean Baltiansky

Dean Baltiansky is a Ph.D. student in the Management Division of Columbia Business School. His work explores how people would rewrite the social contract if given the chance. Within that broad question, his research examines how people might reimagine the role of the state, how they see their workplaces, and how humanity can cooperate to overcome the societal challenges ahead.

Maureen A. Craig

Maureen A. Craig is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at New York University. Her primary research interests are in understanding the ways in which diversity and inequality shape individuals’ relations with other people, basic social cognitive processes, and how these processes impact political attitudes and behavior.

John T. Jost

John T. Jost is Professor of Psychology, Politics, and (by affiliation) Data Science and Co-Director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University. His research addresses stereotyping, prejudice, social justice, political ideology, and system justification theory. He is also interested in the underlying cognitive and motivational differences between liberals and conservatives. His most recent books are A Theory of System Justification (Harvard University Press, 2020) and Left & Right: The Psychological Significance of a Political Distinction (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the time our commentators dedicated to addressing our work and the opportunity provided by the editor of HUMOR to reply to the commentary.

References

Baltiansky, Dean, Maureen A. Craig & John T. Jost. 2021. At whose expense? System justification and the appreciation of stereotypical humor targeting high-versus low-status groups. Humor 34(3). 375–391. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2020-0041.Suche in Google Scholar

Jost, John T. 2020. A theory of system justification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674247192Suche in Google Scholar

Purser, Harry & Craig A Harper. 2023. Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: A critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al (2021). Humor 36.10.1515/humor-2021-0135Suche in Google Scholar

Rosnow, Ralph L. & Robert Rosenthal. 1989. Definition and interpretation of interaction effects. Psychological Bulletin 105(1). 143–146. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.1.143.Suche in Google Scholar

Received: 2022-12-19
Accepted: 2023-01-02
Published Online: 2023-01-17
Published in Print: 2023-02-23

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 21.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humor-2022-0133/pdf?lang=de
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