Offensive jokes: How do they impact long-term relationships?

Jeffrey A. Hall; Ken Sereno

doi:10.1515/humr.2010.016

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Offensive jokes: How do they impact long-term relationships?

Jeffrey A. Hall and Ken Sereno

Published/Copyright: August 24, 2010

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From the journal Volume 23 Issue 3

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the use of negative humor on relational satisfaction and the importance of humor in long-term relationships from a coorientation perspective. Dyadic data from 123 couples were gathered using a survey measuring positive and negative humor use. These data were analyzed using structural equations modeling and the Actor-Partner Independence Model (Kenny et al., Dyadic data analysis, The Guilford Press, 2006: 144). Negative humor weakly predicted relational outcomes, but was valuable when partners saw themselves as possessing a shared sense of humor. Men acknowledge that their own public negative humor use negatively impacts the importance of humor in their relationship. Perceived similarity in negative humor use positively predicts relational satisfaction for both partners, and positively predicts the importance of humor for men, regardless of how much positive humor the couple uses. Accurately knowing a partner's negative humor use, or having greater understanding, negatively predicted relational outcomes.

Keywords:: Humor; offensive jokes; coorientation; relational satisfaction

Correspondence address: hallj@ku.edu

Correspondence address: sereno@usc.edu

Published Online: 2010-08-24

Published in Print: 2010-August

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2010.016

Keywords for this article

Humor; offensive jokes; coorientation; relational satisfaction