Laugh at Your Own Risk

Laughter may be the best medicine, but a study says gender stereotypes play a huge role in how well this stress-buster works.

Laughter may be the best medicine, but a study says gender stereotypes play a huge role in how well this stress-buster works. Research reported at the 2010 American Psychological Association meeting in San Diego suggests that different styles of humour work better on different kinds of stress, and for the two sexes. The study classified humour into four types:

» Self-defeating humour: when you make yourself the subject of jokes or let yourself be made fun of.

» Affiliative humour: when you like to be the one telling the jokes and are witty and funny among friends.

» Aggressive humour: when you ‘attack’ with your jokes, such as by teasing people when they make mistakes.

» Self-enhancing humour: when you use it to feel better, even seeing the funny side of highly stressful situations.

The study notes that men, unlike women, are most likely to successfully use the aggressive and self-defeating types of humour to feel better about themselves. It suggests women perhaps feel worse using a hostile variety of humour since they may be bucking social trends.