TY - JOUR
T1 - Benevolent and Corrective Humor, Life Satisfaction, and Broad Humor Dimensions: Extending the Nomological Network of the BenCor Across 25 Countries
AU - Heintz, Sonja
AU - Ruch, Willibald
AU - Aykan, Simge
AU - Brdar, Ingrid
AU - Brzozowska, Dorota
AU - Carretero-Dios, Hugo
AU - Chen, Hsueh Chih
AU - Chłopicki, Władysław
AU - Choi, Incheol
AU - Dionigi, Alberto
AU - Ďurka, Róbert
AU - Ford, Thomas E.
AU - Güsewell, Angelika
AU - Isler, Robert B.
AU - Ivanova, Alyona
AU - Laineste, Liisi
AU - Lajčiaková, Petra
AU - Lau, Chloe
AU - Lee, Minha
AU - Măda, Stanca
AU - Martin-Krumm, Charles
AU - Mendiburo-Seguel, Andrés
AU - Migiwa, Ifu
AU - Mustafi, Nailya
AU - Oshio, Atsushi
AU - Platt, Tracey
AU - Proyer, René T.
AU - Quiroga-Garza, Angélica
AU - Ramis, Tamil Selvan
AU - Săftoiu, Răzvan
AU - Saklofske, Donald H.
AU - Shcherbakova, Olga V.
AU - Slezackova, Alena
AU - Stalikas, Anastasios
AU - Stokenberga, Ieva
AU - Torres-Marín, Jorge
AU - Wong, Peter S.O.
PY - 2019/10/16
Y1 - 2019/10/16
N2 - Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N = 7,813), by testing the revised BenCor (BenCor-R), and by adding two criterion measures to assess life satisfaction and four broad humor dimensions (social fun/entertaining humor, mockery, humor ineptness, and cognitive/reflective humor). As expected, the BenCor-R showed mostly promising psychometric properties (internal consistency and factorial validity). Consistent with previous studies, benevolent humor correlated positively with life satisfaction in most countries, while corrective humor was uncorrelated with life satisfaction. These relationships were only slightly changed when controlling for social fun/entertaining humor and mockery, respectively. Benevolent humor was mostly positively associated with cognitive/reflective humor, followed by social fun/entertaining humor and mockery. Corrective humor was mostly positively associated with mockery, followed by cognitive/reflective and social fun/entertaining humor, although these relationships differed between the countries. Overall, the present study supports the viability of benevolent and corrective humor, which has yet received insufficient attention in psychology, for cross-cultural investigations and applications of humor, well-being, and morality.
AB - Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N = 7,813), by testing the revised BenCor (BenCor-R), and by adding two criterion measures to assess life satisfaction and four broad humor dimensions (social fun/entertaining humor, mockery, humor ineptness, and cognitive/reflective humor). As expected, the BenCor-R showed mostly promising psychometric properties (internal consistency and factorial validity). Consistent with previous studies, benevolent humor correlated positively with life satisfaction in most countries, while corrective humor was uncorrelated with life satisfaction. These relationships were only slightly changed when controlling for social fun/entertaining humor and mockery, respectively. Benevolent humor was mostly positively associated with cognitive/reflective humor, followed by social fun/entertaining humor and mockery. Corrective humor was mostly positively associated with mockery, followed by cognitive/reflective and social fun/entertaining humor, although these relationships differed between the countries. Overall, the present study supports the viability of benevolent and corrective humor, which has yet received insufficient attention in psychology, for cross-cultural investigations and applications of humor, well-being, and morality.
U2 - 10.1007/s10902-019-00185-9
DO - 10.1007/s10902-019-00185-9
M3 - Article
SN - 1389-4978
VL - 0
JO - Journal of Happiness Studies
JF - Journal of Happiness Studies
IS - 0
ER -