Lu, Su, Jiang, Feng ORCID: 0000-0001-9762-5821 , Lan, Junmei and Wang, Ting (2023) The funnier, the happier? The interplay between interpersonal humor styles on mental health via gratitude. Current Psychology. ISSN 1046-1310 (Print), 1936-4733 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04665-3)

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Abstract

According to Martin’s taxonomy (2003), affiliative and aggressive humor are the two humor styles with an interpersonal focus. Many studies have demonstrated the mental health benefits of affiliative humor, whereas less consensus has been reached on aggressive humor. Focusing on the question “when and why aggressive humor would be related to mental health”, the current study proposed that the association of aggressive humor and mental health could be mediated by gratitude and moderated by affiliative humor. The proposals were tested in a large multi-university student sample (N=4775, Mage = 20.37) in China, showing that trait gratitude mediated the negative relationship between aggressive humor and subjective happiness and the positive relationship between aggressive humor and depression. More importantly, this effect was less substantial for those who endorse a greater (vs. lesser) affiliative humor style. Implications of gratitude as a potential mechanism in explaining the mental health correlates of aggressive humor and the interplay of interpersonal humor styles are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	affiliative humor; aggressive humor; gratitude; depression; happiness
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) Faculty of Business > Centre for Work and Employment Research (CREW) > Leadership & Organisational Behaviour Research Group (LOB) Faculty of Business > Department of Systems Management & Strategy
Related URLs:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04665...
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2023 14:06
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/41790

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