Use of Humor: A Gender Based Study

Abstract

Humor has been accepted as a virtue worldwide. The use of humor in various situations has been a source of pleasure to each and everyone. Humor has been defined as a personality trait, a playful activity and a coping mechanism that helps in dealing with stress. Humor inculcates sarcasm, satires, jokes, and stand-up comedies. The aim of the current study is to look for the gender differences on the basis of use of different styles of humor.The study is comparativeresearch which aims to compare male and female students. The sample of the study includes 100 male students and 100 female students studying in post-graduation.Humor Styles Questionnaire has been used to collect the data for the current study. The results revealed that male and female students differ significantly on the basis of use of affiliative humor style. Besides this, no significant gender differences were found on self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating humor styles.It has also been evident from the result that male students scored higher on affiliative, self-enhancing, and aggressive humor styles whereas female students have scored higher on self-defeating humor style.