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Studies suggest humour signals big brain and good partner-potential.
If love is blind, then maybe humour is the attention-grabber.
That’s the conclusion of two recent studies that confirm a long-standing stereotype of flirting: that women like joky men, while men like women who laugh at their jokes.
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Comments
Could the attractiveness of a male sense of humour be related to the fact that all "jokes" appear to have victims? As such, could a sense of humour be a costly signal because it asks for a battering in return from the jokes' victim? A phenotype of humour would thus only survive the sexual selection pressures if the funny guys could back it up in some other way.
Posted by: Charlie Sutherland | January 23, 2006 07:14 PM
I think this theory is very true because I am observing similar examples in the daily life.
Posted by: Sunil Kumar | January 24, 2006 04:23 AM
It depends on the culture and character of the person.I am a Chinese.at lease,I can't agree with the viewpoint.
Posted by: Aemaeth | January 24, 2006 10:08 AM
All of this is true up to the point of getting married.
After that she's heard all of your jokes and you have run out of new material.
Solution? Have kids, now you both have something to laugh about. And they give you all kinds of new material.
Posted by: Rusty Grizwald | January 24, 2006 01:31 PM
Hay Charlie Sotherland:
Q: Why did the frog cross the road.
A: He was tied to the chicken.
I guess in this instance the Frog would be the "victim". (plus, I don't like frogs!!)
Posted by: Rusty Grizwald | January 24, 2006 01:37 PM
Isn't the study biased by the fact that it was performed on a group of people with the same age? And maybe the same background? (students in a college) Maybe the fact that students around 20 are mostly interested in having fun can influence the result. What will be the result if the target group would be 30-35 years old? Are you sure that not the successful people in their line of work are not the interesting ones for women?
Posted by: Andreea Alexandra | January 24, 2006 03:27 PM
Well, this was very true in my own personal life and somehow my husband still comes up with new material. I do think a less biased study would contain subjects of all ages, but depending on the university it may very well be a very diverse group. I wonder what other covariates were looked at that might help explain the healthiness of the offspring - they should probably account for a clinical state of the subjects.
Posted by: Lisa | January 24, 2006 10:46 PM
I think that a sense of humor is important for both partners since it helps them in wriggling out of tight corners, and a man needs it more!
Posted by: Shrikant Purandare | January 25, 2006 06:59 AM
Eric Bressler of Westfield State College, Massachusetts, and colleague Sigal Balshine of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, did this by asking more than 200 male and female college students to examine photos of members of the opposite sex. Some had funny quotes pinned beneath them, such as: "My high school was so rough we had our own coroner." Others had bland ones: "I'd rather walk to school than take the bus."
Question: It may be entirely personal what is funny and what is not, but generally speaking, if such a thing is possible to determine, I wonder, were the "funny" jokes posted under physically attractive people? Or was it entirely mix-and-match, with, for instance, some not-so-good-looking folks getting the not-so-funny jokes, too?
Posted by: anonymous | January 25, 2006 03:43 PM
I don't disagree with the factors they have mentioned. Humor is nature's antidote for tension. Of course this solves a lot of health problems, both mental and physical. This again leads to a long life. A long healthy life is important if you are going til raise a few brats into healthy adults.
So it's not only for getting "smarter" kids. It'a also about having good health for yourself. Personally I'd love to have a wife who thinks I'm the funniest guy around.
Posted by: weeee | January 25, 2006 04:17 PM
Some had funny quotes pinned beneath them, such as: "My high school was so rough we had our own coroner." Others had bland ones: "I'd rather walk to school than take the bus."
I find the bland one nicer than the supposedly funny quote. Not that the former is particularly funny. It just lacks that intelligence-insulting quality. (A girl who had a Monty Python quote, or an excerpt from the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy written by her picture would probably receive a larger increase in attractiveness, given a test sample of people like me.)
So: Does the original study check how funny (on some comparable, ordinal scale) the students found the quotes? Or how funny a reference sample found the quotes by themselves?
Posted by: Anders M.L. | January 25, 2006 04:47 PM
Some had funny quotes pinned beneath them, such as: "My high school was so rough we had our own coroner." Others had bland ones: "I'd rather walk to school than take the bus."
if someone wrote that first joke under their pic i would think "twat". the second one is far superior. unlike the first, it tells any potential mates that this fellow is (a) honest - no one would lie about walking to school, whereas the coronor remark is almost certainly untrue; (b) probably more health conscious and in better physical shape; and (c) is funnier on a deeper level than the lame coroner "joke". i am confident that the apparently "bland" walking comment raised more of a chuckle in the average reader than the supposedly funny one. tell me i'm wrong...??
Posted by: the joker | January 25, 2006 07:09 PM
Charlie Sutherland asked: Could the attractiveness of a male sense of humour be related to the fact that all "jokes" appear to have victims? As such, could a sense of humour be a costly signal because it asks for a battering in return from the jokes' victim? A phenotype of humour would thus only survive the sexual selection pressures if the funny guys could back it up in some other way.
Libran Lover responds: Good question. In my experience, nice and evolved women (note that I am not saying virtuous! ;-))are not really turned-on by jokes which victimize. They are more likely to be hooked in by the intelligent, the witty, and the sensuously flirtatious brand of humor. There is a certain subset of really smart(ass) women who can be impressed by trading smartass ribs and teases. Just be careful not to overdo it and humiliate them. You are not trying to win an argument. You are trying to win over the woman.
Posted by: Libran Lover | January 28, 2006 12:27 AM
If humor is so powerful an indicator, for a womans childbearing choice, why are humorless men still in existance?
Why have women still gone on to choose these men to father children in the modern world?
Posted by: R2 | January 28, 2006 12:26 PM
I would like to add one point. Women like the most those joky men who tell jokes with a serious face.
Posted by: John | February 19, 2006 02:04 PM