New study links humour with testosterone
Rushda:
December 22nd, 2007
A scientist has recently claimed that men are naturally more prone to have a sense of humour because of the hormone testosterone. Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital conducted and examined studies of the behaviour of men and women in humorous situations to come to the conclusion that men not only tell more jokes than women but that their humour is more “aggressive” as well.
Shuster, who is also a unicyclist, conducted an experiment whereby he examined how different genders reacted to him performing his activity in public. He noted that whilst women were polite and encouraging, men jeered, using humour in a way to humiliate the unicyclist. For example, many men were abusive and said mocking things like, “Lost your wheel?” with 75% of the men responding to the show verbally whereas most women remained quiet. As Shuster remarks:
“The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings. The difference between the men and women was absolutely remarkable and consistent. At 11-13 years, the boys began to get really aggressive. Into puberty, the aggression became more marked, then it changed into a form of joke. The men were snide.”
As a woman, naturally I feel snubbed by the results of the study and find it a little misleading. Whilst it may be true that men are more aggressive than women, I don’t understand how it follows that they have a better sense of humour - surely the link isn’t so obvious! I would never have thought humour is anything to do with aggression, unless of course we are talking about the jokes told by drunken pub louts… but then, that isn’t really humour is it? The study is showing not how men use and react to humour but how perhaps important it is for them to look cool in front of other men and women! As such, I think that it is difficult to say who is really more humorous.
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Shuster’s theories do seem a little incomplete and tend to gloss over how men and women are socialised. I’ve tended to observe that humour is used by boys and men and encouraged in different ways to women.That doesn’t mean that all men are naturally funny and women aren’t (I know effortlessly funny women and humourles men). OK maybe high testosterone prompts slightly more cruel attempts at humour but it sounds a bit too simplistic. I would have thought it was reasonably obvious that women might find themselves unrewarded in using humour in quite the same way as men sometimes(or entering certain career paths works equally well as an analogy) so there’s a very large social approval and disapproval aspect at work.