published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The Target Empowerment Model (TEM; Stone, Whitehead, Schmader, & Focella, 2011) advocates that targets can be strong sources of prejudice reduction if they implement a combination of strategies designed to reduce threat and encourage the perceiver to more actively process information about the target and his or her group. Solely using blatant strategies (those that require the perceiver to explicitly process the target's persuasive message) can create backlash against the target (Czopp & Monteith, 2003). In contrast, subtle strategies, (strategies that do not call attention to the perceiver's bias), such as asking self-affirming questions (Steele, 1988), can be more effective in creating a smooth interaction but might only provide the target with a brief respite from bias. Following the logic of the TEM, humor may allow stigmatized targets to subtly address their group membership, put perceivers at ease, and reduce the bias that may be directed against them. This research examines how a target of prejudice can successfully reduce bias directed against him when he uses humor to acknowledge his, potentially threatening, group membership. Using a getting-acquainted task, three experiments tested the hypothesis that using humor that acknowledges the target's stigmatized group membership would put perceivers at ease, thereby increasing liking for the target. Experiment 1 showed that following a getting-acquainted exercise, highly prejudiced perceivers reported significantly greater liking for an Arab American target whose humor also acknowledged stereotypes of his group, compared to a target who told a joke that did not include his ethnic background, and compared to a target who did not use humor at all. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated Experiment 1 and revealed that the effectiveness of the ethnicity-related joke was mediated by how much the joke put highly prejudiced perceivers at ease. Experiment 3 conceptually replicated Experiments 1 and 2 and provided evidence that, unlike disparagement humor, which denigrates the outgroup, humor that acknowledges the target's outgroup membership increases liking toward the target without increasing prejudice toward the group. Taken together, these studies show that using humor that acknowledges the target's stigmatized group membership puts perceivers at ease, thereby increasing liking for the outgroup target.

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Inspection of the data obtained by Deckers and Kizer (1974) in exploring the incongruity hypothesis of humor brings to attention what appears to be discrepancies with the incongruity hypothesis of humor. Shifts in weight of equal physical proportion produced differential degrees of expressed humor. The incongruity hypothesis would predict humor to be a function of the size of the incongruity rather than the direction. In the present study, it was hypothesized that these differences in expressed humor were the result of incongruous shifts of unequal psychological distance. A total of 120 subjects were assigned to one of three ranges of expectation with half shifting tc a heavy weight and the others to a light weight. As predicted, shifts of equal psychological distance produced equal degrees of humor expression and shifts of unequal psychological distance produced differing degrees of humor expression. An interaction (p<.002) between the weight of the Standard and the weight of the Critical Comparison affected humor expression. The incongruity hypothesis was upheld.

This master's thesis in creative work is divided in two parts: a compilation of novels and a critical study. The creative work is entitled "Les lits clos". It is a compilation of nine novels imprint with black humor. This creative work tends to demonstrate that daily routine is a source of black humor and that reality is nothing but the perception that everyone makes of it. / "Les lits clos" will be preceded by a critical study which intends to explain what is black humor by following Andre Breton, founder of that term. First of all we will discuss of Jacques Vache who, in his correspondence with Andre Breton, was interested to what he called "Umour". Then we will see how Breton, using Freud's theory, has refined objective humor created by Hegel. Black humor is at first a search for freedom, moreover the desire to overcome death. Black humor is nourished by the imagination to recover the origin of image. The black humorist lies between the subjective and the objective and tends to stay in balance within each other. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Mary Morris, committee chair; Diana Robins, Erin McClure, Eric Vanman, committee members. Electronic text (137 p. : ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 6, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-106).

Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-[153]).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed May. 20, 2008). PDF text: 88 p. ; 659 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3284029. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.