The Humor Styles Questionnaire

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The Humor
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This free Humor styles test gives you accurate scores for the four humor styles. See exactly how you score for Affiliative Humor, Self-enhancing Humor, Aggressive Humor and Self-defeating Humor with this scientific assessment and read all there is to know about each of them.

A brief history of Humor

Humor is vital for human emotion, socialisation, and coping. Although laughing is universal, and even common in babies (although we don’t know precisely what they are laughing about, of course), some jokes require complex thought and reasoning (cognitive abilities).

Anyone knows that people differ greatly in their sense of humor and styles of humor. A sense of humor is an important psychological trait, because it is relevant to how well people can cope with stress and difficulties, and it plays an important role in success in social interaction, including romantic attraction (a sense of humor is an attractive trait). Further, there are more male than female comedians, suggesting that biological factors play some role in people’s ability to be funny. Altogether, a fascinating topic!

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.

Grenville Kleiser Tweet

There is nothing like a gleam of humor to reassure you that a fellow human being is ticking inside a strange face.

Eva Hoffman Tweet

Ancient Greece

Western humor theory begins with Plato, who attributed to Socrates (as a semi-historical dialogue character) in the Philebus the view that the essence of the ridiculous is an ignorance in the weak, who are thus unable to retaliate when ridiculed. Later, in Greek philosophy, Aristotle, in the Poetics, suggested that an ugliness that does not disgust is fundamental to humor.

India

In ancient Sanskrit drama, Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra defined humour (hāsyam) as one of the nine nava rasas, or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage.

In Arabic and Persian culture

The terms comedy and satire became synonymous after Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi, Persian Avicenna, and Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation, and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry).

Caribbean

Mento star Lord Flea, stated in a 1957 interview that he thought that: "West Indians have the best sense of humor in the world. Even in the most solemn song, like Las Kean Fine ["Lost and Can Not Be Found"], which tells of a boiler explosion on a sugar plantation that killed several of the workers, their natural wit and humor shine though."

China

Confucianist & Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, with its emphasis on ritual and propriety, have traditionally looked down upon humor as subversive or unseemly. Humor was perceived as irony and sarcasm. The Confucian Analects itself, however, depicts the Master as fond of humorous self-deprecation, once comparing his wanderings to the existence of a homeless dog. Early Daoist philosophical texts such as Zhuangzi pointedly make fun of Confucian seriousness and make Confucius himself a slow-witted figure of fun.

Social transformation model

The social transformation model of humor predicts that specific characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, interact with humor. This model involves linkages between the humorist, an audience, and the subject matter of the humor. The two transformations associated with this particular model involves the subject matter of the humor, and the change in the audience's perception of the humorous person, therefore establishing a relationship between the humorous speaker and the audience.

Physical attractiveness

90% of men and 81% of women, all college students, report having a sense of humor is a crucial characteristic looked for in a romantic partner. Humor and honesty were ranked as the two most important attributes in a significant other. It has since been recorded that humor becomes more evident and significantly more important as the level of commitment in a romantic relationship increases. Recent research suggests expressions of humor in relation to physical attractiveness are two major factors in the desire for future interaction. Women regard physical attractiveness less highly compared to men when it came to dating, a serious relationship, and sexual intercourse. However, women rate humorous men more desirable than nonhumorous individuals for a serious relationship or marriage, but only when these men were physically attractive.

The HSQ Details

The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) was developed by Rod Martin and Patricia Doris (2003) to measure individual differences in styles of humor. Humor is a personality characteristic that remains relatively stable over time. Humor is sometimes viewed as a one-dimensional trait. However, individuals seem to differ in how they use humor in their everyday lives, and different styles of humor seem to have different outcomes. As a result, two variables are measured within the questionnaire to cover the multiple dimensions that humour contains. The Humor Styles Questionnaire was developed to identify how individuals differ in humor styles and how these differences influence health, well-being, relationships, and other outcomes. The Humor Styles Questionnaire is a 32-item self-report inventory used to identify how individuals use humor in their lives. Participants respond to the degree to which they agree with each statement (e.g., “I enjoy making people laugh”) on a scale from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). The questionnaire measures two main factors in humor. The first factor measures whether humor is used to enhance the self or enhance one’s relationships with others. The second factor measures whether the humor is relatively benevolent or potentially detrimental and destructive. The combination of these factors creates four distinct humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating.

The four humor styles

The use of humor is not always related to healthy psychological behaviour. Some forms of humor are, while others are not (e.g., sarcasm). One of the special features of the HSQ is that it measures two positive and two negative dimensions of humor:

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Books about humor

If you are interested in gaining a more in-depth understanding of humor and its dimensions, here we offer you a selection of the most relevant and valuable books that explore the subject and can aid you in your endeavour:

Peter McGraw - The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny

Eight Great Comedies: The Complete Texts of the World's Great Comedies from Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century

William Shakespeare - Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night (Bantam Classics)

Noel Carroll - Humour: A Very Short Introduction

Coffee Coloring Book: Fun and humorous coffee inspired quotes to make your day more enjoyable as you color stress away.

Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso

David Steinberg - Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades

Jennifer Aaker - Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.)

P. J. O'Rourke - The Funny Stuff: The Official P. J. O’Rourke Quotationary and Riffapedia

Jena Friedman - Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera

Amy Newmark - Chicken Soup for the Soul: Too Funny!: 101 Hilarious Stories to Brighten Your Days

Randall Munroe - What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Jonathan Swift - Jonathan Swift Collection: Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, The Battle of the Books, A Tale of a Tub, The History of Martin, & Other Essays

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It’s highly recommended that you jot down any ideas or reflections that come to mind regarding The Humor Styles Questionnaire, including related behaviours, emotions, situations, or other associations you may make. This way, you can refer back to them on your Dashboard or Reflect pop-ups, compare them with your current behaviours, and make any necessary adjustments to keep evolving. Learn more about this feature and how it can benefit you.

References

Martin, Rod A.; Lefcourt, Herbert M. (1984).“Situational Humor Response Questionnaire: Quantitative measure of sense of humor”.
Martin, Rod A. (1996). “The Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ) and Coping Humor Scale (CHS): A decade of research findings”. Humor – International Journal of Humor Research. 9 (3–4): 251–272.
Ruch, Willibald; Heintz, Sonja (2016-08-19). “The German Version of the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Overlap With Other Styles of Humor”. Europe’s Journal of Psychology. 12 (3): 434–455. doi:10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1116. ISSN 1841-0413. PMC 4991050. PMID 27547259.
Frewen, Paul; Jaylene Brinker; Rod Martin; David Dozois (2008). “Humor styles and personality-vulnerability to depression”. Humor. 21 (2): 179–195. doi:10.1515/humor.2008.009. S2CID 143436723.

Media Credits

Featured image for the Humor Styles Questionnaire: Laughing Fool, painting by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen.
Featured image for the Affiliative humor article: Children Teaching a Cat to Dance, known as ‘The Dancing Lesson’, Painting by Jan Steen.
Featured image for the Humor Styles Questionnaire Call-to-action: Laughing Fool, painting by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen.
Featured image for the Self-defeating humor article: Peeckelhaeringh,
Painting by Frans Hals.
Featured image for the Self-enhancing humor article: The laughing violinist, painting by Gerrit van Honthorst.
Featured image for The Big Five Personality Test Call-to-action: Cesar Biojo, Nude.
Featured image for the Aggressive Humor article: Malle Babbe, paintings by Painting by Frans Hals.

Cesar Biojo, Colombian artist living in Barcelona

“The death of a moment is the best proof of its existence.”

Cesar Biojo´s works are oil portraits created from pictorial resources that are destroyed immediately, leaving evidence behind. This way, the concept of time is introduced, connecting ideas inherent in the human being, such as creation and destruction, the perishable and transient. His work becomes an introspective study of human beings, their conflicts, their nature and their existence.

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