IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v21y2020i7d10.1007_s10902-019-00185-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benevolent and Corrective Humor, Life Satisfaction, and Broad Humor Dimensions: Extending the Nomological Network of the BenCor Across 25 Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sonja Heintz

    (University of Zurich)

  • Willibald Ruch

    (University of Zurich)

  • Simge Aykan

    (Ankara University School of Medicine)

  • Ingrid Brdar

    (University of Rijeka)

  • Dorota Brzozowska

    (University of Opole)

  • Hugo Carretero-Dios

    (University of Granada)

  • Hsueh-Chih Chen

    (National Taiwan Normal University
    National Taiwan Normal University
    National Taiwan Normal University
    MOST AI Biomedical Research Center at NCKU)

  • Władysław Chłopicki

    (Jagiellonian University)

  • Incheol Choi

    (Seoul National University
    Seoul National University)

  • Alberto Dionigi

    (Studio di Psicoterapia Cognitiva)

  • Róbert Ďurka

    (Catholic University in Ružomberok)

  • Thomas E. Ford

    (Western Carolina University)

  • Angelika Güsewell

    (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland)

  • Robert B. Isler

    (University of Waikato)

  • Alyona Ivanova

    (Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University
    Mental Health Research Center)

  • Liisi Laineste

    (Estonian Literary Museum)

  • Petra Lajčiaková

    (Catholic University in Ružomberok)

  • Chloe Lau

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Minha Lee

    (Seoul National University)

  • Stanca Măda

    (Transilvania University of Braşov)

  • Charles Martin-Krumm

    (Ecole de Psychologues Praticiens de Paris - Catholic Institute of Paris
    APEMAC, Lorraine University)

  • Andrés Mendiburo-Seguel

    (Universidad Andres Bello)

  • Ifu Migiwa

    (Waseda University)

  • Nailya Mustafi

    (Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University)

  • Atsushi Oshio

    (Waseda University)

  • Tracey Platt

    (University of Sunderland)

  • René T. Proyer

    (Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg)

  • Angélica Quiroga-Garza

    (Universidad de Monterrey)

  • TamilSelvan Ramis

    (HELP University)

  • Răzvan Săftoiu

    (Transilvania University of Braşov)

  • Donald H. Saklofske

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Olga V. Shcherbakova

    (Saint Petersburg State University)

  • Alena Slezackova

    (Masaryk University)

  • Anastasios Stalikas

    (Panteion University)

  • Ieva Stokenberga

    (University of Latvia)

  • Jorge Torres-Marín

    (University of Granada)

  • Peter S. O. Wong

    (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu)

Abstract

Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N = 7813), by testing the revised BenCor (BenCor-R), and by adding two criterion measures to assess life satisfaction and four broad humor dimensions (social fun/entertaining humor, mockery, humor ineptness, and cognitive/reflective humor). As expected, the BenCor-R showed mostly promising psychometric properties (internal consistency and factorial validity). Consistent with previous studies, benevolent humor correlated positively with life satisfaction in most countries, while corrective humor was uncorrelated with life satisfaction. These relationships were only slightly changed when controlling for social fun/entertaining humor and mockery, respectively. Benevolent humor was mostly positively associated with cognitive/reflective humor, followed by social fun/entertaining humor and mockery. Corrective humor was mostly positively associated with mockery, followed by cognitive/reflective and social fun/entertaining humor, although these relationships differed between the countries. Overall, the present study supports the viability of benevolent and corrective humor, which has yet received insufficient attention in psychology, for cross-cultural investigations and applications of humor, well-being, and morality.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonja Heintz & Willibald Ruch & Simge Aykan & Ingrid Brdar & Dorota Brzozowska & Hugo Carretero-Dios & Hsueh-Chih Chen & Władysław Chłopicki & Incheol Choi & Alberto Dionigi & Róbert Ďurka & Thomas E., 2020. "Benevolent and Corrective Humor, Life Satisfaction, and Broad Humor Dimensions: Extending the Nomological Network of the BenCor Across 25 Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(7), pages 2473-2492, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00185-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-019-00185-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-019-00185-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-019-00185-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    2. Lijun Tang & Syamantak Bhattacharya, 2011. "Power and Resistance: A Case Study of Satire on the Internet," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(2), pages 10-18, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jorge Torres-Marín & Ginés Navarro-Carrillo & Michael Eid & Hugo Carretero-Dios, 2022. "Humor Styles, Perceived Threat, Funniness of COVID-19 Memes, and Affective Mood in the Early Stages of COVID-19 Lockdown," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2541-2561, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Nathaniel Oliver Iotti & Damiano Menin & Tomas Jungert, 2022. "Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-9, July.
    4. Christoph Dworschak, 2024. "Bias mitigation in empirical peace and conflict studies: A short primer on posttreatment variables," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 462-476, May.
    5. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Slupphaug, KJell & Mehmetoglu, Mehmet & Mittner, Matthias, 2024. "modsem: An R package for estimating latent interactions and quadratic effects," OSF Preprints h3rpw, Center for Open Science.
    7. Allen, Jaime & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "On evasion behaviour in public transport: Dissatisfaction or contagion?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 626-651.
    8. Merkle, Edgar C. & Steyvers, Mark & Mellers, Barbara & Tetlock, Philip E., 2017. "A neglected dimension of good forecasting judgment: The questions we choose also matter," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 817-832.
    9. Sai-fu Fung & Esther Oi-wah Chow & Chau-kiu Cheung, 2020. "Development and Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Brief Wisdom Development Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-14, April.
    10. Goran Calic & Moren Lévesque & Anton Shevchenko, 2024. "On why women-owned businesses take more time to secure microloans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 917-938, October.
    11. Dang Vu, Hoai Nam & Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt, 2022. "Understanding determinants of the intention to buy rhino horn in Vietnam through the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    12. Georges Steffgen & Philipp E. Sischka & Martha Fernandez de Henestrosa, 2020. "The Quality of Work Index and the Quality of Employment Index: A Multidimensional Approach of Job Quality and Its Links to Well-Being at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-31, October.
    13. Zaitun Mohd Saman & Ab Hamid Siti-Azrin & Azizah Othman & Yee Cheng Kueh, 2021. "The Validity and Reliability of the Malay Version of the Cyberbullying Scale among Secondary School Adolescents in Malaysia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-12, November.
    14. Dennis Cook, R. & Forzani, Liliana, 2023. "On the role of partial least squares in path analysis for the social sciences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    15. Castaldo, Sandro & Ciacci, Andrea & Penco, Lara, 2023. "Perceived corporate social responsibility and job satisfaction in grocery retail: A comparison between low- and high-productivity stores," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Daniel Hoppe, 2021. "Argument-Based Versus Emotion-Based Videos During the Early Stages of Recruitment: Effects on Perceived Employer Brand Image, Application Intentions, and Positive Word-of-Mouth," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 31-47, February.
    17. Chen, Junhong & Nian, Yefan & Gao, Zhifeng, 2022. "Value, Attitude/Belief, and Sustainable Food Consumption," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322485, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Pezzuti, Lina & Tommasi, Marco & Saggino, Aristide & Dawe, James & Lauriola, Marco, 2020. "Gender differences and measurement bias in the assessment of adult intelligence: Evidence from the Italian WAIS-IV and WAIS-R standardizations," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. N. Dardenne & B. Pétré & E. Husson & M. Guillaume & A. F. Donneau, 2020. "Assessing Quality of Life in an Obesity Observational Study: a Structural Equation Modeling Approach," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 1117-1133, September.
    20. Yunyue YANG & Jie LI & Tomoki SEKIGUCHI, 2018. "Supervisors’Responses to Employee Voice Behavior: An Experimental Study in China and Japan," Discussion papers e-18-006, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00185-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.