Sense of Humor in Romantic Relationships and Friendships

This present investigation examined the degree to which humor, among various characteristics, is desired in two types of relational partners. We expected to find that humor would be perceived as more desirable (or necessary) for a romantic relationship than friendship. We also tested whether there were significant gender differences in assessing humor in these two types of relational partners. Additionally, we attempted to assess whether a lower discrepancy between the scores of the ideal and actual partner regarding sense of humor in romantic relationships, indicates a higher dyadic adjustment. The participants (n=120) indicated their preferences for various attributes (among which was sense of humor), in either an ideal partner, actual partner or best friend on a Five-point Likert-type scale. In order to assess dyadic adjustment, the participants filled in the revised Dyadic Adjustment Form [1]. Sense of humor was rated as a significantly more important (necessary) characteristic in romantic relationships than friendships. As regards to gender differences, no significant differences were found for sense of humor, and the discrepancy of assessment sense of humor in both cases (ideal partner vs actual partner) did not significantly correlate with global dyadic adjustment or with any of its dimensions. The results suggest that a sense of humor is a characteristic acknowledged as important across relationship types, and more in-depth investigations should be advanced.