[What factors play a role in a listener's feelings evoked by irony?: the effect of listeners' personality traits and relationship with the speaker].

This research investigated what factors play a role in a listener's feelings evoked by irony. In Experiment 1, participants imagined their best friend or an acquaintance as the speaker, and rated how they felt when apparent ironical utterances were made. The effects of the listener's empathy and conversational indirectness were examined. In Experiment 2, participants rated how they felt when apparent ironical utterances or literal utterances were made. The effects of the listeners' self-esteem and attitude toward humor were examined. The results showed that cognitions about joking relationships and the listener's attitude toward humor played an important role in the listener's feelings evoked by irony, whereas the listeners' self-esteem and their interpretation of conversational indirectness affected their perception of irony. Irony evoked positive feelings when the joke or the humor of irony was evaluated as positive politeness by the listener due to the listener's attitude toward humor or a joking relationship with the speaker.