Bruntsch Richard, Ruch Willibald
Department of Psychology, Section Personality and Assessment, University of ZurichZurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, Distance Learning University SwitzerlandBrig, Switzerland.
Front Psychol. 2017 Apr 21;8:606. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00606. eCollection 2017.
Studies of irony detection have commonly used ironic criticisms (i.e., mock positive evaluation of negative circumstances) as stimulus materials. Another basic type of verbal irony, ironic praise (i.e., mock negative evaluation of positive circumstances) is largely absent from studies on individuals' aptitude to detect verbal irony. However, it can be argued that ironic praise needs to be considered in order to investigate the detection of irony in the variety of its facets. To explore whether the detection ironic praise has a benefit beyond ironic criticism, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, an instrument (Test of Verbal Irony Detection Aptitude; TOVIDA) was constructed and its factorial structure was tested using = 311 subjects. The TOVIDA contains 26 scenario-based items and contains two scales for the detection of ironic criticism vs. ironic praise. To validate the measurement method, the two scales of the TOVIDA were experimentally evaluated with = 154 subjects in Study 2. In Study 3, = 183 subjects were tested to explore personality and ability correlates of the two TOVIDA scales. Results indicate that the co-variance between the ironic TOVIDA items was organized by two inter-correlated but distinct factors: one representing ironic praise detection aptitude and one representing ironic criticism detection aptitude. Experimental validation showed that the TOVIDA items truly contain irony and that item scores reflect irony detection. Trait bad mood and benevolent humor (as a facet of the sense of humor) were found as joint correlates for both ironic criticism and ironic praise detection scores. In contrast, intelligence, trait cheerfulness, and corrective humor were found as unique correlates of ironic praise detection scores, even when statistically controlling for the aptitude to detect ironic criticism. Our results indicate that the aptitude to detect ironic praise can be seen as distinct from the aptitude to detect ironic criticism. Generating unique variance in irony detection, ironic praise can be postulated as worthwhile to include in future studies-especially when studying the role of mental ability, personality, and humor in irony detection.
关于反讽识别的研究通常将反讽批评（即对负面情况进行假意的积极评价）用作刺激材料。言语反讽的另一种基本类型——反讽赞扬（即对正面情况进行假意的负面评价）在关于个体识别言语反讽能力的研究中基本未被涉及。然而，可以认为，为了全面研究反讽识别的各个方面，反讽赞扬也需要纳入考量。为了探究识别反讽赞扬是否具有超越反讽批评的优势，研究人员开展了三项研究。在研究1中，构建了一种工具（言语反讽识别能力测试；TOVIDA），并使用311名受试者对其因子结构进行了测试。TOVIDA包含26个基于情景的项目，并包含用于识别反讽批评与反讽赞扬的两个量表。为了验证测量方法，在研究2中，使用154名受试者对TOVIDA的两个量表进行了实验评估。在研究3中，对183名受试者进行了测试，以探究TOVIDA两个量表与人格及能力的相关性。结果表明，TOVIDA反讽项目之间的协方差由两个相互关联但又不同的因子构成：一个代表反讽赞扬识别能力，另一个代表反讽批评识别能力。实验验证表明，TOVIDA项目确实包含反讽内容，且项目得分反映了反讽识别能力。特质性坏情绪和仁慈幽默（作为幽默感的一个方面）被发现是反讽批评和反讽赞扬识别得分的共同相关因素。相比之下，即便在对反讽批评识别能力进行统计控制的情况下，智力、特质性愉悦和矫正性幽默仍被发现是反讽赞扬识别得分的独特相关因素。我们的研究结果表明，反讽赞扬识别能力可被视为有别于反讽批评识别能力。反讽赞扬在反讽识别中产生独特的差异，可以假定其在未来研究中值得纳入考量——尤其是在研究心理能力、人格和幽默在反讽识别中的作用时。
