Berrios Tanisha Y, Hu Dun-Ya, Vaid Jyotsna
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Feb 23;15(3):252. doi: 10.3390/bs15030252.
We investigated cultural differences in the relationship between conversational indirectness and styles of humor use. Our study compared responses of English first language (L1) users ( = 56) and Korean first language users studying in the US ( = 32) on the conversational indirectness scale) and the humor styles questionnaire. We found no overall group differences in conversational indirectness. Instead, higher indirectness for interpretation than for production was noted, but only in the English L1 group. This group also showed a positive correlation between interpretation and production scores; no such association was found in the Korean sample. On the humor style measure, scores for affiliative and self-enhancing humor were significantly higher in the English L1 group compared to the Korean group; the English L1 group also showed a positive correlation between these two dimensions, and between self-enhancing and self-defeating humor. Both groups showed low identification with self-defeating and aggressive humor styles. There was a significant positive correlation in the Korean group between these two styles. Finally, an association between conversational indirectness and humor style was noted in each group: in both groups, a significant positive correlation was found between indirectness in production and aggressive humor. Additionally, for the English L1 group a significant positive correlation was found between self-defeating humor and indirectness in production and interpretation. These findings demonstrate cultural differences in humor uses and an intriguing relationship between the tendency to produce linguistic meanings indirectly and uses of humor considered to be less positive.
我们研究了会话间接性与幽默使用风格之间关系的文化差异。我们的研究比较了以英语为母语的使用者（(n = 56)）和在美国学习的以韩语为母语的使用者（(n = 32)）在会话间接性量表和幽默风格问卷上的反应。我们发现会话间接性方面没有总体的群体差异。相反，观察到在解释方面的间接性高于表达方面，但仅在以英语为母语的群体中如此。该群体在解释分数和表达分数之间也呈现出正相关；在韩国样本中未发现这种关联。在幽默风格测量中，与韩国群体相比，以英语为母语的群体在亲和性幽默和自我提升幽默方面的得分显著更高；以英语为母语的群体在这两个维度之间，以及在自我提升幽默和自我挫败幽默之间也呈现出正相关。两个群体对自我挫败幽默和攻击性幽默风格的认同度都较低。在韩国群体中，这两种风格之间存在显著的正相关。最后，在每个群体中都观察到了会话间接性与幽默风格之间的关联：在两个群体中，表达方面的间接性与攻击性幽默之间都发现了显著的正相关。此外，对于以英语为母语的群体，自我挫败幽默与表达和解释方面的间接性之间也发现了显著的正相关。这些发现表明了幽默使用中的文化差异，以及间接产生语言意义的倾向与被认为不太积极的幽默使用之间的一种有趣关系。
