Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny

11 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2015

See all articles by Caleb Warren

Caleb Warren

University of Arizona

A. Peter McGraw

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Marketing

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 30, 2015

Abstract

Humor is an important, ubiquitous phenomenon; however, seemingly disparate conditions seem to facilitate humor. We integrate these conditions by suggesting that laughter and amusement result from violations that are simultaneously seen as benign. We investigated three conditions that make a violation benign and thus humorous: (a) the presence of an alternative norm suggesting that the situation is acceptable, (b) weak commitment to the violated norm, and (c) psychological distance from the violation. We tested the benign-violation hypothesis in the domain of moral psychology, where there is a strong documented association between moral violations and negative emotions, particularly disgust. Five experimental studies show that benign moral violations tend to elicit laughter and amusement in addition to disgust. Furthermore, seeing a violation as both wrong and not wrong mediates behavioral displays of humor. Our account is consistent with evolutionary accounts of laughter, explains humor across many domains, and suggests that humor can accompany negative emotion.

Keywords: humor, moral violations, moral judgment, emotion, mixed emotions, disgust, laughter

Suggested Citation

Warren, Caleb and McGraw, A. Peter, Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny (January 30, 2015). Mays Business School Research Paper No. 2015-7, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2558051 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2558051

Caleb Warren (Contact Author)

University of Arizona ( email )

McClelland Hall
P.O. Box 210108
Tucson, AZ 85721-0108
United States

A. Peter McGraw

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Marketing ( email )

United States

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