Not All Humor is an Effective Stress-Buster!
Humor That Works at Work Depends on the Type of Humor You Use
A study led by Adam Miklosi found that, yet again, dogs can teach us a little something about the effectiveness of humor as a stress-buster. The study measured levels of the stress hormone cortisol before and after the dogs played, examining two different groups of working dogs: German shepherds who worked for the Hungarian police and German shepherds who worked at Hungarian border crossings. The results, surprisingly, were quite different. The police dogs’ stress levels rose, whereas the border-crossing dogs’ cortisol levels decreased. Why?
It turns out the dogs, like many of us, were working in two very different cultures with two different styles of play. Whereas the police commanded their dogs to play, the border guards engaged their dogs in voluntary play. And as it turns out, bus drivers have a similar response to German shepherds.
What About Us Two-Legged Critters?
A study published in the Academy of Management Journal tracked a group of bus drivers for two weeks. The researchers found that on days where the drivers forced a smile, their moods deteriorated and they withdrew from work. Trying to suppress negative thoughts seems to have made those thoughts even more persistent. But on days when the drivers displayed more genuine smiles based on deeper efforts such as focusing on pleasant memories, their overall moods and productivity increased. It would appear, therefore, that a “fake it ’til you make it” approach only goes so far.
Finally, studies in hospitals have shown that when patients are given control over which comedy they watch on TV, the health benefits and stress-reducing results are far more positive than if they’re forced to watch an Adam Sandler flick. (Unless you enjoy Adam Sandler movies, though medical science may want to examine your brain further for other reasons.)
Play, by its very nature, should be a voluntary undertaking. Recall the rubber-chicken-and-egg relationship between humor and culture: as important as it can be to intentionally use humor to build a less-stressful culture, it’s even more critical to build a thriving culture wherein humor is the egg that keeps getting laid. In other words, create the conditions for positive humor to happen naturally. A simple but key principle when it comes to creating fun events at work is to give everyone an equal opportunity to participate in the fun event, but don’t force everyone to do so.
The other lesson is that for humor to work most effectively at an individual level, it needs to be humor that works for you. Everyone has their own unique sense of humor, likely as unique as our fingerprints. So it doesn’t matter that no one else in your office finds Mr. Bean funny. If Mr. Bean massages your funny bone better than anyone else, then that’s what the humor doctor would order.
Voluntary participation is important, but what matters even more on a day-to-day basis at work is the style of humor used, since this will largely determine its stress-busting effectiveness.
Different Jokes For Different Folks
Dr. Rod A. Martin of the University of Waterloo has studied the effectiveness of different types of humor when it comes to fighting stress. The Humor Styles Questionnaire helps distinguish potentially beneficial from harmful humor. The four styles defined by the questionnaire are:
- Affiliative humor: the tendency to tell jokes, make humorous observations, and say funny things as a way to amuse others, reduce interpersonal tensions, and facilitate relationships.
- Self-enhancing humor: maintaining a humorous outlook even when alone, being amused by the incongruities and absurdities in life, keeping one’s humor in the face of stress and adversity, and using humor to cope with challenges.
- Aggressive humor: the tendency to use humor to criticize or manipulate other people, including sarcasm, ridicule, teasing, and disparaging humor.
- Self-defeating humor: the tendency to amuse others by saying funny things at your own expense, to use excessively self-disparaging humor, and to use humor to ingratiate yourself with others. This type of humor can also be used to avoid dealing with problems or issues in the workplace.
Though most of us shift between humor styles depending on mood and context, we tend to have a predominate style that we practice most of the time, a style that likely impacts how psychologically healthy we are. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor are, as you might guess, considered much healthier forms and have been positively correlated with lower levels of depression and anxiety, and higher levels of self-esteem and overall psychological health. Aggressive and self-defeating humor are associated with higher levels of hostility, aggression, and anxiety. (Which makes sense, given that the term “sarcasm” comes from the Greek “sarkasmos” which means to tear at flesh like a dog.)
The research seems to suggest that self-enhancing is the best style when it comes to combating stress. People who score high on self-enhancing humor are less likely to stew and rehash negative past events, and are healthier emotionally. In other words, your workplace needs more Jerry Seinfeld, less Don Rickles.
Michael Kerr, 2018. This is an excerpt from Michael Kerr’s latest book, The Humor Advantage: Why Some Business Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank! Michael Kerr is an international speaker who travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures, teams and leaders and about business that leverage their humor resources for outrageous results.
