Anders Peterson 1

Honors 221 A

The Relationship Between Dominance and Preferred Joke Tellers:

Dominance in men is correlated to preference for dominant male joke tellers. No significant

relationship between female dominance preference or male preference in female joke tellers.
Anders Peterson 2
Honors 221 A
Humor is a major method of human communication. It has been found to signal mate

quality and may appear to demonstrate interest in creating and maintaining social relations

(Greengross and Miller, 2011 Li et al., 2009). Humor also interacts with attraction, as men and

women rate physically attractive men as funnier (Cowan and Little, 2013). In this study, Cowan

et al. tested if humor appreciation was contingent on phenotypic characteristics of both the

signaler and the receiver. The hypothesis was that dominant men would prefer jokes told by

dominant peers because this would monitor interest within similar-status partnerships. There was

not enough prior basis to create a hypothesis for women. The hypothesis was based on work

indicating that dominant men have a weaker preference for even resource sharing (Price, Kang,

Dunn, & Hopkins, 2011), indicating a cost of associating with individuals of high status, while

humor may signal cooperativeness from these people, negating some of these costs.

Four male and four female participants recorded several one-liner jokes; these recordings

were then raised and lowered in pitch, creating pairs of high and low-pitched readings of the

same jokes. Prior to listening to jokes on a computer, participants rated their own attractiveness

and masculinity and physical markers height, weight, bicep circumference, waist to hip ratio,

and handgrip strength were measured and used to create a measure of composite dominance.

Jokes were rated from -4 to 4 with -4 to -1 indicated a preference for the feminized joke (-4

being found the funniest). This measured the humor of jokes in relation to the pitch of the joke. If

the hypothesis is correct men with higher dominance composite would be found to be positively

correlated with a higher preference for lower-pitch jokes (Fig 1). The prediction under null

would result in no significant preference between male dominance and joke pitch (Fig 2).

Figure 1 demonstrates the results of the study, showing that male dominance is positively

correlated to a preference for lower pitch jokes. The higher men scored on the dominance
Anders Peterson 3
Honors 221 A
composite, the higher they ranked the masculinized jokes told at a lower pitch, consistent with

the hypothesis. While the researchers did not have a hypothesis for male dominance in relation to

female joke teller or any hypothesis regarding female preference, in those three scenarios no

significant result was found. Mens preference for female vocal pitch did not change along with

their dominance score (Fig 3) and there was no significant relationship between female

dominance and masculinity preference in neither male nor female joke tellers (Figs 4, 5).

The results of this study are in line with the hypothesis. Male dominance was positively

correlated with a preference for lower-pitched male joke tellers; with lower-pitch joke tellers

being their dominant peers. No hypothesis was created regarding male preference in female joke

tellers nor female preferences at all, and in all three cases no significant relationship was found.

This may indicate that humor is a measure used by men to analyze peer dominance but other

social tactics are used by men regarding women and by women universally. The results also

demonstrate that dominant males are more receptive toward humor from similarly situated men.

These results may signify that that humorous exchange functions as a cue for cohesion within

male groups, yet it probably does not serve the same purpose in female or mixed sex groups. A

future question is the role of different types of humor as this study merely looked at one-liners

Investigating different forms of humor in relation to dominance would help see if a form is more

effective in creating social bonds. A study to investigate this could be structured as follows:

participants record multiple types of jokes one-liners, puns, stories, etc. and participants then

rank these jokes on how humorous they find them. Divide participants into groups based on

composite dominance, for example high dominance male mid dominance male etc. I believe

that one-liners would be the most effective joke in all groups as they are simple and often well

crafted due to their brevity. Results supporting this are seen in Figure 6 and the null in Figure 7.
Anders Peterson 4
Honors 221 A
Figure 1

The correlation between composite dominance and preference in male voices. As composite
dominance increases, lower pitched voices became more highly rated, demonstrating a
significant positive correlation between dominance and lower-pitched joke preference

Figure 2

Null Hypothesis
1.5

1
Male Dominance Composite

0.5

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

-0.5

-1

-1.5
Masculinity Preference in Male Voices

Date that would indicate a null hypothesis. No correlation between male composite dominance
and pitch-preference in male told jokes.
Anders Peterson 5
Honors 221 A
Figure 3
1.5

1
Male Dominance composite

0.5

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

-0.5

-1

-1.5
Masculinity Preference in Female Voices

Male composite dominance compared to pitch preference in female joke tellers. There is no
significant relationship between the two.

Figure 4
3

2.5

2
Female Dominance Composite

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
-0.5

-1

-1.5
Masculinity Preference in Male Voices

Female composite dominance composite plotted against preference in male joke tellers. There is
no significant relationship between dominance and a preference for masculinized nor feminized
male joke tellers.
Anders Peterson 6
Honors 221 A
Figure 5
3

2.5

2
Female Dominance Composite

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-0.5

-1

-1.5
Masculinity Preference in Female Voices

Female composite dominance composite plotted against masculinity preference in female joke
tellers. There is no significant relationship between the two variables.

Figure 6

Average Joke Ranking - High Dominance Male

6

5
Average Joke Ranking

0
One-liner Pun Story Anti-jokes Shock
Joke Type

The hypothetical average joke ranking if the hypothesis of my potential study is correct. Puns are
rated highest 1.6 out of the jokes, indicated they are found the most humorous by the high
dominance male group.
Anders Peterson 7
Honors 221 A
Figure 7

Average Joke Ranking - High Dominance Male

5
4.5
4
Average Joke Ranking

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
One-liner Pun Story Anti-jokes Shock
Joke Type

The potential graph is the hypothesis of my idea for a study is null. One-liners are not ranked as
the funniest, contrary to my hypothesis.
Anders Peterson 8
Honors 221 A
Works Cited
M.L. Cowan, C. Watkins, P. Fraccaro, D. Feinberg, A. Little. 2015. Its the way he tells them

(and who is listening): mens dominance is positively correlated with their preference for

jokes told by dominant-sounding men. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37: 91-104.

M.L. Cowan, A.C. Little. 2013. The attractiveness of humour types in personal advertisements:

Affiliative and aggressive humour are differentially preferred in long-term versus short-

term partners. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 11: 159170

G. Greengross, G. Miller. 2011. Humor ability reveals intelligence, predicts mating success, and

is higher in males. Intelligence, 39: 188192

N.P. Li, V. Griskevickius, K.M. Durante, P.K. Jonason, D.J. Pasisz, K. Aumer. 2009. An

evolutionary perspective on humor: Sexual selection or interest indicator? Personality

and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35: 923936

M.E. Price, J. Kang, J. Dunn, S. Hopkins. 2011. Muscularity and attractiveness as predictors of

human egalitarianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 50: 636640