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Why men are funnier than womenAn experiment reveals the biological origin of male humor as latent aggression.4 January, 2008 A recent study has found an interesting fact: humor may arise from aggression caused by male hormones. In other words, humor is a form of sublimated aggression and it is enhanced by the male hormone testosterone. The study was conducted by Professor Sam Shuster, who reviewed the reaction of over 400 people while he rode a unicycle through the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom. Professor Shuster, formerly a consultant dermatologist, said he realized that the huge number of stereotypical and predictable responses he got revealed an underlying biological phenomenon. He wrote in an article in the British Medical Journal that 9 out of 10 people responded to his unicycling by gawping or waving at him, and half responded verbally – more often men than women. However, he noted a big difference between men and women in the nature of their responses – men made more gags than women, and men’s jokes tended to be more aggressive than women’s. The analysis found that over 90% of the people responded physically – for example with an exaggerated stare or a wave and almost half responded verbally, more men than women. The sex difference, Professor Shuster stressed, was striking as 95% of adult women were praising, encouraging or showed concern. In stark contrast to this, only 25% of adult men responded by praise or encouragement. Instead 75% of the men attempted comedy, often sarcastic. According to Professor Shuster, some of the typical remarks that men made were: “Lost your wheel?,” “Hey, do you know you have only got one wheel?” and “Couldn’t you afford the other wheel?” Two-thirds of the comic responses from the men referred to the number of wheels and the level of aggressiveness was highest in younger age groups. While young boys under 10 reacted with curiosity, teenagers would shout at Professor Shuster and try to get him to fall off. “Older teenagers reacted with disparaging jokes, and young men in cars, at the peak of their virility, were particularly aggressive,” Professor Shuster wrote in his article. This evolved into what he describes as adult male humor – “repetitive, humorous, verbal putdowns, concealing a latent aggression.” But the jokes diminished with age, with waning testosterone levels, as older men responded more neutrally. Women in general praised Professor Shuster skill and showed concern for his safety. “The female response was subdued during puberty and the late teens, and then evolved into the more laudatory and concerned adult female response.” Professor Shuster concluded: “The initial aggressive intent channeled the verbal response into a contrived but more subtle and sophisticated joke, in which aggression is concealed by wit. This shows how the aggression that leads to humor eventually becomes separated from it as wit, jokes and other comic forms which then take on a life of their own.”
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