The study took 117 students and divided them into four groups. Two groups were exposed to either the word “death” or the word “pain” in 33 millisecond flashes on a computer screen while they worked on other tasks. Then they wrote captions for New Yorker cartoons.
And the death group killed it. An independent jury who knew nothing about the experiment voted for the subconsciously death-primed captions by clear margins. The effectiveness of subliminal messaging is still being explored, but this is further proof that we can demonstrate the impact of something without being aware of it.
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Christopher Long, psychology professor at Ouachita Baptist University and author of the study, said that there was still a lot to explore in the difference between the consciously and subconsciously death primed humor, and why one makes you funnier.
“Our guess is that there is something about the source of the anxiety a person is experiencing and the way a person was reminded of that source, which influences his or her ability to be funny in the moment,” Long said in an email. “It may be that thinking about one's own death confronts a person with a more overt sort of discomfort that is either not as conducive or motivating to be funny, relative to a more subtle exposure to death reminders.”
The study linked the boost in humor to terror management theory—which states that human beings are bound to being aware of our lives’ finitude and thus create culture as distraction and also to grant those short lives meaning. It also points to humor’s role as a stress-reliever in times of trouble and trauma, but noted that there’s much more research to be done.
Motherboard
Watchmen - The Comedian's death.
14 comments:
Maybe thoughts of death reminds people self-restraints [such as PC thinking or fear of being unfunny] aren't that big a deal.
Making light of the horrific and macabre was known as "Gein Humor" in the 1950's Wisconsin.
Life: Nobody gets out alive.
How do you consciously "induce" thoughts about death under the conscious level, i.e. subconciously?
Comedy is tragedy that happens to somebody else.
"... there’s much more research to be done."
Hear, Hear! That's what I'm talkin bout.
The best 9/11 jokes came from the people trapped on the upper floors.
Ricpic, I would say that the thoughts well up from the subconscious into conscious.
That explains the influence of 18th century comic fiction on Thomas Mann.
The Comedian should have learned some Gracie jui-jitsu, then he might have stood a chance.
Shit, in that case, I'm the funniest man alive.
I wake up every morning now, and I count the body parts that are still functioning.
That's easier than counting the ones that don't.
Low battery alarm advice :
Gather all the warning devices in the house around your work area in a circle.
Then you can figure out which one is beeping once an hour to indicate a low battery.
I mention mortality a lot. Lately to drive a point. Purposefully to drive the point deeply as possible.
Because I know the person I'm speaking to is automatically categorizing every uncomfortable thing I'm saying as partisan and I feel I must dispel that. I say flatly that looking at it from outside of Parties leaving the Earth and with no children behind to worry about, my concern is solely for my country, my concern is for the country I leave to your children. I do not want your grandchildren paying for decisions made for my comfort today. That is not fair or right or just. And this is urgent, we don't all live forever, you know.
I wrote that to a friend 80 years old who hikes mountains every weekend and still works. Salesman. Apparently makes one call a day.
?
He is a mystery to everybody. I sent him the statistics showing 95% lawyers contributing to Obama campaign and he disputed its importance. Dismissively. I didn't like that. So I shot back explaining why that statistic is important. How I put it was exceedingly arrogant and he hasn't spoken to me since.
Most of the stuff we argue about isn't at all important in the face of our mortality.
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