Humorous Responses to Embarrassment

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Abstract
Humor is a technique that is frequently used to restructure an interpersonal communication when embarrassment has broken down communication patterns. In an embarrassing interaction, it is expected that more humor will be used between persons of relatively equal status than when people are of unequal status and that more humor will be initiated by a person of relatively higher status than by a person of lower status. It is hypothesized that more humor will be used when interactants anticipate future interaction than when no future interaction is expected. Sixty subjects engaged in an embarrassing interaction with an experimenter by telephone. Results indicate that there was no significant effect for anticipated interaction. More laughter between persons of relatively equal status than between persons of unequal status was found. The larger the number of others present, the more laughter occurred and the less embarrassment was found. Use of verbal humor was positively associated with openness in the interaction.

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