Psychology Undergraduate Research Symposium 2021

Comedic Dominance: Dominance’s Effect on Comedic Perception and the Potential Role That Gender Plays

In this research we examine how emotional dimensions affect the perception of comedy in an interaction. Previous research has highlighted that higher ratings of valence and dominance is positively correlated with higher average scores for perceived comedy in an interaction. To measure this relationship we used brief video clips from “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, a popular web series starring Jerry Seinfeld. This series featured a variety of comedians, one per episode, conversing with Jerry Seinfield on a variety of topics. We used this method due to the constant of Seinfield in the interaction compared to the varying comedians. Previous research, while finding significant positive correlations, studied a mixture of male and female comedians. This study wanted to look into the role of gender on this relationship and thus only used female comedians as the sample. The hypothesis was that valence and dominance would be the same as previous studies. The results showed an interesting result in that there was a strong inverse (negative) relationship between the comedians’ dominance in the interaction and the perceived comedy of the interaction. It also found no significant relationship between valence and comedy. This implies that there are distinct factors that go into perception of comedy for different groups with additional research into these distinctions needed to create more concrete assertions.

PRESENTED BY
Grants for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research
College of Arts & Sciences 2021
Advised By
Gordon Bermant
PRESENTED BY
Grants for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research
College of Arts & Sciences 2021
Advised By
Gordon Bermant

Comments

May 01 | 12:47 PM : by mhunt@upenn.edu

Hi Alex,

Humor is one of the hardest things to study empirically, and I love the fact that you're tackling it and trying to tease apart the different components of what makes something funny.  I'm intrigued (and frankly disturbed) by the finding that Jerry's dominance in these clips was directly related to how funny your participants thought the clips were, and gender clearly has something to do with it.  Most of the female comedians included (including especially Tina Fey, Kristen Wigg and Kate McKinnon) are incredibly funny in their own right and definitely not shrinking violets or women who tend to cede the stage.  I watched a bit of the clip with Tina Fey just now, and I was horrified by the degree to which she "threw herself under the bus" in the clip.  I'm guessing that was a clip in which Jerry was rated as fairly dominant.  I don't really get why people would like that.  I found it sad and off putting.  I wonder what you think is going on here, and whether the binary "funny/not funny" rating might have hidden some important variance in the outcome.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Cheers,

Dr. Hunt

May 03 | 11:41 AM : by mellers@upenn.edu

Hi Alex

Not knowing much about research into comedy, I am curious about the previous research you mention that has found correlates of valence and dominance. Why those traits? I wouldn't have picked them out of a hat if you asked me what makes a comedian funny. Did you look at other variables?  Also, many comedians are dominant in different ways. Jerry S and Robin Williams seem less and more dominate (to me). But - what does that mean exactly? Aren't there many ways to be dominant ?
Best wishes
Barb Mellers

May 05 | 1:51 PM : by flanagan@upenn.edu

Hi Alex, I don't have a background in this topic, so it was especially intriguing.  The role of dominance was interesting because what is funny is also often self-effacing.  I was also curious about the role of wit and the ability to make unusual connections.  It seems to me that you are tackling a rich topic- nice work!

 

Best wishes,

Lori Flanagan-Cato

May 05 | 7:53 PM : by marcaro@upenn.edu

Hi Alex,

What an intriguing study! Nice, clear poster presentation. Clever use of CCGC to sample a range of comedians while controlling the host! What was the age range of your participants? I found the results particularly striking because "dominant" is not a characteristic I would naturally attribute to Jerry Seinfeld. I'm curious if this effect interacts with comedic style of the host. Looking at the scatter plot, the datapoints appear to form two clusters. I wonder if there are other traits common to the 4-5 comedians with the relatively low funny ratings. Very interested to see where you take this next!

I don't think I'll ever watch CCGC the same way again.

Mike Arcaro

Hello Dr. Hunt

Thank you for your comments, I agree with you that the findings are somewhat disturbing when it comes to dominance, gender, and perceived humor of an interaction. It was very difficult for me as a self identifying male research to make sure I handled this important subject matter in a sensitive manner. I like your question about the binary option for funny or not funny and how this might have played into the results. I am intrigued about if I had used a 9 point scale, as I did for the other ratings, if the study's results would yield a bit more specification into this relationship. It certainly might have helped with determining the degree to which participants found the clips funny instead of just lumping together a subjective experience into a yes or no option.

Alex Sislo

 

Hello,

I am glad you found the research intriguing. I certainly did as well. The previous research comes from a previous 399 in which the inverse relationship was found using a sample size of 30 comedians. The interesting part is this sample size consisted of 25 male and 5 female comedians. I wanted to see if results would be the same by using an exclusively female sample size. As for the traits, there has been theorists in comedy who have mentioned those specific traits so that is what I decided to use. However, you are absolutely right in that there are many factors outside these three that can contribute to comedy. Also within these three dimension, dominance was the primary focus since a relationship had been established previously. Lastly, I agree that a comedian like Williams would be considered dominant but I think dominance in an interaction varies from moment to moment. Two ways, among other subtle ones, that a person can show dominance in an interaction would be frequency of being the one talking as well as speech that would make one person feel superior to another. The cool thing I believe though is that a participant can quickly take all these factors and combine them into one singular rating of the dominance of an individual in an interaction. I hope these comments help a bit with the understand of the material and I appreciate your interest in my study!

 

Thanks,

Alex Sislo

Hello,

Thank you for your comments! I agree with you about wit and the ability to make unusual connections. I think this has to do a bit with intelligence and being able to come up with witty or obscure references at a moments notice. That is certainly a way to be dominant in an interaction; being quicker and more clever with your responses than the other person. Thanks again for the nice comments and hopefully research like this will continue in the upcoming years!

Best,

Alex Sislo

Hello,

Thank you for your comments on my presentation, I tried to make it as clear as possible for readers! As for age of my participants, they ranged from 18-24 with most being concentrated in the 19-21 range. As for Seinfeld's dominance, I agree he does not appear as very dominant but I think at times his ability to out wit other comedians and keep them on their toes in a conversation can be a reason he is considered dominant. However, because he is generally consistent in each episode with giving his guest opportunities to talk, he seemed as good a constant as possible. For the clusters, I also noticed this and was intrigued by it, I tried to find what these clusters had in common with each other but could not find anything that made clear sense. Thank you for pointing that out however because it was also something I was wondering. Maybe that is something to build on as we take the next steps with this research!

Thanks,

Alex Sislo