Sense of humor and social desirability: Understanding how humor styles are perceived

• Perceptions of sense of humor are based primarily on affiliative humor uses.
• Maladaptive humor style behaviors are perceived as socially undesirable.
• Socially undesirable humor uses must have some social benefits to support their uses.

Humor can be expressed in many ways, some of which may not be seen as displaying a good sense of humor or as being socially desirable. Using the Humor Styles Questionnaire to predict global ratings of sense of humor for oneself and for a romantic partner indicated that only adaptive humor styles were reliably related to sense of humor and that an affiliative style was the primary predictor. Behaviors associated with adaptive humor styles were judged as more socially desirable, with maladaptive humor uses being rated as clearly socially undesirable. In conclusion, a good sense of humor is not based solely on sharing humor and some styles of sharing humor are socially damaging. Future research needs to determine when maladaptive humor may be beneficial.