Audience reactions to the use of direct and personal disparaging humor in informative public address

In this study 126 subjects were exposed to one of three versions of a speech on “Effective Listening.” In one version no humor was added to the speech. In the other versions examples of direct and personal self and other‐disparaging humor were included in the presentation. Subjects rated the message and the message source on a number of dependent variables. Data, in general, suggest that those speakers who use direct and personal disparaging humor of any kind are rated as having a better sense of humor than those speakers who use no humor. Further, the use of self‐disparaging humor serves to reduce ratings of expertness while the use of other‐disparaging humor produced lower ratings of character.