Class-based differences in the use of (aggressive) humor: The mediating role of empathic concern

Abstract

Recent research indicates that individuals’ social class (SC) is connected to a wide range of psychological outcomes. Nonetheless, the question of how SC is related to people’s uses of humor during social interactions remains unexplored. Consequently, in this research, we tested whether a person’s SC, as measured by both objective indices of material wealth (i.e., income and educational attainment) and subjective perceptions of one’ SC standing, is differentially related to affiliative and aggressive forms of humor. Study 1 (N = 156; 52.6% females) showed that there were no class-based differences in the use of affiliative humor, but provided preliminary support for a positive association between income and aggressive humor—even after controlling for age and gender. Study 2 (N = 201; 54.2% females) widely replicated these findings and revealed that the income-aggressive humor relationship was mediated by empathic concern. Overall, our results suggest that higher-income individuals, relative to their lower-income counterparts, tend to use aggressive humor more often because of their reduced others-oriented feelings of sympathy and compassion. To our knowledge, this research contains the first empirical evidence on the association of SC and the way in which individuals habitually use humor in their day-to-day lives.