The effects of audience laughter on men's and women's responses to humor

The article examines the effects of audience laughter on men's and women's responses to humor. Forty participants, including 20 men and 20 women, listened individually to a recording of a radio comedy show under one of the two conditions: an experimental condition, with audience laughter present, or a control condition, with laughter absent. While the participants were listening to the tape, their spontaneous responses were covertly videotaped to measure the frequency of laughter and smiling. After listening to the program, the participants rated the material for funniness and enjoyment. Those participants who listened with laughter present gave significantly higher ratings of the funniness and enjoyability of the recording. However, the absence of significant differences between the male and female participants on funniness and enjoyment, coupled with the absence of an interaction between audience laughter and group on these retrospective measures, indicates that both the men and the women found the material comparably funny.