This is the conclusion drawn by researchers in a recent article in the journal Cognition & Emotion. When subjects were shown nasty images, and asked to reinterpret the photos before reporting how the photos made them feel, those who were able to make a quip registered a decrease in negative emotions.
"If you are able to teach people to be more playful, to look at the absurdities of life as humorous, you see some increase in well being,” says Andrea Samson, a postdoctoral student at Stanford University.
The photos weren't pretty, either. One example, which featured a man bloodily disemboweling a fish at a seafood processing plant, was reinterpreted as an "ideal workplace for people with body odor”.
The findings suggest that positive humour facilitates cognitive reappraisal, while so-called negative humour distances subjects from the disturbing image. Further, the ability to verbalize such imagery leads to increased "levels of creativity and cognitive flexibility”.
Of course such humour is not appropriate in every situation. But for disempowered groups, such as POWs, negative humour gave individuals a sense of control.
So the next time you stare down that spider or mouse -- or look down from outside the top of the CN Tower, like our very own Yummy Sharon recently did -- take a deep breath and crack a joke. It just might save you.
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