Browsing by Subject "Humor"
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Item Open Access Consumers Seeking Connection: Essays on When and Why Consumers Connect with Others(2022) Howe, Holly SamanthaIn this dissertation, I explore the relational consequences of humor in brand-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer relationships. In the first essay, I demonstrate that the cleverness of a brand’s humor attempts affects consumers’ brand attitudes and engagement with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers’ need for cognition. I demonstrate this effect in six studies including a field study (using data scraped from Twitter) and several lab experiments. In the second essay, I explore ways to make solitude feel less socially disconnecting. Across four studies, I show that people who experience solitary amusement feel less socially disconnected than people who experience solitary happiness. This effect is mediated by other-focus such that people who are amused (vs. happy) think more of others. Together, these two essays demonstrate that humor can be an effective way to foster both consumer-brand and consumer-consumer relationships.
Item Open Access The Dynamics of Linguistic Humor Comprehension(2017-05-30) Dudley, TaelaAs a performance whose functioning relies heavily on sociocultural rules, humor does not easily transcend cultural and language lines. In most cases, humor comprehension requires more than fluency in a language. Linguistic humor in particular can create challenges for second language (L2) speakers because it demands fluency, as well as a higher competence of linguistic rules governing how the language is applied. This study aimed to examine the role that such competence may play in humor comprehension by determining if fluent L2 English speakers from first language (L1) Mandarin and French speech communities could understand Standard American English (SAE) linguistic humor. The findings suggest that comprehension of linguistic humor may be dependent on sufficient exposure to a speech community, but further research with larger population sizes is necessary.