Women can get away with telling bad jokes more than men, study finds

Women can get away with telling bad jokes more than men because females are seen as more attentive to others, study finds

  • Study found women are judged less harshly for telling bad jokes than men
  • Yale School of Management and University of Toronto asked 5,400 people for response on to jokes made by a fictional ‘Brad and Brenda’
  • Found ‘Brad’ fared worse possibly because ‘Brenda’ was seen as more attentive
  • The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Women can get away with telling bad jokes more than men can, a study suggests.

Researchers found males tended to be judged much more harshly when their gags fell flat, and were also judged as less likeable and funny in the same situation.

This might be because women are generally seen as more attentive to others and less interested in individual advancement than men, they said.

Making jokes – even when poorly received – is seen as an attempt to connect and ‘advance communal goals’ by women, as opposed to the perception that men are doing it for themselves.

The study said men were seen to commit ‘mistakes of greater magnitude that make them appear less likable, competent, and funny’.

Researchers found males tended to be judged much more harshly when their gags fell flat, and were also judged as less likeable and funny in the same situation (stock photo)

The study, by the Yale School of Management and University of Toronto, involved 5,400 people being asked their responses to a number of fictional situations where two characters – Brad and Brenda – made jokes.

Brad/Brenda, they were told, ‘tried to crack jokes all night but their date did not seem to enjoy them and they left after the first drink’.

The participants then rated, on a scale, the size of the mistake they thought Brad/Brenda had made, how competent they thought they were, and how much they liked them.

Brad fared significantly worse than Brenda in their appraisals.

Another experiment followed a similar format, but participants were also asked to rate how attentive they thought Brad/Brenda was to his/her audience.

Brad was perceived as less attentive than Brenda, the study found.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

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