David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Men with little or no sense of humor get less love
by Sonya Smith, Examiner.com
April 3, 2009
If you've ever dated a guy that hardly smiles and takes just about everything too serious, chances are he has a poor sense of humor and knows less than he thinks he does about what women really want.
While goofy is a no no, to be able to make a woman laugh a little and feel comfortable and secure is a must.
According to new research, women rate funny guys as more intelligent than guys who are not so funny.
"Over the course of history, women actively look for signs that their man is intelligent, and I believe the ability to actively judge the situation and pull off a joke and make you laugh is an intelligent feat," said Kristofor McCarty, a researcher at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, and author of the study.
McCarty's study asked 45 heterosexual women aged 18 to 30 to rate various self-descriptions of men, some funnier than others.
Women said the men with the funniest descriptions were significantly more likely to be candidates for long-term relationships, as well as friends. Participants also rated the more amusing men as more intelligent and honest.
Previous research in evolutionary psychology has indicated that for long-term mating, women value a man's likelihood of acquiring resources: for instance, someone likely to earn a good salary. That idea recalls the early days of humans, when women relied on men's resources during childbearing years.
Given that laughing makes people feel better, it also makes sense evolutionarily that women would prefer men with a good sense of humor, especially to help with the hardships of taking care of children, said Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and author of the recent book Why Him? Why Her? Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type.
"People who have a good sense of humor may be likely to lighten up very bad situations and therefore reduce the stress response and simply enable you to get over the hump in bad parts of the relationship," said Fisher, who was not involved with McCarty's study.
Humor also helps creativity, said Peter Derks, professor emeritus of psychology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, who did not work on McCarty's study. The field of positive psychology -- which looks at well-being and happiness -- posits that humor leads to happiness and happiness leads to health, he said. This suggests that humor does have some survival value as well.
But humor is not used only in long-term sexual relationships, McCarty said. It plays an important role among friends and also developed as a desired trait in friendship for social reasons, he said.
by Sonya Smith, Examiner.com
April 3, 2009
If you've ever dated a guy that hardly smiles and takes just about everything too serious, chances are he has a poor sense of humor and knows less than he thinks he does about what women really want.
While goofy is a no no, to be able to make a woman laugh a little and feel comfortable and secure is a must.
According to new research, women rate funny guys as more intelligent than guys who are not so funny.
"Over the course of history, women actively look for signs that their man is intelligent, and I believe the ability to actively judge the situation and pull off a joke and make you laugh is an intelligent feat," said Kristofor McCarty, a researcher at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, and author of the study.
McCarty's study asked 45 heterosexual women aged 18 to 30 to rate various self-descriptions of men, some funnier than others.
Women said the men with the funniest descriptions were significantly more likely to be candidates for long-term relationships, as well as friends. Participants also rated the more amusing men as more intelligent and honest.
Previous research in evolutionary psychology has indicated that for long-term mating, women value a man's likelihood of acquiring resources: for instance, someone likely to earn a good salary. That idea recalls the early days of humans, when women relied on men's resources during childbearing years.
Given that laughing makes people feel better, it also makes sense evolutionarily that women would prefer men with a good sense of humor, especially to help with the hardships of taking care of children, said Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and author of the recent book Why Him? Why Her? Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type.
"People who have a good sense of humor may be likely to lighten up very bad situations and therefore reduce the stress response and simply enable you to get over the hump in bad parts of the relationship," said Fisher, who was not involved with McCarty's study.
Humor also helps creativity, said Peter Derks, professor emeritus of psychology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, who did not work on McCarty's study. The field of positive psychology -- which looks at well-being and happiness -- posits that humor leads to happiness and happiness leads to health, he said. This suggests that humor does have some survival value as well.
But humor is not used only in long-term sexual relationships, McCarty said. It plays an important role among friends and also developed as a desired trait in friendship for social reasons, he said.
