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. 2023 Oct 14:1461672231202288.
doi: 10.1177/01461672231202288. Online ahead of print.

Funny Date, Creative Mate? Unpacking the Effect of Humor on Romantic Attraction

Erika B Langley  1 , Michelle N Shiota  1
Affiliations

Funny Date, Creative Mate? Unpacking the Effect of Humor on Romantic Attraction

Erika B Langley et al. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. .

Abstract

Extensive research shows that people are attracted to funny dating partners, with several competing, sometimes conflicting, explanations for why humor is strongly desired in a mate. The present research asks whether humor is interpreted as a reliable, hard-to-fake indicator of some other, valuable trait. Across six experiments, we manipulated humor in a hypothetical date, online dating profile, or video profile and asked which of several traits statistically linked to humor are reliably inferred about funny partners. Humor-specifically partners producing humor-consistently led to higher ratings of partner creative ingenuity. This effect was not moderated by gender, and mediated desirability for different types of partnership. Results further revealed stronger preference for a first-date activity requiring creative ingenuity with a funny versus non-funny partner. Humor may signal that a potential partner is skilled at creative problem-solving, which may be particularly important when considering various forms of partnership.

Keywords: attraction; creativity; humor; person perception.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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