Humor Styles Are Related to Loneliness Across 15 Countries

Abstract

The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower self-enhancing, and higher self-defeating humor style scores had higher loneliness scores. The results suggest that although national mean differences may be present, the pattern of relationships between humor styles and loneliness is consistent across these diverse samples, providing some suggestions for mental health promotion among lonely individuals.

Keywords: adult; gender; human; humor styles; loneliness.

Figure 1. Structural Equation Model for Testing the Relationship Between the Humor Styles and Loneliness

Note. Parameters on the left of the slash are derived from the uncentered model, parameters on the right from the centered model. The dashed path was added after the initial model showed misfit. All estimated are standardized. The parameter of gender was standardized only on the latent variable and can therefore be interpreted as Cohen’s d. *non-significant (p ≥ .05) ^aHow often do you feel that you lack companionship? ^bHow often do you feel left out? ^cHow often do you feel isolated from others?