Lonely people tend to make fun of themselves: A behavior genetic analysis of humor styles and loneliness

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 117; pp. 71 - 73
• Main Authors: Schermer, Julie Aitken, Martin, Rod A., Vernon, Philip A., Martin, Nicholas G., Colodro Conde, Lucía, Statham, Dixie, Lynskey, Michael T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 15.10.2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Aggressiveness; Behavior genetics; Correlation analysis; Emotions; Environmental aspects; Genotype & phenotype; Humor; Loneliness; Twins; Loneliness; Behavior genetics; Twins; Humor
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2017.05.042

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) and loneliness in Australian adult twins. At the phenotypic level, the two adaptive humor style dimensions (affiliative and self-enhancing) were found to correlate negatively with loneliness and the two maladaptive humor style dimensions (aggressive and self-defeating) were found to have positive correlations with loneliness. Because both humor and loneliness were found to be heritable (ranging from 7% for loneliness to 35% for self-defeating humor style), bivariate genetic analyses were conducted. Significant genetic and unique environmental correlations were found between loneliness and humor styles with the exception of aggressive humor. These results indicate that the phenotypic association between loneliness and humor style arises from the influence of shared familial and unique environmental factors. •Lonely people were found to engage in self-defeating humor.•Affiliative and self-enhancing humor correlated negatively with loneliness.•Aggressive humor is not related to loneliness.•Significant phenotypic correlations were also significant at the genetic level.