Preliminary Validation of a Multidimensional Model of Wittiness

Abstract

ABSTRACT Past research on wittiness has found that ( a ) self‐ratings and peer ratings of wittiness are highly correlated, but neither type of rating is appreciably correlated with measured humor production, and ( b ) sociability is correlated with both types of wittiness ratings but not with humor production. An interpretation of these findings was provided by a multidimensional model of wittiness that conceptualizes wittiness as a factorially complex dimension shaped by three component traits: humor motivation, humor cognition, and humor communication. We conducted three correlational studies to test the hypotheses, derived from the theory, that ( a ) wittiness ratings are influenced by humor motivation and humor communication, whereas humor production taps only humor cognition, and ( b ) sociability is positively correlated with humor motivation and humor communication but unrelated to humor cognition. Results were consistent across studies and generally confirmed the predictions.