All kidding aside: Humor increases learning at knowledge and comprehension levels

Abstract

It has been argued that humor is beneficial in the classroom because it increases social bonding between instructor and student, salience of information, and ultimately recall and retention. The current study sought to add to the literature by empirically testing some assumptions about humor as a pedagogical tool. Specifically, we predicted that using humor in a classroom setting would enhance learning on the first three levels of Bloom's taxonomy (i.e. knowledge, comprehension, and application). Results indicated that using humor to teach material significantly increased students' overall performance on exams, particularly on knowledge and comprehension level quiz items, but not application level items. Moreover, learning a construct through the use of humor was most effective for comprehension level quiz items. This study provides some of the first ecologically valid evidence that humor may maximize learning outcomes in college classrooms.