Mediation and moderation in ratings of hostile jokes by men and women

Abstract

Abstract Two studies were conducted to examine sex differences in enjoyment of hostile jokes targeting men and women with a focus on examining mediation effects of masculinity and femininity and moderation effects of the jokes' offensiveness. These studies continued to support men and women enjoying jokes targeting the opposite sex more so than jokes targeting the same sex. However, in Study 1, masculinity and femininity mediated these differences for men with higher masculinity related to greater enjoyment of the female hostile jokes and higher femininity related to greater enjoyment of the male hostile jokes. Masculinity alone mediated the differences for women with higher masculinity related to greater enjoyment of the female-targeted jokes and yet, no relationship existed with femininity. In Study 2, both men and women rated the female-targeted jokes as more offensive than the male-targeted jokes. A moderation effect for the jokes' offensiveness occurred for women who rated highly offensive male-targeted jokes funnier than highly offensive female-targeted jokes. No effect for offensiveness occurred for men; men rated both offensive female-targeted and male-targeted jokes equally funny even though they rated the female jokes as more offensive.