Is it worth turning a trigger into a joke? Humor as an emotion regulation strategy in remitted depression

Abstract

Our findings provide preliminary empirical support for the idea that for individuals vulnerable to depression, humor can be an adaptive tool in dealing with negative responses to aversive events, and, thus, it may impair their potential of these events to trigger depressive episodes. Further studies in this area are warranted to determine the most adaptive forms of humor and analyze their effects in various depressogenic contexts.