Men are funnier than women, study claims
Researchers from Aberystwyth University and the University of North Carolina analysed 28 studies which looked at how funny around 5,000 people were. They wanted to see whether the stereotype that men are funnier than women was true. Writing in Psychology Today, lead researcher Dr Gil Greengross said: "This stereotype is shared by both men and women - but of course, just because it exists does not mean it is true." In many of the studies they looked at, men and women were asked to write a funny caption to accompany a cartoon - and then independent judges rated their funniness without knowing their gender. Dr Gil said the results found that "to the best of our knowledge, on average, men appear to have higher humour production ability than women". Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat on Tuesday, he added: "To clarify, the whole thing is not about 'women are not funny'... obviously there are some very funny stand-up comedians and I know many female comedians, some personally. Sara Pascoe, for example, she's a great comedian and she's probably funnier than 99% of all males in the world... it's just that on average we find there's a difference." He says evidence suggests humour plays a "major role in mating". The lecturer said women tend to look for a sense of humour in a partner as it is "strongly correlated with intelligence". "Men, on the other hand, prefer women who laugh at their humour. That means that over our evolutionary history, men likely had to compete harder with other men to impress women with their sense of humour."
I've always tended to think this - that humour has been a weapon in males' armoury to woo females - and hence it is likely that they would do better.
Maddy Bye, who along with her sister Marina make up the comedy duo Siblings, says she finds the study "frustrating but also funny". "Being in the comedy world I don't think we've done a gig in the last three years where there wasn't an equal amount of men and women on the bill. There are so many amazing male and female comedy shows. I don't know why they're trying to make it a scientific fact that women aren't funny."
But that is not what the study suggests - just that males are likely to be funnier than females. And the equal numbers at gigs perhaps says more about our efforts to ensure equal opportunities - and the drive from feminists to equalise almost everything.
Any comments - humorous or otherwise.
Researchers from Aberystwyth University and the University of North Carolina analysed 28 studies which looked at how funny around 5,000 people were. They wanted to see whether the stereotype that men are funnier than women was true. Writing in Psychology Today, lead researcher Dr Gil Greengross said: "This stereotype is shared by both men and women - but of course, just because it exists does not mean it is true." In many of the studies they looked at, men and women were asked to write a funny caption to accompany a cartoon - and then independent judges rated their funniness without knowing their gender. Dr Gil said the results found that "to the best of our knowledge, on average, men appear to have higher humour production ability than women". Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat on Tuesday, he added: "To clarify, the whole thing is not about 'women are not funny'... obviously there are some very funny stand-up comedians and I know many female comedians, some personally. Sara Pascoe, for example, she's a great comedian and she's probably funnier than 99% of all males in the world... it's just that on average we find there's a difference." He says evidence suggests humour plays a "major role in mating". The lecturer said women tend to look for a sense of humour in a partner as it is "strongly correlated with intelligence". "Men, on the other hand, prefer women who laugh at their humour. That means that over our evolutionary history, men likely had to compete harder with other men to impress women with their sense of humour."
I've always tended to think this - that humour has been a weapon in males' armoury to woo females - and hence it is likely that they would do better.
Maddy Bye, who along with her sister Marina make up the comedy duo Siblings, says she finds the study "frustrating but also funny". "Being in the comedy world I don't think we've done a gig in the last three years where there wasn't an equal amount of men and women on the bill. There are so many amazing male and female comedy shows. I don't know why they're trying to make it a scientific fact that women aren't funny."
But that is not what the study suggests - just that males are likely to be funnier than females. And the equal numbers at gigs perhaps says more about our efforts to ensure equal opportunities - and the drive from feminists to equalise almost everything.
Any comments - humorous or otherwise.
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