16 FEBRUARY 2006
volution's mantra
has always been "survival of the fittest," not "survival
of the funniest." In humans, though, a sense of humor seems to have evolved
anyway. For some reason, funny is fit.
Oddly, scientists have not paid much attention to the evolution of humor. You'd think somebody would wonder why a sense of humor could be helpful in the struggle to survive and reproduce. It's not like you'd try telling a few jokes to deter predators (although maybe you could escape while they were doubled up in laughter).
Actually,
new research suggests, humor talent does offer a possible advantage in
the contest to proliferate offspring. Humorous men might just be a little
bit more attractive to potential mates.
At least that's the implication of a study of college students at McMaster University in Canada. Psychologists Eric Bressler and Sigal Balshine presented the students with photos of comparably attractive members of the opposite sex, accompanied by autobiographical statements supposedly authored by the people pictured. On average, women rated the "funny" men as more romantically desirable than the plain talkers.
"Our results suggest that humor can positively affect desirability as a relationship partner," wrote Bressler, of Westfield State College in Massachusetts, and Balshine, of McMaster, in the current issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Consequently, humorous men should attract more mates, have more offspring and pass their "funny" genes to future generations. And that would explain why evolution favored widespread proliferation of performers for TV sitcoms and comedy clubs.
Before all you men go out and buy a bunch of joke books, though, you might want to ponder the methods used in this study and some of its other results. For one thing, studies of college students may not apply to the population in general. And the questions did not specify whether the "desirability" was for a short-term or long-term relationship.
Furthermore, the women also rated the "funny" men as less intelligent, less honest and less trustworthy.
And women, don't start trying to tell jokes to attract men. The study found that men rated "funny" women as no more desirable than the others. "We found no evidence that men prefer humorous women as partners," the researchers wrote.
But 
why should humor be helpful for men seeking mates and not for women chasing men? Citing previous research, the scientists speculate that men do appreciate a mate with sense of humor, but that the notion of "sense of humor" means different things to men and women. Some evidence suggests that women like men who produce humor, and consider a man to have a good sense of humor if he produces high-caliber jokes. A man, on the other hand, considers a woman to have a good sense of humor if she laughs at his jokes. "Men may prefer women who signal appreciation of their humor because humor appreciation may signal sexual interest," write Bressler and Balshine.
However plausible such a scenario may sound, though, this new study raises further curious questions. Why, for instance, does humor seem to signal less intelligence?
Possibly that's because the alleged "humor" in the study was not exactly of the level you'd find on Saturday Night Live or the Comedy Channel. Example of "humorous" statement: "Birthday cake is the only food you can blow on and spit on and everybody rushes to get a piece." That's not exactly a line you'd expect from David Letterman or Jay Leno. And perhaps, the researchers noted, the women in the study interpreted "intelligence" to mean something like "scholarly" or "educated."
"Given the sophomoric nature of some of our humorous statements, it is not surprising that participants did not ascribe 'intelligence' to our humorous individuals," the researchers noted.
Of course, they pointed out, that only strengthens their conclusion that humor is important. If even dumb humor is rated as attractive, humor must be important enough that women would rather have a dumb and funny man than a smart but dull one. On the other hand, maybe women have already concluded that all men are dumb, so they might as well go for a funny one.
In any case, the study's implication that women crave humorous men requires further investigation with more sophisticated humor. "The humor in this study showed a restricted range of quality," Bressler and Balshine admitted. "Examination of the influence of different types of humor . . . would be a valuable addition to this research area."
In other words, a truer test would be to see what would happen with humor that was not so lame, but rather with the much more clever humor, on a higher intellectual plane, like you would find in funny science columns. Take the one about the philosopher Rene Descartes, who walked up to the counter at McDonald's to order a double cheeseburger. "Would you like fries with that?" asked the counter person. "I think not," Descartes replied, and he disappeared.
E-mail: tsiegfried@nasw.org
