And those who find it particularly funny might be those who’ve actually experienced both claims (booze wreaks havoc in their lives, but they also drink to ease their pain).
In fact much of what we find humorous can reveal our beliefs. Since laughter is typically an unconscious, automatic response it is a useful measure for laying bare individual biases.
This month in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior Robert Lynch of Rutgers University published the first scientific evidence for the conventional folk wisdom: it’s funny because it’s true. But Lynch is not referring to objective truth, rather what we think is true.
Why do I blog this? just thinking about the role of humor and how observational comedy can help to surface interesting insights about culture and human-technical objects relationships.