Publications

Publication details [#7951]

Mio, Jeffery Scott. 2009. Metaphor, humor, and psychological androgyny. Metaphor and Symbol 24 (3) : 174–183. 10 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Mio and Graesser (1991) found that metaphors that disparaged the topic of a sentence were perceived to be more humorous than metaphors that uplifted the topic. Moreover, there was evidence that male participants found these disparaging metaphors to be more humorous than did female participants. To further test this finding, in Study 1 we administered the Bern Sex-Role Inventory-Revised and used the methodology from the Mio and Graesser study. We found that sex-typed men found the disparaging metaphors to be the most humorous, sex-typed women found the disparaging metaphors to be the least humorous, and androgynous men and women fell in between the sex-typed groups. In Study 2 we failed to replicate gender differences using a different methodology, although all groups still found disparaging metaphors more humorous. We question the usefulness of the Bern Sex-Role Inventory-Revised in today's society. (Jeffery Scott Mio)