Is a GSOH attractive?
New research suggests that women are more attracted to men who smile and have a good sense of humor, but only for long-term relationships.
A good sense of humor often tops the list of ‘must-haves’ in a partner. But why? What is it about a GSOH that turns us on?
Psychologists who study human relationships speculate that a well-developed funny bone might signal strong genetics. The logic goes that a lightning wit is evidence of a finely tuned neural architecture, and that you don’t develop a healthy brain without a set of healthy genes. Genes are passed on to our offspring, so bedding a comedian could lead to amusing — and physically fit — children.
The “fitness indicator hypothesis” might sound like a barmy theory, but it explains why women tend to be evaluators of humor while men tend to be the ones cracking the jokes. Of course, there’s huge overlap between the sexes. There are lots of funny women and many men who would rather sit in the audience at a stand up gig than get on stage. But women do tend to list humor production as a necessity in a potential partner, while classing humor receptivity as a luxury (for men it’s the opposite). And on dating websites, men are more likely to offer humor while more women seek a partner who can make them laugh.
Anyway, because women are the choosier sex when it comes to picking partners, we should expect them to be on the lookout for clues to a man’s genetic superiority, and one of those clues might be his sense of humor.
Another theory, the “interest indicator hypothesis”, is that humor is a way of advertising compatibility or interest. Put simply, if you fancy someone, you’re more likely to tell them a joke. If they fancy you too, they’re more likely to laugh at it.
A third theory suggests that humor is a way of signaling shared knowledge and experience. This is the “encryption hypothesis”. As a way of illustrating this hypothesis, here’s a little joke.
Argon walks into a bar. The bartender says “Get out of here! We don’t serve noble gasses!” Argon doesn’t react.
This joke would have a lecture theater of chemistry students rolling in the aisles, because they would spot the double meaning in the word ‘react’. Argon doesn’t react angrily to the bartender’s abuse because all noble gases, including argon, don’t react chemically with other elements. For non-chemists like you and me, this joke falls flat. If someone tells you the argon joke and you laugh, you both know that you share a background in chemistry. You have in common a rudimentary knowledge of the periodic table, and should probably get married and have kids immediately.
In a new experiment, Michelle Tornquist and Dan Chiappe of the California State University at Long Beach pitted these three theories of humor against one another. Which best explains why a good sense of humor is attractive?
The researchers wrote a series of descriptions of an encounter between a man and a woman who didn’t know each other. Their research participants were told to put themselves in the position of the same-sex person in the story. The opposite-sex stranger was described as being high or low in humor production and receptivity.
Here’s an example scenario in which a female stranger is described as someone who can tell a joke but who doesn’t laugh at the participant’s gags.
Please imagine that you are grocery shopping when this woman [pictured] initiates a conversation with you by cracking a joke that makes you laugh. You talk about work as well as your interests. You’re having an interesting conversation and you find yourself laughing at her comments several times. You note to yourself that you enjoy her sense of humor and that she seems to like your company. You say something that you think is funny and she smiles friendly at you, but she doesn’t laugh at what you’ve just said. Another customer also laughs at the woman’s joke. The customer makes a joking comment that you think is funny, but the woman you are talking to doesn’t laugh that much at the comment. Eventually, both of you exchange phone numbers and you consider whether you will call her or not.
Alongside each of these scenarios was displayed a photograph of an opposite-sex person. The participant was told to imagine that this person was the one they interacted with. Some of the photographs were of attractive people, and others of less attractive people.
After reading the scenario and looking at the photograph, the participants rated how desirable the stranger was for two different types of relationship: a short-term fling, and a long-term relationship like marriage.
The Results
The results of Tornquist and Chiappe’s experiment suggested that there was some support for all three of the theories of humor, although some explained the data better than others.
Women were swayed more than men by a stranger who was funny. This, say the researchers, supports the fitness indicator hypothesis. Neither of the other hypotheses predict this sex difference. The researchers also argue that the fitness indicator hypothesis and the encryption hypothesis are supported by the finding that a stranger who was good at telling jokes was rated more attractive, regardless of how physically attractive they were. The interest indicator hypothesis would have predicted that physically attractive people (whom we presumably find more appealing) should be especially attractive when they are funny.
Tornquist and Chiappe also found that humor was more attractive in a potential long-term partner than a short-term partner. They interpret this result as evidence against the interest indicator hypothesis, because “genetic factors should be important in both mating contexts”. I am not sure that I entirely agree. Other researchers have suggested that women value possible indicators of genetic quality, such as masculine voice and appearance, in short-term partners. If humor really is a sign of good genes, I would expect it to be more attractive in a short-term partner. Because funny men were more attractive as long-term partners, the fitness indicator hypothesis is the one that looks most shaky to me.
Still, Tornquist and Chiappe’s results suggest that humor may not signal good genes as much as qualities that are desirable in a long-term partner, such as agreeableness and emotional warmth. They say that the encryption hypothesis better fits their data, because “issues of compatibility should be particularly important in long-term relationships”. This may be true, but I think I will be more convinced by a direct test of the encryption hypothesis. How do niche jokes like the argon gag play with physics versus psychology majors, and are people who tell gags that appeal to our own tribe more attractive as long-term partners?
Clearly there’s more research to be done if we’re to crack why a GSOH is so attractive. In the meantime, we can keep cracking jokes.
“Argon doesn’t react.” Ha!
Tornquist, M., & Chiappe, D. (2015). Effects of humor production, humor receptivity, and physical attractiveness on partner desirability.Evolutionary Psychology, 13(4), 1474704915608744. Read paper
For an audio version of this story, see the 3 November 2015 episode of The Psychology of Attractiveness Podcast.
