In an international survey on how people evaluate their own sense of humor, Italians found themselves to be the most humorous, while Taiwanese ranked only 15th out of 25 nations and regions, Chen said. Taiwan presented the biggest differences between men and women on self-perceived humor, with male respondents saying that they use more corrective humor, while female respondents leaned toward benevolent humor, he said. In another survey of only Taiwanese, Chen’s team divided humor into four types — self-promoting, self-deprecating, compassionate and sarcastic — and used fMRI data to measure respondents’ brain activity. Women were found to use compassionate humor more than men, perhaps because they are more empathetic and care more about interpersonal relationships, he said. Meanwhile, people with Asperger syndrome can tell jokes, but they have difficulty doing so without hurting others’ feelings, he added.

Source: Taipei Times November 27, 2019 15:56 UTC