Attentiveness, honesty, intelligence, and fidelity. These are the qualities that women look for in men and vice versa. Another desirable characteristic in a partner is a sense of humor. A lot of research has focused on the importance of humor only during the initial stages of seduction. As a result, little is known about how this quality continues to affect romantic relationships over time. That’s why researchers from Singapore Management University decided to conduct a study.
Happy Couple
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Humor improves relationship quality
In the study, published in the journal Psychological Science, the scientists recruited 108 couples whose relationships lasted an average of 18.27 months. They asked the participants, who were students, to write down their perceptions of their partner’s sense of mood and their own in a notebook for seven days. The volunteers were also asked to rate their and their partner’s commitment to the relationship.
The results showed that the quality of the relationship was positively associated with the perception of humor on the same day and the following day for both sexes. The authors considered that this character trait helps maintain interest in a romantic relationship and strengthen the bond. Contrary to some theories suggesting that only men use humor more to attract a person, the study found no significant gender differences in the relationship between humor and seduction.
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The impact of humor on professional and parent-child relationships
“We obtained our results from a sample of Singaporean students, but we believe they should also apply to married and older couples in Western cultures. In terms of future questions, we would like to examine these bidirectional associations of humor in different relationships, such as professional or parent-child relationships,” explained Kenneth Tan, lead author of the article and professor of psychology at the University of Singapore.
References
Tan, K., Choy, B. K. C., & Li, N. P. (2023). The Role of Humor Production and Perception in the Daily Life of Couples: An Interest-Indicator Perspective. Psychological Science, 34(11), 1271-1280. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231203139
