Funniness of jokes, canned laughter and recall performance

Two groups of thirty subjects, each composed of fifteen men and fifteen women, were presented with ten tape-recorded jokes with or without a canned laughter background. They were tested individually and rated jokes for humor appreciation and "intellectual appreciation". The experimenter rated their overt mirth responses. It was found that while canned laughter generated more mirth, it did not significantly affect humor-ratings or "intellectual appreciation" ratings. Jokes recalled after two weeks tended to be those which had been given high humor-ratings and those which had prompted most mirth; this was especially so for subjects in the non-canned laughter condition.

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