Audience reaction to self‐disparaging humor

In the experiment reported here fifty‐eight students in beginning speech communication courses were exposed to dittoed forms of speeches supposedly broadcast on radio. The speeches explained why the source of each speech decided to specialize in either economics or psychology. One version of each contained humor disparaging the academic field otherwise lauded. Subjects rated the messages and message sources on a number of dependent variables. Data as a whole suggest that speakers with relatively high status and ethos (college professors) can in their messages disparage their professional fields and thereby raise their ratings on wittiness, funniness, and sense of humor without damaging other factors of credibility.