Contextual connections to puns in Tom Swifties.
Previous research conducted with short fables was replicated in this study with Swifties in which sentence length and presence of a pun were controlled. Of the 24 one-sentence word plays shown to each participant, half had an enhanced contextual connection that was predicted to increase appropriateness and detection of the incongruity, resulting in heightened perceived cleverness and humor. Results supported predictions, showing especially strong enhancement of perceived cleverness. The authors suggest that this outcome could be generalized to other forms of word play.
Lippman
Louis G
LG
Department of Psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham 98225-9089, USA. lippman@cc.wwu.edu
Bennington
Kristine
K
Sucharski
Ivan Laars
IL
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic