Humor as a character strength among the elderly: empirical findings on age-related changes and its contribution to satisfaction with life.
BACKGROUND
Positive psychology studies what is best in people. In their classification of strengths and virtues, Peterson and Seligman [11] assign humor to the virtue of transcendence. Thus far, there is no specific study that deals with age-related changes in humor (as a strength of character) across a lifespan and its relation to well-being in the elderly.


METHODS
A total of n=42,964 participants completed an online questionnaire on humor as a strength of character. Participants also completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Orientations to Happiness Scale.


RESULTS
In a cross-sectional design, the scores for humor decreased until the age of 50. Men between 51 and 62 years had higher scores; there was a trend for women older than 70 to score higher (but this was not statistically significant). Humor was robustly positively correlated with life satisfaction, as well with a pleasurable and an engaged life, but was lowest with a meaningful life. The oldest participants had the lowest (yet still meaningful) correlation coefficients (with the exception of a meaningful life).


CONCLUSIONS
The study contributes to the understanding of humor across the lifespan and underlines the importance of studies among the elderly within a framework of positive psychology.
Ruch
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Section on Personality and Assessment, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestr. 14/7, 8050, Zürich, Schweiz. w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch
Proyer
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RT
Weber
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult