title: Preschoolers joke with jokers, but correct foreigners.
abstract: Thirty- and 36-month-old English speakers' (N = 106) ability to produce jokes, distinguish between humorous and sincere intentions, and distinguish between English- and foreign-language speakers, was examined in two tasks. In the Giving task, an experimenter requested one of two familiar objects, and a confederate always gave her the wrong object. In the Naming task, the confederate mislabeled familiar objects. In the English-speaking conditions, the confederate laughed after doing the wrong thing (English-Humor) or said, 'There!' (English-Sincere). In the Foreign conditions, the French- or Italian-speaking confederate laughed (Foreign-Humor) or said, 'D'accord!' or 'Va bene!' (Foreign-Sincere). When preschoolers were subsequently requested to give and name the same objects and a new set of familiar objects they were significantly more likely to imitate and 'do the wrong thing' in the Humor versus Sincere, and in the English versus Foreign conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. elena.hoicka@stir.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hoicka
authors.forename: Nameera
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akhtar
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007845:Laughter; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D002666:Psychology, Child; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic