title: [The jokes are vectors of stereotypes. Example of the medical profession from 220 jokes].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sociological studies have shown the link between humor and unconscious ideas that we have of the society in which we evolve. We conducted a survey to answer the question: "What were the stereotypes of our medical profession that emerge from a transcript of jokes collected in a medical population?"
  
  
  METHODS
  Recruitment of the source population (doctors and medical students) was done through different personal and professional mailing lists, Twitter, Facebook, medical press. The inclusion period was six weeks (from June 6 to July 14, 2013). Each physician recruited received the link to our blog: http://humourmedical.overblog.com which contained a link to the questionnaire. Physicians responded to the following proposition: "tell the joke involving doctors you laugh the most". Analysis of jokes was made by three investigators. Firstly, two investigators (DM and CP) and pooled of results to generate a stereotype for each joke. Then a triangulation was made with a third investigator (BG), to determine the final stereotype.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five hundred and twelve jokes have been collected on the site and 448 were included in the analysis, representing 220 jokes. The gender of respondents was 284 men (63%) and 164 women (37%), a ratio of 1.7. One hundred and fifty-six different stereotypes were classified into six themes: 46 stereotypes 'the vicissitudes of the medical profession'; 45 'hospital', the war of the block; 34 'personality traits doctor'; 14 'psychiatrist'; 12 'physician and sexuality'; 5 'medical studies and carabin woes'. Anesthetists were represented as lazy, inveterate coffee drinkers and less awakened than their sleeping patients. Surgeons were seen as megalomaniacal, tyrannical with other professions, operating without thinking, as their brain down to a neuron. Medical students appeared docile and absurd. Psychiatrists were as crazy as their patients, sometimes passing them to the consultation and looking only at their past relationship. Other stereotypes of doctors were used: the venality, the salacious, cynicism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We showed that the stereotypes contained in the medical jokes were quite caricatured and portrayed an unflattering picture of doctors in general. These traits were necessarily marked to emphasize the humorous effect of a joke. We have not entered into the reality of these stereotypes or their social role in the relationship between doctors.
authors.affiliation: Université Joseph-Fourier, faculté de médecine de Grenoble, département universitaire de médecine générale, domaine de la Merci, place du commandant Nal, 38706 La Tronche cedex, France. Electronic address: damien.maurin@cegetel.net.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maurin
authors.affiliation: Université Joseph-Fourier, faculté de médecine de Grenoble, département universitaire de médecine générale, domaine de la Merci, place du commandant Nal, 38706 La Tronche cedex, France.
authors.forename: Clément
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pacault
authors.affiliation: Université Joseph-Fourier, faculté de médecine de Grenoble, département universitaire de médecine générale, domaine de la Merci, place du commandant Nal, 38706 La Tronche cedex, France.
authors.forename: Brieuc
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Galès
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057218:Blogging; D002605:Character; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D010819:Physician's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011639:Public Opinion; D013240:Stereotyping; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic / Q000523:psychology*