It goes without saying that anything that makes us laugh or even crack the slightest smile is time well spent. Laughter relaxes the muscles, eases stress, and releases feel-good hormones. What’s not to love?
The tricky part, of course, is that humor is subjective. What’s hilarious to one person might fall flat for another. And while most of us know that laughing is healthy, you may not realize that the kind of humor you use can actually say a lot about your wellbeing.
Back in 2003, psychologist Rod Martin and his colleagues created the Humor Styles Questionnaire to explore how humor connects to mental health. It breaks down how we use humor in daily life into four styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating.
Depending on which one you lean toward, it might reveal something about your personality and even your mental health.
So, what do these styles actually look like?
Affiliative humor is the most universal. Think jokes or memes meant to bring people together and make everyone laugh. Sharing a ridiculous Bored Panda meme with a coworker or bantering with your friends are perfect examples.
#10 My Husband Is In The Process Of Redoing Our Lawn. He Recently Began K*****g Off All Our Grass. I Didn’t Want Our Neighbors To Think We Were Neglectful Homeowners, So I Made A Sign
Self-enhancing humor is about laughing at yourself and finding levity in life’s absurdities. It’s often a healthy way to cope with stress.
Imagine telling the story of walking into a glass door because you thought it was open while laughing at yourself afterward. That ability to turn an awkward or stressful moment into something amusing is classic self-enhancing humor.
Aggressive humor, on the other hand, is laughing at someone else’s expense. It often takes the form of sarcasm, teasing, or criticism.
Then there’s self-defeating humor—the art of putting yourself down to get a laugh or gain approval. It’s the kind of humor used when someone makes themselves the butt of the joke, sometimes as a defense mechanism if they’re being targeted by others.
Most of us use a mix of all four styles, though we often lean more heavily on one. And while laughter is generally good for us, some humor styles are healthier than others.
As you might guess, positive humor brings the most benefits. Julie Aitken Schermer, a psychological researcher at The University of Western Ontario, notes that self-enhancing humor is particularly powerful.
“People who engage in that type of humor can cheer themselves up by thinking about positive or funny events [and] experiences,” she told Discover Magazine. They are also less likely to show signs of depression, loneliness and poor relationships with others.
