Derogating Humor as a Delegitimization Strategy in Intergroup Contexts

The appreciation of humor is arguably a fundamental aspect of social life. Yet passing jokes off as "just jokes" can have serious and negative intergroup consequences (e.g., discrimination; denial of rights). We review some recent findings concerning how group dominance motives are expressed in humor contexts through cavalier beliefs about humor. These beliefs legitimize and provide psychological cover to avoid the appearance of bias. We propose that humor and ridicule play a critical part of the delegitimization process, operating in tandem with processes such as dehumanization (representing others as animal-like and/or machine-like) and system justification (i.e., maintaining the status quo in terms of intergroup hierarchies). As such, humor plays a key role in the delegitimization of others that occurs in much of everyday life, such as in the workplace or schoolyard setting. Disparaging intergroup humor effectively rules social groups in as acceptable targets for devaluation, working in tandem with dehumanization processes that rule others out as targets worthy of protection. Several recommendations for practitioners and researchers are offered, including greater use of social media tools in tracking and understanding humor as a delegitimization strategy in real time, multilevel analysis of the person within their social context, and harnessing the power of humor to combat (not facilitate) prejudice and discrimination. We also urge prejudice researchers to devote greater attention to humor, ridicule, and joke-telling or risk falling into the bigot's trap of passing humor off as "just jokes."