The relationship between openness to experience and humor production: Exploring the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and ambiguity tolerance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how individual openness to experience influences humor production and to explore the underlying psychological mechanisms of this relationship, specifically focusing on cognitive flexibility (the cognitive path) and ambiguity tolerance (the motivational path). To comprehensively evaluate individuals’ humor production ability, Study 1 employed a subjective self-report questionnaire on sense of humor, while Study 2 used an objective humor dialogue generation task. The results of Study 1 indicated that openness to experience did not directly impact sense of humor; instead, the relationship between openness to experience and sense of humor was fully mediated by cognitive flexibility. In Study 2, findings showed that openness to experience positively predicted humor production ability, with ambiguity tolerance partially mediating this effect. These results suggest that individuals with higher levels of openness to experience have a greater capacity for generating humorous perspectives. Moreover, the study identified two psychological pathways—cognition and motivation—in the process of generating funny ideas. The specific pathway influenced by the measurement method used for humor production further highlights the importance of both cognitive flexibility and ambiguity tolerance in understanding how openness to experience contributes to humor production.

Keywords

ambiguity tolerance / cognitive flexibility / humor production / openness to experience / sense of humor

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2024 The Author(s). PsyCh Journal published by Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.