Let’s entertain others: the relationship between comic styles and the histrionic self-presentation style in Polish, British, and Canadian samples

Abstract People who have the histrionic self-presentation style (HSP) demonstrate certain As-If-behaviors, involving pretense and role play, in their daily interactions to seek attention and amuse others. Doing As-If may be closely related to humor behaviors, so we examined this relationship in greater detail by using the Comic Style Markers (CSM) in Polish, English, and Canadian samples (N = 285, 383, and 305, respectively; Mage = 20.85, SD = 5.35). We expected that the HSP might be related to fun, wit, and satire due to their pretense-based characteristics. We confirmed configurational, metric, and scalar invariance for the As-If-Scale (AIS) and the CSM in the three samples, which allowed for cross-cultural comparisons. As expected, the HSP was positively associated with fun, wit, and satire. Additionally, men scored higher on the AIS, but no cross-country differences were found.