Beyond humor styles: the nature of humor types and differences in basic personality traits from Zuckerman's Alternative Five-Factor Model.

Background: Findings show that the complex nature of humor and its personality basis can be more comprehensively understood if humor styles are analyzed simultaneously within humor types, rather than separately.

Participants and procedure: Utilizing two independent samples (N1 = 253, N2 = 353) of self-report responses to the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire-Short Form, this paper outlines how the HSQ responses result in three humor use types following cluster analysis. Cluster differences in humor styles and personality traits were analyzed using ANOVA.

Results: In both samples, a humor type characteristic of individuals who scored lower in the positive and higher in the negative humor styles was revealed. People within this humor type also scored significantly higher in the personality measures of neuroticism and aggressiveness. A second humor type replicated in the two studies described individuals scoring higher for each of the four humor styles. People within this type also scored significantly higher on extraversion and sensation seeking, suggesting a need for cortical arousal. The third humor type members scored lower in each of the humor styles (apart from the affiliative humor style scores for one of the samples). This humor type requires further investigation.

Conclusions: In general, humor types provide an additional understanding of humor use as people within the types differ for specific personality dimensions.