Student emotions (enjoyment, anger, anxiety, boredom)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nSo, the basic question is: did any of the different kinds of humor have an effect on any of those variables? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data, and Beyond<\/h2>\n\n\n\n We’ve got over 500 people rating 5 kinds of humor and evaluating 6 categories of response — so we’ve got A LOT of data. I’ll focus on the big findings, and try not to get lost in the niche-y details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simple headlines won’t surprise you: “On-Topic Humor: GOOD; Aggressive Humor: BAD.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More specifically: on-topic humor<\/strong> got higher ratings for enhancing the teacher’s relationships with the students<\/em>, and resulted in lessons being rated as more interesting<\/em>. Students who saw the on-topic humor video rated themselves as more intrinsically motivated<\/em>, and gave lower ratings to the negative emotions <\/em>(anger, anxiety, boredom). All that sounds encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAggressive humor<\/strong> — are you shocked? — interferes with teacher\/student relationships<\/em>, reduces intrinsic motivation<\/em>, and ramps up anxiety and anger<\/em>. I myself was a little surprised to read that it lowers the students’ rating of the lesson’s clarity<\/em>, and gives students the sense that they spent less time on task<\/em> (although they didn’t). <\/p>\n\n\n\nFor comparison: on-topic humor had no effect, good or bad, on perception of time on task, or on clarity. (This final point is interesting. We might worry that on-topic humor would distract <\/em>students and thereby reduce clarity. This study didn’t find that result.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nMore broadly, the researchers found that off-topic humor<\/strong> and self-deprecating humor<\/strong> didn’t move the needle much (with a few exceptions here and there).<\/p>\n\n\n\nI’m Here All Week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Because “one study is just one study” (h\/t, Prof. Dan Willingham), we should include important caveats here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First<\/strong>: this study did not measure the effect of humor on LEARNING. Let me say that again. The researchers did not measure how much the students learned<\/strong> as a result of different kinds of humor. I think we can plausibly speculate that increased motivation and improved teacher\/students relationships would result in more learning. But we don’t have data to support that claim, especially because…<\/p>\n\n\n\nSecond<\/strong>: the researchers gathered self-reported ratings<\/em>. The students said they felt more intrinsic motivation after the on-topic humor class. But would those self-reports — recorded by clicking a box on a computer screen — actually translate into genuine motivation? Or, stronger relationships with teachers? We just don’t know. The words “self-reported ratings” often earn the warning: “notoriously unreliable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nThird<\/strong>: humor depends A LOT on cultural expectations. I don’t know much about the intersection of “Germany,” “humor,” and “school culture.” But I know enough to wonder how well that <\/em>Venn diagram aligns with other <\/em>Venn diagrams in other cultures and countries. We shouldn’t automatically assume that this set of conclusions applies in our cultural circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFinally<\/strong>: I’ll note that watching a 17-minute video of another classroom is not the same thing as learning from a teacher right here in the room with me every day. Videos are a good research tool, but results of video research might not always transfer to actual classrooms — especially for relational and motivational effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Sum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n I think I would have predicted that “on-topic humor” is modestly helpful in class, and that “aggressive humor” is definitely harmful in class. This study roughly supports those hunches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re a funny person, you can use this study as a guideline. Don’t mock your students; you knew that anyway. Don’t waste time with jokes about Saturday Night Live; they’re not having the effect you hope they do. But — if you want to — mix in some humor about the subject you’re teaching<\/em>, you might well connect with your students a little bit more. And: that little bit helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBieg, S., Banaruee, H., & Dresel, M. (2026). The impact of teacher humour on teaching quality and student learning: An experimental approach. Learning and Instruction<\/em>, 102<\/em>, 102311.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine I told you that “we have research showing that SINGING leads to more learning.” I suspect you would not feel surprised, but you would have a few follow up questions: And so forth. You might have the same set of reactions if someone says to you “we have research showing that HUMOR helps in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6670278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-6670169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6670169"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6670962,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670169\/revisions\/6670962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6670278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6670169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6670169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6670169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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