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Did humor evolve as a sign of mental fitness?

Potential friends and mates flock to funny people. Many a grim, solitary soul can vouch for that. But the possibility that humor evolved in humans as a sign of mental fitness鈥攁nd a way to increase reproductive success鈥攆inds support from a University of baby直播app researcher.

Daniel Howrigan, a doctoral candidate in psychology and a researcher in the CU Institute for Behavioral Genetics, has tested the theory that people who are intelligent (or, more generally, 鈥渕entally fit鈥�) are typically funnier than less-intelligent people.

He found that people who scored higher on intelligence tests also tended to be seen as more amusing. Though the link between intelligence and humor might seem self-evident, Howrigan鈥檚 experiment is one of the first to connect those dots scientifically.

Pictures and stories intended to be humorous that were created by people who scored higher in 鈥済eneral intelligence鈥� were rated as being funnier, Howrigan found. His findings stem from an experiment on 185 California college students, including 115 women and 70 men. It was published last year in Evolutionary Psychology, a scientific journal.

Howrigan is quick to note that his work does not demonstrate a universal correlation between intellect and hilarity: 鈥淏y no means is this saying humor is intelligence.鈥�

Indeed. Try amusing yourself with Wittgenstein鈥檚 鈥淭ractatus Logico-Philosophicus.鈥�

Howrigan became interested in the evolutionary basis of humor partly because of the work of Geoffrey Miller, a University of New Mexico assistant professor of psychology. Miller鈥檚 book 鈥淭he Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature鈥� rebutted theories that humor evolved as a way to promote group bonding, to discharge nervous tension, or to keep people healthy.

鈥淪uch theories predict that we should laugh at any joke, however stupid, however many times we have heard it before, yet we do not,鈥� Miller wrote. 鈥淎 good sense of humor means a discriminating sense of humor, not a hyena-like shriek at every repetitive pratfall.鈥�

Such discrimination, Miller argued, makes more sense if 鈥渉umor evolved in the service of sexual choice, to assess the joke-telling ability of others.鈥�

In this view, people 鈥減roduce鈥� humor to demonstrate genetic fitness, to flaunt their desirability.

Howrigan observes that humor is a relatively human-specific behavior. 鈥淭he evolutionary question is why?鈥�

鈥淎t the end of the day, a lot of this serves our reproductive ends,鈥� Howrigan says. 鈥淚f this is aiding in reproduction 鈥� it鈥檚 deemed as a fitness characteristic.鈥�

The volunteers in Howrigan鈥檚 experiment took IQ and personality tests, the latter of which assessed five key traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

The volunteers also did three tasks designed to show their wit. They completed a personal profile (attempting comical snippets on such themes as 鈥渕y outlook on life鈥�). Then, they responded to a mock-e-mail from a friend, answering questions like, 鈥淗ow would you make a marriage exciting after the first couple of years.鈥�

Finally, the research subjects were asked to draw four pages of funny pictures of animals and humans (including a giraffe and a politician).

The attempts at humor were then judged by 28 graduate-student and student volunteers. Judges rated each profile, e-mail response and drawings on a 1-7 scale, with 1 being 鈥渘ot funny at all鈥� and 7 being 鈥渉ilarious.鈥�

General intelligence correlated with 鈥渉umor production,鈥� as did, to a lesser extent, openness and extraversion. These results buttress Miller鈥檚 theories, Howrigan notes. He also points out that another lab has since replicated his results.

At the same time, he notes, there are limitations inherent in this study and in research on humor generally.

First, this study focused on written or drawn material rated by anonymous judges who did not know the identity or the gender of the would-be humorists. Therefore, 鈥渟ocial setting, interpersonal relations, shared knowledge and spontaneity had to be sacrificed.鈥�

Given the wall of anonymity between those striving to be funny and those trying to find some humor in it all, Howrigan鈥檚 experiment may give only a 鈥減artial glimpse鈥� into the phenomenon of humor and how it relates to other patterns of individual differences.

Then there is the fact that 鈥渉umor鈥� is a broad term that encompasses everything from the Three Stooges鈥� silly slapstick to Sacha Baron Cohen鈥檚 scathing satire.

Though subjective, a good sense of humor seems as universally coveted as quiet walks on the beach. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that people not only enjoy but look for in other people,鈥� Howrigan says.

The question is whether humor evolved as a way to display 鈥渕ental fitness鈥� and thus attract mates, or whether humor was an evolutionary byproduct of humans鈥� increasingly complex communication. That鈥檚 hard to know, partly because humor is not confined to mating rituals.

Meanwhile, Howrigan has turned his attention to other evolutionary questions. At CU, he is working on molecular genetics with Matthew McQueen and Matthew Keller, assistant professors of psychology and fellows in CU鈥檚 Institute for Behavioral Genetics. As Howrigan notes, it is difficult to support evolutionary models with behavioral research; researching on genes could be much more definitive.

But Howrigan remains intrigued by humor. 鈥淚t does play an integral part of almost everybody鈥檚 life,鈥� he observes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an amazing thing that we have the ability to laugh at all sorts of different things for all sorts of different reasons.鈥� Even at our wit鈥檚 end.