Susie Johnson
Academic and research departments
Social Emotions and Equality in Relations (SEER) research group, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.About
My research project
Humour's role on emotions and attitude change. Can exposure to affiliative comedy improve attitudes towards minority groups?Psychological research on humour and prejudice has predominantly focused on the use of negative, or disparaging, humour and its prejudice enhancing effects. My PhD will investigate issues relating to the observer's response to different forms of comedy including whether a positive 'affiliative' style of humour can elicit a reduction in prejudice as measured by attitudes, system justification beliefs and engagement in collective action in favour of minority group members.
Psychological research on humour and prejudice has predominantly focused on the use of negative, or disparaging, humour and its prejudice enhancing effects. My PhD will investigate issues relating to the observer's response to different forms of comedy including whether a positive 'affiliative' style of humour can elicit a reduction in prejudice as measured by attitudes, system justification beliefs and engagement in collective action in favour of minority group members.
Publications
This research examined how listeners categorize and stereotype speakers belonging to intersecting social categories (nationality; sexual orientation) based on voice alone. In Study 1, British heterosexuals categorized the nationality and sexual orientation of British and Italian speakers who self-identified as gay or heterosexual. Participants correctly categorized British speakers as co-nationals and Italian speakers as foreigners. Categorization accuracy of gay speakers’ sexual orientation was poor. Italian gay speakers were perceived as most likely to be gay and non-native speakers. Study 2 examined stereotyping of speakers who sounded either native or foreign, and sounded either gay or heterosexual. Foreign-accented (vs. native-accented) speakers were rated as less competent, and gay-sounding (vs. heterosexual-sounding) speakers as less gender typical. Foreign-accented gay speakers were perceived as the least competent and gender typical. •Categorization of speakers as nationals/foreigners was accurate•Categorization of speakers’ sexual orientation was poor•Foreign-accented (vs. native-accented) speakers were rated as less competent•Gay-sounding (vs. heterosexual-sounding) speakers were rated as less gender typical•Foreign-accented gay speakers were perceived as least competent and gender typical
Humor is considered a coping strategy that is associated with well-being and positive self-esteem. The role of humor in relation to body image and eating behaviors has rarely been investigated. This cross-sectional study ( = 216) examined the relationship between general coping humor and humor styles targeting the self, namely self-enhancing and self-defeating humor, and body image and eating behaviors. Results showed that adaptive self-enhancing humor was associated with body appreciation and compassion, whilst maladaptive self-defeating humor was related to body criticism, drive for thinness, and emotional eating. General coping humor played almost no role. We also examined humor clusters and found that body appreciation and body kindness were higher in self-enhancers than self-defeaters and higher in humor endorsers than humor deniers. Further, self-defeaters reported more body criticism and emotional eating than self-enhancers, and emotional eating was higher in humor deniers than humor endorsers. This study shows that humor referring to the self is key in the understanding of body image and eating behaviors. Whilst the use of self-enhancing humor can have positive effects on body image, self-defeating humor can play a detrimental role.