Poster #191 - Examining the link between humor development and social cognition in young children

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Humor emerges from 3 months (Mireault et al., 2012). The types of humor young children like changes over the course of early development from clowning early on (Reddy, 2001) through to irony in later years (Angeleri & Airenti, 2014). Social cognition is a broad area focusing on thoughts and social behaviour (Ric, 2015). Bosacki (2013) found a positive relationship between these two concepts among school-aged children, Robison (2000) did not find any link among 4-to-8-years old. However, there is no study to investigate this link from infancy. Therefore, we examined the relationship between humor and social cognition in children with typical development from humor’s onset, using lab and longitudinal parent report measures.
The first study examined this relationship in the lab with 84 typically developing children from 3 to 47 months. Children were tested on a humor imitation and appreciation test (21 jokes/21 normal acts) and 11 short social cognition tasks. Both test batteries had excellent reliability, α = 0.97 and α = 0.85 respectively. Pearson’s correlation found social cognition and humor development correlated (r = .569, n = 84, p < .01), however this relationship did not hold when age was added to a multiple regression analysis (p > .05).
The second study examined the same relationship using parent reports and examined longitudinal correlations across a 6-month interval. Four hundred and two English-speaking parents of typically developing children from birth to 47 months of age completed the Early Humor Survey (21 items) and the Early Social Cognition Survey (22 items). There was a positive correlation between social cognition and humor, even when controlling for age (r’ = .642, n = 402, p < .001). We have 137 participants who have repeated the surveys 6 months later. A linear regression found children who scored higher in social cognition at time 2 also scored higher on social cognition at time 1 (β = .291, p < .001) and humor at time 1 (β = .041, p < .05). However, age at time 2 and gender were not significant predictors. Another linear regression found that children who scored higher in humor at time 2 also scored higher on humor at time 1 (β = .118, p < .001), but not social cognition at time 1, age at time 2 or gender (p >.05).
This is the first study to investigate the relationship between humor and social cognition from early infancy. While we do not show a clear relationship in the lab study, we did find a positive significant relationship on the parental surveys. Children may show more understanding of humor and social cognitive skills in their natural environment rather than in a lab setting. Indeed, Punch (2002) emphasises that children may feel more comfortable in their natural settings. The relationship between the two concepts does not look bi-directional over time. One possibility is that while humor provides a social and emotionally positive environment to practice skills relating to social cognition, shifts in social cognition alone may not lead to better humor understanding.

Authors

• Burcu Soy Telli, The University of Sheffield
  Presenting Author

• Elena Hoicka, University of Bristol
  Non-Presenting Author