Humor and sexual selection |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Robert?StoreyEmail author |
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Institution: | (1) Department of English, Temple University, 19122 Philadelphia, PA |
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Abstract: | Recently Geoffrey Miller has suggested that humor evolved through sexual selection as a signal of "creativity," which in turn
implies youthfulness, intelligence, and adaptive unpredictability. Drawing upon available empirical studies, I argue that
the evidence for a link between humor and creativity is weak and ambiguous. I also find only tenuous support for Miller’s
assumption that the attractiveness of the "sense of humor" is to be found in the wittiness of its possessor, since those who
use the phrase often seem to associate it with the affects of relatively mirthless "bonding" laughter. Humor, I conclude,
may have evolved as an instrument for achieving broad social adhesiveness and for facilitating the individual’s maneuverability
within the group, but that it evolved through sexual selection has yet to be convincingly demonstrated.
Robert Storey teaches drama and modern fiction at Temple University. In addition to his recent work on literary representation
and humor, he has published two books on the French Pierrot figure and articles on such writers as James Joyce, Alain Robbe-Grillet,
and David Mamet. |
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Keywords: | Creativity Humor Sexual selection |
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