Cultural differences in humor: A systematic review and critique

Humor is universal but also culturally nuanced. This review (including 31 empirical articles in English) systematically examines cultural differences in humor perception and use. Most notably, North Americans tend to perceive humor more positively, rate themselves as more humorous, and use humor more than East Asians. Moreover, this review highlights complex cultural differences in the use of four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating). Finally, I discuss limitations of the cross-cultural literature on humor and propose future research directions. Theoretically, more studies should move beyond comparing East Asian and North American cultures, examine the consequences of cultural differences in humor, and track changes in humor perception and use over time. Methodologically, more studies should employ experiments to strengthen causality, recruit larger and more representative samples, and preregister theory-driven hypotheses.