Humor and resilience: relationships with happiness in young adults

Abstract Prior research has shown that more resilient individuals report higher levels of happiness. Other research also shows that those who use positive humor styles (i.e., self-enhancing and affiliative) more often and use negative humor styles (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) less often report higher levels of happiness. Resilience research has characterized resilience as involving multiple protective factors that contribute to functioning better than expected despite past or present adversities. The present research tested the hypothesis that the use of one or more humor styles may function as distinct protective factors of resilience in predicting happiness. An online survey study with a sample of 204 (105 men, 99 women) young adults showed that after controlling for resilience, less frequent use of the negative humor styles (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) emerged as protective factors, related to higher levels of happiness. The use of the positive humor styles did not account for additional variance in happiness after resilience was controlled. The results are compatible with research suggesting that improvements in well-being are associated with behavioral changes.