Relationship between humor and proposed punishment for crimes: Beware of humorous people

It was hypothesized that appreciation of the structural basis and of sexual content in humor is related to punitiveness in different ways. Sixty-eight male subjects served as lay judges and stipulated what would be the just minimum and maximum punishment of committing one of 25 criminal acts and filled in scales relating to humor appreciation, conservatism, dogmatism, and intolerance of ambiguity. Funniness of incongruity-resolution correlated positively with minimum and maximum punishment. Aversiveness of nonsense humor correlated positively with minimum punishment only. Appreciation of sexual content in humor correlates negatively with the extent of demanded punishment for rape but not for other sex-related crimes. Personality scales were predictive of the extent of punishment but to a lesser extent than humor appreciation.