For the study, researchers from New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University asked doctoral students to rate a fictional male or female character based on their likability, humor, competence, mistake magnitude and attractiveness after a bad joke is made.
Four study insights:
- The study found that women were perceived more favorably than men in all five categories.
- The findings are based on stereotypes people have about women and their role in nurturing and building connections with co-workers. After a bad joke, co-workers may assume the women had good intentions and were trying to connect.
- After men tell a bad joke, they are perceived as trying to make themselves look good as they assert themselves.
- When study participants were told the woman was telling jokes to make herself look better, she was rated just as poorly as her male counterpart.
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