Keywords: Methodological challenges and improvements, including in the areas of sampling, measurement, survey design and survey response or non-response

Can humor reduce over reporting of news exposure?

While it is well-known that pleasure is a basic human motive (Holbert et al., 2013) public opinion research has paid little attention to hedonistic principles (focusing instead on altruistic motivations and cognitive and motivational mechanisms). It is perhaps no wonder that people invest very little effort in accurately reporting their attitudes and behaviors when public opinion surveys are so tedious and boring.
This presentation hypothesizes that a humoristic manipulation would reduce response bias, compared to a non-humoristic manipulation. Given humor’s positive influences in diverse areas, it is expected to improve survey response as well. First, given its positive effects on cognitive performance (Ziv, 1989), the use of humor may facilitate better recalling of exposure and more accurately estimating its frequency when responding to the survey. Secondly, through its positive effects on positive emotions, humor may impact survey response through a motivational mechanism: Survey respondents may feel better about themselves, given the potential effects of humor on state self-esteem. Such positive feelings may reduce the need to enhance the self through inflating reported exposure.
The hypothesis that humor improves survey response was tested in the context of self-reports of news exposure, which are known to be grossly inflated (Price & Zaller, 1993, Prior, 2009). 121 participants (54.5% male, mean age = 41.12, sd = 13.84) were recruited from and online sample and were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (with or without humor, with or without direct appeal to respond to the survey accurately). In the humorous video-clips, a standup comedian laughed at how lengthy phone surveys are, and how people tend to give arbitrary responses to surveys. In the non-humorous condition, the same actor, now presented as a worker for a survey company) the very same themes were raised, but without the use of humor. In two of the conditions, the same presentations were used, but this time the clip ended with a direct appeal by the actor to answer the survey as accurately as possible. Pre-tests showed that the humorous clips were perceived as significantly funnier, but there were no significant differences in other responses either (positive –interesting, exciting, important, logical, or negative – irritating or troubling).
After watching the stimulus material, participants reported whether they watched at least 3 minutes of any of the main evening news programs last night (ratings are measured in 3-minute cumes).
Results demonstrated an effect of humor, in the conditions without a direct appeal: 34.6% reported watching at least 3 minutes of the news program in the humorous condition, compared to 48.1% in the non-humorous condition (according to ratings data for the relevant dates, only 28.8% watched at least 3-minutes of one of the main news programs). However, the difference between conditions was not significant in the conditions that included a direct appeal.