Humor and shyness: The relation between humor styles and shyness

Abstract The Shyness Scale and Humor Styles Questionnaire were given to 174 subjects (69 male, 105 female). There was a significant negative correlation between shyness and affiliative humor for the total group, which was explained by the inability of shy people to relax enough in social situations to use this kind of humor. There was a significant positive correlation between shyness and self-defeating humor for the total group, a result that was expected due in large part to the low self-esteem of shy people. For the total group correlations between shyness and self-enhancing humor and between shyness and aggressive humor were not significant. Some of the sex differences between shy males versus shy females on aggressive and self-defeating humor were discussed.