Choice

Repost: Things don’t go viral (except viruses)

You have heard the stories about viral videos that receive millions of views. One part of those stories, however, is not true. Things don’t go viral the way that viruses that do. .…………………………..Not the way it happens Academics, business people, and the man on the street commonly believe that interesting

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I take it back.

After my last sabbatical, I reported in a blog post what might be my post-Humor Code life might look like. I am now taking back one of the plans that I presented in the report: 3) Draw on the benign violation theory and related behavioral science research to examine how we

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Another Benign Violation: Roast Me

Being publicly degraded is distressing.  However, a popular subreddit on Reddit, /r/roastme, is populated by people asking to get roasted by  strangers. The results are… pretty funny. actually: The Benign Violation Theory helps explain what makes this process so funny. Humor arises when something is wrong yet okay, threatening yet safe,

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Repost: Humor and haunted houses

Are you visiting a haunted house in the couple weeks? I’ve observed two kinds of comedy associated with haunted houses: You observe people being scared and then laugh about it. You laugh at people’s reactions to being scared. Both seem to be happening here. Check out more here. Alf Lamont,

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T-hacking: Another ethics problem for science?

In recent years, scholars, policy makers and the general public have learned about unethical behavior across academic disciplines — creating a crisis of confidence in the reliability of research findings. Whether due to publication pressures or the pursuit of fame, researchers have been caught performing data acrobatics ranging from “p-hacking,”

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I shouldn’t be giving dating advice

Valentine’s Day is looming. Regardless of what you think about the day, it’s a time of year that people give thought to their relationships. In a past blog, I have talked about the value of a good sense of humor – and how it is important to relationships. Recently, I

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Comedian Shane Mauss invited me on his podcast: Here We Are

And here is…HERE WE ARE 1:20 Friends 5:45 Trolley experiment 13:15 Pedestrian in academia 22:10 Morality of laughter 23:45 Humor Code 28:50 Google for science 33:30 Theory of Funny 36:25 Laughter and/or Humor 40:20 Comedian’s laugh & Reddit 44:25 Controlling laughter 47:20 Laughter in animals 52:40 Benign Violation 56:10 Laughter

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Funny Bizz Conference – NYC

I am speaking about business and humor at the Funny Bizz conference tomorrow.  New York friends, get your tickets here. Some info: In the land of infinite distraction, the one who tickles the funny bone reigns supreme. As business, entertainment, and comedy become ever more intertwined, savvy startups, leading ad

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Podcast - I'm Not Joking

Curtain Call

  Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building

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