Aggressive humour has mixed effects on adolescent students' educational experiences, with reported increases in anger, boredom and resistance but some students reporting sarcasm improved rapport¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Aggressive humour is associated with increased student anger and boredom, leading the reviewed authors to recommend avoiding it. → Hannah Robinson 2024 q2 i? Some interviewed students reported that sarcasm improved rapport and classroom entertainment, while others raised concerns for shyer students. → Hannah Robinson 2024 (2)

Evidence¶

Hannah Robinson 2024¶

Hannah Robinson, Sarah E. Rose, Jade M. Elliott, Romina A. Vivaldi. (2024). Teachers' Humour Use in the Classroom: A Scoping Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09913-x

q2 · i? · review · r3

Narrative synthesis of survey studies (theme two/four); the review attributes to Bieg et al. (2019) the conclusion that aggressive humour's negative results led its authors to recommend teachers avoid this style.

"Bieg et al. (2019) the authors concluded due to the negative results of aggressive humour that teachers should avoid using this style due to it leading to increased anger and boredom in students."

Hannah Robinson 2024 (2)¶

Hannah Robinson, Sarah E. Rose, Jade M. Elliott, Romina A. Vivaldi. (2024). Teachers' Humour Use in the Classroom: A Scoping Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09913-x

q2 · i? · review · r3

Narrative synthesis of interview studies (theme four); the review reports Pace's (2003) interview findings on sarcasm alongside Larson et al.'s (2019) student concern about shyer students.

"Despite this, Pace (2003) found that when interviewed, students reported that sarcasm improved rapport, created classroom entertainment, and allowed teachers to be viewed as friends."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Affiliative humour is associated with positive classroom climate, enjoyment and willingness to participate among adolescent students
• Observed teacher humour differs from self-reports: sarcasm and mocking accounted for nearly two-thirds of observed teacher humour although teachers and students reported aggressive humour as least common
• Teachers' humour (unspecified) shows mixed observed effects on adolescent students' classroom experience, with reported benefits to environment and learning alongside reduced participation and loss of control
• Course-related humour is positively correlated and course-unrelated humour negatively correlated with students' perceptions of instructional interestingness and intrinsic motivation
• High teacher humour use is associated with higher student test scores in observed classroom studies, though humour style and frequency were poorly specified — related