RESEARCHReligiousness, ReligiousFundamentalism, and Quest as Predictorsof Humor CreationVassilis SaroglouDepartment of PsychologyUniversité catholique de LouvainTheory and research on humor as well as on religion, focused on related personalitytraits, cognitive structures, and social consequences, lead to the hypothesis that reli-giousness is negatively associated with humor. In this study, 72 individuals weretested in their propensity to spontaneously produce humor in response to hypotheticaldaily hassles. Religiousness and religious fundamentalism were found to be nega-tively correlated with humor creation in response to these hypothetical daily hassles,while quest religious orientation was positively correlated with humor creation in re-sponse to these same events. No relation was found between religion and reportedsense of humor or reported use of humor as coping. The discussion focuses on meth-odological and theoretical considerations toward a comprehensive interpretation ofresults and possibilities for further research.HUMOR AND RELIGIONManyscholarshavepointedoutthehistoricalmistrustofreligiontowardhumorandthe comic (e.g., Eco, 1980/1983; Le Goff, 1997). Certainly, in the last decades, weTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION, 12(3), 177–188Copyright © 2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Requestsfor reprintsshould be sentto VassilisSaroglou, Centre for Psychology ofReligion, Depart-ment of Psychology, Université catholique de Louvain, Place du cardinal Mercier 10, B–1348Louvain–la–Neuve, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected] aneffortamongscholarsto givevaluetolaughterand humorinbibli-caltexts,inthelife of Christ andsaints, in religious contextsother than Christianity,andinthespirituallifeingeneral(e.g.,Berger,1997;Hyers,1987).However,evenifwe assume that these recent efforts are historically correct or spiritually legitimate,orboth,thequestionarisesforpsychology of religion whether thissuspicion of reli-giontoward thecomic is onlyhistorical or ifit reflects adeeper, psychological real-ity. In other words, beyond the fact that (a) humor has been or is present in religion(see Gilhus, 1997, for a historical overview), (b) it has a function within religion(e.g., Apte, 1985;Davies, 1998),and(c) somedifferences in attitudetoward humormay exist between religions (e.g., Morreall, 1999), it is still an intriguing questionwhy, for instance, for 2,000 years people believed that Jesus did not laugh, or why,even when humor is valued in the religious life, it is argued that “spontaneous” hu-mor is not to be encouraged at the beginning of spiritual life (Derville, 1969).Severalargumentsregardingtheassociationbetweenhumorandreligionmaybeadvanced on the basis of theory and research in psychology of humor and psychol-ogy of religion (see Saroglou, in press-b, for details). First, humor creation and hu-mor appreciation are defined by recognition of, play with, and enjoyment ofincongruity,eitherinstrictlycognitivetermsorinmoregeneralphilosophicalterms,that is, incongruity oflife, playfulnesswith meaningand thelimits ofmeaning, andaffirmationof the possibilityofnonsense. We maythenwonder whether areligiousperson, characterized by the need for meaning (Pargament, 1997), the need for re-ductionofuncertainty(seeSchwartz&Huismans,1995),theneedforcognitiveclo-sure (Saroglou, inpress-a), and the nonacceptance of nonsense in life (Campiche,1997),wouldnot be inclinedeither torecognize, playwith, or enjoythe incongruityinherent to humor.Second, humor is considered as a way to challenge and transgress social norms,conventional rules, and traditional ideas (Veatch, 1998). We may then suspect thatreligiousness, a dimension that is associated with conservatism (e.g., Campiche,1997), respect for tradition and conformity (e.g., Burris & Tarpley, 1998;Schwartz & Huismans, 1995), and risk avoidance (Miller & Hoffmann, 1995),does not predispose people to create or appreciate humor.Third, religious people are known to be less open to ideas, practices, and valuesrelated tosexuality (see Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 1996, for a review)and hedonism (e.g., Burris & Tarpley, 1998; Schwartz & Huismans, 1995). Theymay then be less attracted by sexual humor, or, more generally, by humor itself (inthe sense that humor in general seems to have a sexual connotation; Freud,1905/1960); that is, they may be less likely to use this kind of humor or more likelyto find it disgusting. In addition, another aspect/kind of humor, aggressive humorand laughing at the expense of others, may not attract (again from a humor cre-ation, use of humor, or appreciation of humor perspective) religious people who(at least if we refer to self-reports) tend to be friendly, warm, and helpful (low178SAROGLOUpsychoticism; Francis, 1992), high in agreeableness (Saroglou, 2002), and readyto forgive (McCullough & Worthington, 1999).Finally, the seriousness of the religious ideals, the explicit spiritual ideals ofself-mastery and self-control through virtue (see Baumeister & Exline, 1999) maycontribute (as internalized values) to a certain inhibition of humor performances.Religiousness is clearly associated with orderliness (Lewis, 1998), conscientious-ness (Saroglou, 2002), and low impulsivity (Francis, 1992), while the comic,through its emotional and surprising character, contributes to a release of control(see Saroglou, in press-b) and is negatively related to the need for closure(Saroglou & Scariot, 2002). We may then assume that even if religious peoplecould easily recognize or play with incongruity, could easily will to produce andappreciate sexual and hostile jokes, or could be attracted by the subversive, anti-conservative characterof humor,they would not easily allowthemselves toreleaseself-control and express humor.Putting together these theoretical and empirical considerations, we may suspectthat, overall, religiousness is negatively associated with sense of humor.HUMOR AND CLOSE- VERSUS OPEN-MINDEDRELIGIONIn addition to religiousness per se, two specific religious dimensions that reflectclose-versusopen-mindedreligion,that is, religious fundamentalismand quest, re-spectively, may be related to humor. Religious fundamentalism, more clearly eventhanreligiousnessper se, reflectsclose-mindedness: discomfortwithnewevidencechallenging beliefs (dogmatism) and authoritarian submission to established rules(Altemeyer, 1996), as well as low openness to fantasy, ideas, and values