New research suggests that humour may help keep people informed about politics and other current issues.
A study from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Communication at Ohio State University found that, when compared to non-humorous news clips, viewers are not only more likely to share humorously presented news but are also more likely to remember the content from these segments.
“For democracy to work, it is really important for people to engage with news and politics and to be informed about public affairs,” said senior author Emily Falk, Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing at Annenberg.
“We wanted to test whether humour might make news more socially relevant, and therefore motivate people to remember it and share it,” added Falk.
The researchers recruited young adults (18-34 years old) to watch a variety of news clips, which they designed to vary, so that some ended with jokes and others…