Story perspectives

Easier processing boosts humor ratings in meme experiments

9/6/2026

Summary

Story summary

Researchers Drew Gorenz and Norbert Schwarz found that easier processing increases humor ratings.
In Experiment 1, degraded memes were rated 0.65 points less funny than original versions.
Experiment 2 showed participants chose fluent punchlines as funnier 76.45% overall, 78.38% rhyming, 74.53% alliterating.
Experiment 3 found alliterating aggressive nicknames were easier, more coherent, and funnier than non-alliterating.
Researchers cautioned findings may not generalize beyond U.S. university students or the stimuli.

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Story summary

Researchers Drew Gorenz and Norbert Schwarz found that easier processing increases humor ratings.
In Experiment 1, degraded memes were rated 0.65 points less funny than original versions.
Experiment 2 showed participants chose fluent punchlines as funnier 76.45% overall, 78.38% rhyming, 74.53% alliterating.
Experiment 3 found alliterating aggressive nicknames were easier, more coherent, and funnier than non-alliterating.
Researchers cautioned findings may not generalize beyond U.S. university students or the stimuli.