Would you believe that the study of humor is serious business? No laughing matter at all! Research shows that humor in the workplace has an energizing effect.
Discover how to leverage the benefits of this humor effect for training. It's a powerful tool, especially in mission-critical industries where cognitive engagement is essential. It also has no negative effects.
Humor enhances learners’ attention and encoding
Human learning follows a sequence of four actions: attention to stimuli, encoding, storage, and retrieval. Research shows that we tend to focus more attention on humorous content while encoding it. 1 Humorous content receives preferential encoding compared to non-humorous material if you present both. The brain processes that information into our memory system faster.
This is significant when presenting training, especially for high-stakes situations. You can hold learners' attention more intensely and promote memory retention, if you include a humorous scenario.
“I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.”
— Steven Wright
Humor replenishes mental resources
Research conducted at Australian National University suggests that exposure to humor increases perseverance2. Professors David Cheng and Lu Wang found that people persevered at an impossible task twice as long after watching a funny video, compared to those who did not.
If we exert our willpower to perform a task, we tend to tire and feel mentally exhausted. Humor reduces this mental depletion. It relieves the stress and may re-energize us. This helps us to persevere on challenging tasks.
Trainers in mission-critical industries should use humor as a break from intensive content. Use humor to counteract mental exhaustion or disinterest.
"He who laughs, lasts."
— Mary Pettibone Poole
Humor is an effective mood regulator
That's another way of saying that laughing makes us feel better. A study of patients with a depressive disorder3 confirmed this. Humor offers the brain an opportunity to move past negative emotions. It focuses on the rib-tickling content instead.
Sharing a funny story or humorous scenario helps learners overcome negative emotions. It increases interest and engagement in the training.
"Everyone who goes to a job he doesn't like is a lot weirder than I am."
— Patch Adams
Humor encourages behavioral changes
Humor can be a powerful tool to soften resistance to strong points of view. Use it to foster empathy by stepping into another’s shoes in a funny way. It will make your message more "sticky" and inspire behavioral change. In playful settings, we perceive things differently. We can tolerate learning things about ourselves or others that we would usually find uncomfortable.
You can also use humor to bring about a change of heart. It facilitates the acceptance of new ideas.
Neuroscientist Sophie Scott of the University College of London confirmed the truth of the saying: “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you.”
Her research4 showed that the sound of laughter triggers a response in the brain and face muscles. It’s genuinely contagious!
In our next article, the focus will be on tips on how to use humor in your training. To make sure you don’t miss it, sign up for our blog at SimTutor.
References
1. Schmidt, Stephen R. Effects of Humor on Sentence Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Vol 20(4), Jul 1994, 953-967
2. Cheng, D., & Wang, L. (2014). Examining the Energizing Effects of Humor: The Influence of Humor on Persistence Behavior. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s10869-014-9396-z
3. Braniecka, A., Han?, M., Wo?kowicz, I., Chrzczonowicz?St?pie?, A., Miko?ajonek, A., Monika Lipiec,M. (2019) Is it worth turning a trigger into a joke? Humor as an emotion regulation strategy in remitted depression, Brain and Behaviour, 21 January 2019
4. Warren J.E., et al., News release, Wellcome Trust, Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 26, Dec. 12, 2006
This article is sponsored by
