Is there a connection between humor and intelligence?

Each of us has friends with some type of humor . Someone is witty and resourceful, someone in itself is the object of jokes and provokes them, and there are those who are able to make the whole company laugh all evening. We consider these people funny and funny, introverts and extroverts, humanitarian and vice versa. But what about the mind?

Try to remember people around you with a great sense of humor. Do you consider them intellectually advanced? Or are humor and intelligence not connected in any way? Over the past decades, there has been a lot of research on this topic, which we will tell you about in this article.

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Before researchers began to pay attention to the connection between intelligence and humor, many educational psychologists and sociologists defined the so-called emotional intelligence (as well as social). They believed that people with a good sense of humor are extroverts and able to feel comfortable in any society.

Research migrated into the next century and only confirmed information from the last century. In 2010, researchers at the University of New Mexico conducted a study involving 400 students equally divided by gender. They were tested for intelligence, abstract reasoning, and the ability to create humor, again using the captions for the three cartoons. Again, high scores on the intelligence test were correlated with the ability to recognize and create humor.

In 2009 A. Clark published a book entitled "The Pattern Recognition Theory of Humor". Without going into terminology and scientific context, Clarke says that we understand language and therefore the world by establishing patterns. Patterns in language allow us to understand and appreciate humor in more sophisticated ways as we develop. Also, the quality of this understanding differs from person to person, so some are more adept at appreciating and creating humor. According to Clark, it's all about the brain.

Neuroscientists looked at areas of the brain that are activated by humor. Researchers at Stanford University, led by Dr. Allan Reiss, a neurologist and child psychiatrist, study the brains of children using MRI scans when they watch humorous videos. In them, as in adults, the mesolimbic region of the brain is activated. Humor also activates the temporo-occipital-parietal junction, which is the part of the brain that processes unexpected situations and inconsistencies. This makes sense, because it often occurs as a reaction to something inappropriate and not expected.

Reiss also noticed which hormones are released (released) when humor is understood and appreciated.

Endorphin is released during happiness, exercise, touching another person, and so on. New research suggests humor also contributes to this.

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Cortisol is known as a stress hormone . Researchers at Loma Linda University were trying to find out if the production of cortisol decreases during humor and if humor can reduce the damage to neurons caused by cortisol. The answer is yes twice.

As you can see, there is a connection between a sense of humor and intelligence. But no matter what scientists say in the coming years, we all know one thing: we value the witty person who makes us laugh.

Laugh, joke, develop a sense of humor. I wish you good luck!