“To the moon, Alice”: Cavalier humor beliefs and women's reactions to aggressive and belittling sexist jokes

Abstract Why do some women enjoy and internalize sexist jokes, whereas others express sharp disapproval? To answer this question, we explored the role of cavalier humor beliefs (jokes are fun and harmless, or “just jokes”), in addition to known predictors such as social dominance orientation and hostile sexism. In Experiment 1, women (N = 225) reported their amusement and offensiveness in response to three types of jokes: aggressive sexist jokes, belittling sexist jokes, and neutral jokes. Cavalier humor beliefs predicted higher amusement and lower offensiveness ratings for all jokes (including neutral), but more strongly predicted lower offensiveness ratings for the aggressive and belittling sexist jokes, suggesting that these beliefs might be highjacked by those who mask prejudiced intentions. In contrast, social dominance orientation and hostile sexism were each associated with favorable reactions to sexist but not neutral jokes. In Experiment 2, we explored the role of cavalier humor beliefs (and hostile sexism) in women's (N = 226) acceptance of sexist jokes, and subsequent release of bias against women following sexist joke exposure. Overall, exposure to aggressive (vs. neutral) jokes led women to rate the jokes as unfunny and offensive, but these objections were dampened among women higher in cavalier humor beliefs, even after controlling for hostile sexism. Critically, among women higher in cavalier humor beliefs, aggressive joke exposure facilitated acceptance of discrimination against women, even when accounting for hostile sexism. Thus, cavalier humor beliefs perpetuate sexism among women, whose ingroup is targeted by sexist humor. Implications for Prejudiced Norm Theory are discussed.