Shocking Twist to Sarcasm's Two-Edged Sword

Neil J. asked a brilliant question, "Do you find it hard, Robyn, to get some forms of humour out in a blog i.e. sarcasm?" Sure do, Neil. Sarcasm's sword is two-edged because it can be intended one way, but interpreted another. Sarcasm backfires more often than not. Wonder why?

Folks in power or folks who want more power often use it to put others down. Let's take an in-depth look.

Ego's at the core. Interestingly, because people see the world from their own perspective, they can be blind. We humans don't anticipate that others' different perspectives affect the way memos, e-mails or blogs're read. Justin Kruger, NYU and Nicholas Epley, University of Chicago, found that "people overestimate both their ability to convey their intended tone–be it sarcastic, serious or funny," and that electronic misunderstandings occur frequently."

Think twice before using sarcasm in e-mails, memos or blogs..., "If you're worried that a joking e-mail might be misconstrued," Kruger advises, "read it aloud in a deadpan voice before clicking 'Send.'"

Humor adds benefits at work or snuffs out life. Surprisingly, philosopher John Morreall shows how, negative humor's mostly a male phenomenon. Do you agree?

Morreall explains...

To produce humor in conversation is to take the power role. And where negative humor-all those mother-in-law put-downs-once supported male power, women's more active role in life, and especially business life, is symbolized by "the blossoming of women's humor."

When, for example, Rita Rudner says "My boyfriend and I broke up. He wanted to get married, and I didn't want him to," she is not offering herself as a doormat. "She is showing her cleverness."

Sarcasm's tricky because gender's involved... Note how differences play out in Morreall's chart below...

Interestingly, differences in the kind of humor that men and women likely use relates to unique physical makeup of men's and women's brains...

At puberty males lose much of the corpus callosum layer which covers both the right and left brain. Intriguigingly, as a general tendency, men tunnel down deep into one topic and they're more competitive. On the other hand, women are more likely to bring many topics together because the the right brain "talks" more to the left. And, they're more apt to build close relationships with others.

To build more community in today's workplace is to spark the "kind of humor emerging today from women," says Morreall, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. The last laugh is that more positive humor's also coming from "an encouraging number of men."

Thoughts for your workplace?