Humor me

A cognitive bias that will make you and your art more attractive                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 October 12, 2023 | [Read Online]( Humor me A cognitive bias that will make you and your art more attractive [Cole Schafer]( October 12, 2023 [fb]( [tw]( [in]( [email](mailto:?subject=Post%20from%20The%20Process.&body=Humor%20me%3A%20A%20cognitive%20bias%20that%20will%20make%20you%20and%20your%20art%20more%20attractive%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.getthesticky.com%2Fp%2Fhumor-effect) Have you ever wondered why the Joker is mildly charming, despite the fact that he is a deranged, psychopathic serial killer? It’s because of a cognitive bias psychologists have dubbed the Humor Effect. The Humor Effect causes us to more easily remember information (and people) we find funny. It’s why we can readily recite a knee-slapper we heard whilst drunk at a Christmas party five years back, but forget all the enlightened shit we read in our latest self-help book just five minutes ago. Humor requires more mental effort to understand than basic knowledge. Because of this additional processing power that’s required, the information in a joke weaves itself deep into the fibers of our memories. Millennials like myself can still quote Joe Dirt decades after the film came and went because David Spade made us laugh ourselves stupid once upon a time. That movie ruined meteors for me forever. In addition to flexing our brains, humor also elicits an emotional arousal, which causes us to grow fond of those making us snicker. If you want to be remembered (or you want the information you're sharing to be remembered), make people laugh. Funny people appear to be smarter, more attractive and more confident than unfunny people, which makes them difficult to forget. You don’t need to be a stand-up comedian in order to be perceived as funny. In fact, you don’t even need to make people laugh half of the time; a well-timed chuckle every now and again will due just fine. David Sedaris is a satirist with a finger on humanity’s funny bone. Here are his 8 tips on writing for laughs (paraphrased by yours truly): - Write down the moments people make you chuckle - Try out your joke in a low stake setting - Exaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagerate - Read your joke aloud to yourself - Don’t overload your joke with too many mini jokes - Make yourself the brunt of the joke (if you’re in the story) - Be yourself (don’t try to be David Sedaris) - Pair comedy with tragedy Now, let’s talk about the dark side of humor. When dealing with funny people, keep a foot in reality. Funny people are wildly persuasive and excellent manipulators. Take the real life Joker for example, Ted Bundy. He was known to possess a whip-smart sense of humor. He also murdered somewhere in the neighborhood of three dozen people. If you were following the eighth rule on Sedaris’ list up above, you might say that many of them laughed to death. By [Cole Schafer]( P.S. Did this newsletter leave you feeling inspired? Tell someone to [subscribe](. [tw]( [ig]( [in]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here]( © 2023 The Process 228 Park Ave S, #29976, New York, New York 10003, United States [[beehiiv logo]Powered by beehiiv](