An explanation of humour by the principles of the associative S-R theory of reinforcement

Abstract

Pleasure experienced in humour is not simply reinforcement due to performing a reaction followed by drive reduction. Gratification in humour is, primarily, in not performing a reaction that is not followed by reinforcement. At the operational level, humour is a close contact of two distinct, interfering reactions (humour as intervening variable). Deductive coverage of this empirical law by a broader theory is achieved by subsuming the contiguity of two reactions into a form of dissipation of reactive inhibition. This is also the main hypothesis of this work: humour is gratification caused by sudden dissipation of reactive inhibition (humour as hypothetical construct)