Study defines benefits in sarcasm: improves creativity, reasoning on conversations

Gino explained that it was because both those giving and receiving sarcasm had to decode a contradiction (ie a psychological distance), that boosted creative thinking. From the Greek and Latin for “to tear flesh”, sarcasm has been called “hostility disguised as humor”, the contempt-laden speech favored by smart alecks and mean girls that’s best to avoid.

There’s just one caveat: everyone has to “get the joke”, or it doesn’t work.

Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but psychologists have found that it makes people more creative.

‘This is a process that activates and is facilitated by abstraction, which in turn promotes creative thinking.

The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients [Science Direct].

In a series of studies, participants were randomly assigned to conditions labeled sarcastic, sincere, or neutral.

The leader of the research, Dr Li Huang, said: ‘We found that sarcasm may stimulate creativity, the generation of ideas, insights, or problem solutions that are novel and useful.

In one study, after a participant either said or was told a sarcastic comment, they were confronted with a test that measured creativity.

According to Smithsonian, the research is based on how people are able to distinguish between sarcasm and sincerity.

Researchers gave 300 study participants conversation tasks that produced either sarcastic, honest or neutral exchanges between them.

Galinsky points out that naturally creative people are more likely to use sarcasm, possibly making it the outcome and not the cause of this creativity-sarcasm relationship. It can easily be misunderstood and lead to hurt feelings and bitterness.

Wow. We’re amazed. Isn’t this the most interesting thing in the world ever. Further work needs to be done to better understand how the tone and content of specific kinds of sarcasm such as sarcastic criticism, complements, or sarcastic bantering affect communication in different relationships as well as the cognitive processes of individuals. We can hardly contain our excitement.

But that’s not to say that sarcasm always helps.