A rare study of the vale of self-denigrating humor in Japan:
“The value of constructing relationships through self-denigrating humor and regional-cultural differences in Japan: A focus on blunder-telling behavior,” Sora Niwa and Shun’ichi Maruno, Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, 3(2), 2009, 133-154. Here is a sampling of questions used in the research:
The authors, at Kyushu University, Japan, explain:
We hypothesized that Kansai (Osaka area) people culturally share the value of self-denigrating humor…. Kansai people would particularly appreciate blunder-telling behavior, because it is an everyday life-interpersonal strategy of self-denigrating humor for constructing relationships. To test this, we administered a questionnaire study on Kansai and Kanto people (a comparison group). As expected, Kansai people showed more favor towards blunder-telling behavior than Kanto people. Also, we discovered that, only Kansai people deeply incorporated the value of blunder- telling behavior as a part of the self.