Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-b5k59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-12T05:53:09.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Presidential laugh lines: Candidate display behavior and audience laughter in the 2008 primary debates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Patrick A. Stewart
Patrick A. Stewart*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science University of Arkansas 428 Old Main Fayetteville, AR 72701 pastewar@uark.edu

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Political humor has long been used by candidates to mobilize supporters by enhancing status or denigrating the opposition. Research concerning laughter provides insight into the building of social bonds; however, little research has focused on the nonverbal cues displayed by the individual making humorous comments. This study first investigates whether there is a relationship between facial display behavior and the presence and strength of laughter. Next, the analysis explores whether specific candidate displays during a humorous comment depend on the target of the comment. This paper analyzes the use of humor by Republican and Democratic candidates during ten 2008 presidential primary debates. Data analyzed here employs laughter as an indicator of a successful humorous comment and documents candidate display behavior in the seconds immediately preceding and during each laughter event. Findings suggest specific facial displays play an important communication role. Different types of smiles, whether felt, false, or fear-based, are related to who laughs as well as how intensely the audience is judged to laugh.

Keywords

Political humoraudience laughterpresidential debatesfacial display behaviorfelt smilesfalse smilesfear smiles

Information

Type
Research Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , September 2010 , pp. 55 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

References

1.Friedman, Howard S., Mertz, Timothy I., and DiMatteo, M. R., “Perceived bias in the facial expressions of television news broadcasters,” Journal of Communication 1980, 30(4):103–111.Google Scholar
2.Friedman, Howard S., DiMatteo, M. R., and Mertz, Timothy I., “Nonverbal communication on television news: The facial expressions of broadcasters during coverage of a presidential election campaign,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1980, 6(3):427–435.Google Scholar
3.Masters, Roger D., The Nature of Politics. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).Google Scholar
4.Miller, Nancy L. and Stiles, William B., “Verbal familiarity in American presidential nomination acceptance speeches and inaugural addresses (1920–1981),” Social Psychology Quarterly 1986, 49(1):72–81.Google Scholar
5.Mutz, Diane C., “Effects of “in-your-face” television discourse on perceptions of a legitimate opposition,” American Political Science Review 2007, 101(04):621–635.Google Scholar
6.Masters, Roger D., Sullivan, Denis G., Lanzetta, John T., McHugo, Gregory J., and Englis, Basil G., “The facial displays of leaders: Toward an ethology of human politics,” Journal of Social and Biological Structures 1986, 9319–343.Google Scholar
7.Patterson, Miles L., Churchill, Mary E., Burger, Gary K., and Powell, Jack L., “Verbal and nonverbal modality effects on impressions of political candidates: Analysis from the 1984 presidential debates,” Communication Monographs 1992, 59(3):231–242.Google Scholar
8.Sullivan, Dennis G., and Masters, Roger D., “‘Happy warriors’: Leaders' facial displays, viewers' emotions, and political support,” American Journal of Political Science 1988, 32(2):345–368.Google Scholar
9.Brader, Ted, Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work, (Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press, 2006).Google Scholar
10.Marcus, George E., Neuman, W. R., and MacKuen, Michael, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000).Google Scholar
11.Fein, Steven, Goethals, George R., and Kugler, Matthew B., “Social influence on political judgments: The case of presidential debates,” Political Psychology 2007, 28(2):165–192.Google Scholar
12.Dailey, William O., Hinck, Edward A., and Hinck, Shelly S., “Audience perceptions of politeness and advocacy skills in the 2000 and 2004 presidential debates,” Argumentation and Advocacy 2005, 41(4):196–210.Google Scholar
13.Clayman, Steven E., and Maynard, Douglas W., “Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis,” Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organisation of Talk and Embodied Activities 1995, 1–30.Google Scholar
14.Zakahi, Walter R. and Hacker, Kenneth L., “Televised presidential debates and candidate images,” in Candidate Images in Presidential Elections, Hacker, Kenneth E., ed. (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995), pp. 99–122.Google Scholar
15.Gentry, William A. and Duke, Marshall P., “A historical perspective on nonverbal communication in debates: Implications for elections and leadership,” Journal of Leadership Studies 2009, 2(4):36–47.Google Scholar
16.Lanoue, David J. and Schrott, Peter R., The Joint Press Conference: The History, Impact, and Prospects of American Presidential Debates. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991).Google Scholar
17.Lemert, James B., Elliott, William R., Bernstein, James M., Rosenberg, William L., and Nestvold, Karl J., News Verdicts, the Debates, and Presidential Campaigns, (Westport, CT: Praeger Press, 1991).Google Scholar
18.Pfau, Michael and Rang, Jong G., “The impact of relational messages on candidate influence in televised political debates,” Communication Studies 1991, 42(2): 114–128.Google Scholar
19.Meyrowitz, Joshua, “Television and interpersonal behavior: Codes of perception and response,” Inter/media: Interpersonal Communication in a Media World 1986, 253–272.Google Scholar
20.Husson, William, Stephen, Timothy, Harrison, Teresa M., and Fehr, B. J., “An interpersonal communication perspective on images of political candidates,” Human Communication Research 1988, 14(3):397–421.Google Scholar
21.Schrott, Peter R. and Lanoue, Davod J., “Debates are for losers,” PS: Political Science and Politics 2008, 41(03):513–518.Google Scholar
22.Cohen, Michael A., “The first debate: A win for Obama,” The New York Times, September 27.Google Scholar
23.Bucy, Erik P., “Emotional and evaluative consequences of inappropriate leader displays,” Communication Research 2000, 27(2):194–226.Google Scholar
24.Bucy, Erik P. and Newhagen, John E., “The emotional appropriateness heuristic: Processing televised presidential reactions to the news,” Journal of Communication 1999, 49(4):59–79.Google Scholar
25.Bucy, Erik P. and Grabe, Maria E., “Happy warriors” revisited,” Politics & the Life Sciences 2008, 27(1): 78–98.Google Scholar
26.Grabe, Maria E. and Bucy, Erik P., Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections, (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).Google Scholar
27.Koppensteiner, Markus and Grammer, Karl, “Motion patterns in political speech and their influence on personality ratings,” Journal of Research in Personality 2010, 44374–379.Google Scholar
28.Salter, Frank K., Emotions in Command: Biology, Bureaucracy, and Cultural Evolution, (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Pub, 2007).Google Scholar
29.Boehm, Christopher, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
30.Stewart, Patrick A., Salter, Frank K., and Mehu, Marc, “Taking leaders at face value: Ethology and the analysis of televised leader displays,” Politics and the Life Sciences 2009, 28(1):48–74.Google Scholar
31.Provine, Robert R., “Laughter punctuates speech: Linguistic, social and gender contexts of laughter,” Ethology 1993, 95(4):291–298.Google Scholar
32.Dunbar, Robin I. M., “Co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1993, 16(4):681–735.Google Scholar
33.Schmidt, Karen L. and Cohn, Jeffrey F., “Human facial expressions as adaptations: Evolutionary questions in facial expression research,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 2001, 116(S33):3–24.Google Scholar
34.Spoor, Jennifer R. and Kelly, Janice R., “The evolutionary significance of affect in groups: Communication and group bonding,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2004, 7(4):398–412.Google Scholar
35.Waller, Bridget M., Cray, James J., and Burrows, Anne M., “Selection for universal facial emotion,” Emotion 2008, 8(3):435–439.Google Scholar
36.Sato, Waturu and Yoshikawa, Sakiko, “Detection of emotional facial expressions and anti-expressions,” Visual Cognition 2010, 18(3):369–388.Google Scholar
37.Hager, Joseph C. and Ekman, Paul, “Long-distance transmission of facial affect signals 1,” Ethology and Sociobiology 1979, 1(1):77–82.Google Scholar
38.Hatfield, Elaine, Cacioppo, J. T., and Rapson, R. L., “Emotional contagion,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 1993, 96–99.Google Scholar
39.Keltner, Dacher, Capps, Lisa, Kring, Ann M., Young, Randall C., and Heerey, Erin A., “Just teasing: A conceptual analysis and empirical review,” Psychological Bulletin 2001, 127(2):229–248.Google Scholar
40.Keltner, Dacher, Young, Randall C., Heerey, Erin A., Oemig, Carmen, and Monarch, Natalie D., “Teasing in hierarchical and intimate relations,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998, 75(5):1231–1247.Google Scholar
41.Masters, Roger D. and Sullivan, Denis G., “Nonverbal displays and political leadership in france and the united states,” Political Behavior 1989, 11(2):123–156.Google Scholar
42.Parr, Lisa A., Waller, Bridget M., and Fugate, Jennifer, “Emotional communication in primates: Implications for neurobiology,” Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2005, 15(6):716–720.Google Scholar
43.Preuschoft, S. and Van Hooff, J., “The social function of smile and laughter: Variations across primate species and societies,” Nonverbal Communication: Where Nature Meets Culture 1997, 171–190.Google Scholar
44.Bucy, Erik P. and Bradley, Samuel D., “Presidential expressions and viewer emotion: Counterempathic responses to televised leader displays,” Social Science Information 2004, 43(1):59.Google Scholar
45.Tiedens, Larissa Z., “Anger and advancement versus sadness and subjugation: The effect of negative emotion expressions on social status conferral,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2001, 80(1):86–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46.Warnecke, A. M., Masters, Roger D., and Kempter, Guido, “The roots of nationalism: Nonverbal behavior and xenophobia,” Ethology and Sociobiology 1992, 13(4):267–282.Google Scholar
47.van Hooff, J. A., “A structural analysis of the social behaviour of a semicaptive group of chimpanzees,” Social Communication and Movement: Studies of Interaction and Expression in Man and Chimpanzee 1973, 75–162.Google Scholar
48.De Waal, Frans, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 2007).Google Scholar
49.Ekman, Paul and Friesen, Wallace V., “Felt, false, and miserable smiles,” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 1982, 6(4):238–252.Google Scholar
50.Fridlund, Alan J., Human Facial Expression: An Evolutionary View. (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1994).Google Scholar
51.Brannigan, Christopher R. and Humphries, David A., “Human non-verbal behavior, a means of communication,” in Ethological Studies of Child Behavior, Jones, Nick Blurton, ed. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 37–64.Google Scholar
52.Mehu, M. and Dunbar, R. I. M., “Relationship between smiling and laughter in humans (homo sapiens): Testing the power asymmetry hypothesis,” Folia Primatol 2008, 79(5):269–280.Google Scholar
53.Brown, William M., Palameta, Boris, and Moore, Chris, “Are there nonverbal cues to commitment? an exploratory study using the zero-acquaintance video presentation paradigm,” Evolutionary Psychology 2003, 142–69.Google Scholar
54.Mehu, Marc, Grammer, Karl, and Dunbar, Robin I. M., “Smiles when sharing,” Evolution and Human Behavior 2007, 28(6):415–422.Google Scholar
55.Mehu, Marc, Little, Anthony C., and Dunbar, Robin I. M., “Duchenne smiles and the perception of generosity and sociability in faces,” Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 2007, 5(1):183–196.Google Scholar
56.van Hooff JARAM, P. S., “Laughter and smiling: The intertwining of nature and culture,” Animal Social Complexity 2003, 260–287.Google Scholar
57.Ekman, Paul, “Behavioral markers and recognizability of the smile of enjoyment,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1993, 64(1):83–93.Google Scholar
58.Shelley, G. P., Page, M. J., Rives, P., Yeagley, E., and Kuhlman, D. M., “Nonverbal communication and detection of individual differences in social value orientation,” Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments 2009, 147–169.Google Scholar
59.Newton, James S., Masters, Roger D., McHugo, Gregory J., and Sullivan, Denis G., “Making up our minds: Effects of network coverage on viewer impressions of leaders,” Polity 1987, 20(2):226–246.Google Scholar
60.Schmidt, Karen L., Bhattacharya, Sharika, and Denlinger, Rachel, “Comparison of deliberate and spontaneous facial movement in smiles and eyebrow raises,” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2009, 33(1):35–45.Google Scholar
61.Gardner, Russell Jr, “Mechanisms in manic-depressive disorder: An evolutionary model,” Archives of General Psychiatry 1982, 39(12):1436–1441.Google Scholar
62.Sloman, Leon and Price, John S., “Losing behavior (yielding subroutine) and human depression: Proximate and selective mechanisms,” Ethology and Sociobiology 1987, 899–109.Google Scholar
63.Hasson, Oren, “Emotional tears as biological signals,” Evolutionary Psychology 2009, 7(3):363–370.Google Scholar
64.Darwin, Charles, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002).Google Scholar
65.Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus, Human Ethology, (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1989).Google Scholar
66.Stewart, Patrick A., Waller, Bridget M., and Schubert, James N., “Presidential speechmaking style: Emotional response to micro-expressions of facial affect,” Motivation and Emotion 2009, 33(2):125–135.Google Scholar
67.Ekman, Paul and Friesen, Wallace V., Unmasking the Face. (Malor Books Cambridge, MA, 2003).Google Scholar
68.Chance, M. R. A., “Attention structure as the basis of primate rank orders,” Man 1967, 2(4):503–518.Google Scholar
69.Mazur, Allan, Biosociology of Dominance and Deference, (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).Google Scholar
70.Seaford, Henry W. J., “Maximizing replicability in describing facial behavior,” Semiotica 1978, 24(1–2): 1–32.Google Scholar
71.Grant, Ewan C., “Human facial expression,” Man 1969, 4(4):525–692.Google Scholar
72.Givens, David, “Greeting a stranger: Some commonly used nonverbal signals of aversiveness,” Semiotica 1978, 22(3–4):351–368.Google Scholar
73.Smith, W. J., Chase, Julia, and Lieblich, Anna K., “Tongue showing: A facial display of humans and other primate species,” Semiotica 1974, 11(3):201–246.Google Scholar
74.Stern, Daniel N. and Bender, Estelle P., “An ethological study of children approaching a strange adult: Sex differences,” Sex Differences in Behavior: A Conference.Google Scholar
75.Russell, James A., Bachorowski, Jo-Anne, and Fernandez-Dols, Jose-Miguel“Facial and vocal expressions of emotion,” Annual Review of Psychology, 2003, 329–350.Google Scholar
76.Scherer, Klaus R., Schorr, Angela, and Johnstone, Tom, Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2001).Google Scholar
77.Scherer, Klaus R. and Ellgring, Heiner, “Are facial expressions of emotion produced by categorical affect programs or dynamically driven by appraisal?,” Emotion 2007, 7(1):113–130.Google Scholar
78.Ambadar, Zara, “Deciphering the enigmatic face: The importance of facial dynamics in interpreting subtle facial expressions,” Psychological Science 2005, 16(5):403–410.Google Scholar
79.Nusseck, Martha, Cunningham, Douglas W., Wallraven, Christian, and Bülthoff, Heinrich H., “The contribution of different facial regions to the recognition of conversational expressions,” Journal of Vision 2008, 8(8): 1–23.Google Scholar
80.Rosenthal, Robert, “Conducting judgment studies: Some methodological issues,” The New Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research 2005, 199–234.Google Scholar
81.Scherer, Klaus R. and Ellgring, Heiner, “Are facial expressions of emotion produced by categorical affect programs or dynamically driven by appraisal,” Emotion 2007, 7(1):113–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
82.Baron-Cohen, Simon and Wheelwright, Sally, “The ‘reading the mind in the eyes’ test revised version: A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism,” Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 2001, 42(2):241–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
83.Baron-Cohen, Simon, Wheelwright, Sally, and Jolliffe, Therese, “Is there a ‘language of the eyes’? Evidence from normal adults, and adults with autism or Asperger syndrome,” Visual Cognition 1997, 4(3):311–331.Google Scholar
84.Dunbar, Robin I. M., “Differential behavioural effects of silent bared teeth display and relaxed open mouth display in chimpanzees(pan troglodytes),” Ethology 2005, 111(2):129–142.Google Scholar
85.Bippus, Amy, “Factors predicting the perceived effectiveness of politicians' use of humor during a debate,” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 2007, 20(2):105–121.Google Scholar
86.Stewart, Patrick A., “The influence of self- and other-deprecatory humor on presidential candidate evaluation during the 2008 election,” Social Science Information 2011, 50(2):201–222.Google Scholar
87.Wicks, Robert H., “Does presentation style of presidential debates influence young voters' perceptions of candidates?” American Behavioral Scientist 2007, 50(9):1247–1254.Google Scholar
88.Smith, Kevin B., Larimer, Christopher W., Littvay, Levente, and Hibbing, John R., “Evolutionary theory and political leadership: Why certain people do not trust decision makers,” The Journal of Politics 2007, 69(02):285–299.Google Scholar
89.Martin, Steve, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. (New York: Scribner, 2007).Google Scholar