When you’re looking for a job, it can be hard to thread the needle between pumping yourself up as the best candidate without coming across as a braggart. Now, a study suggests there is a way to toe that line without crossing it — it’s called “humor bragging.”
It’s different from self-deprecating jokes. In this case, humor bragging means “we’re focusing on self enhancing humor — the humor where you are trying to really highlight some of your own accomplishments or a key aspect of your (character) that would be really helpful for the job that you’re seeking,” said Eileen Chou, an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
“Humor can really increase the perception of warmth, friendliness and also the sense of competence that this person may have at an interview setting,” said Chou. “So when we think about self presentation, when we think about increasing the chance of your interviewer liking you, what you really want to do is boost both the perception of warmth and perception of competence.
“Humor, when it’s used appropriately will be an avenue for jobseekers to accomplish both,” she added.
To test the theory, Chou and other researchers set up two resumes and sent them both to nearly 350 different companies in Virginia. They were similar in qualifications and experiences, but one resume had a “humor bragging” element to it.
“We said, ‘I have a proven track record of turning caffeine input into productivity output, the more coffee you can provide, the more output I can produce,'” Chou said. “Highlighting a sense that this person is very productive and adding a sense of humor into that objective section. The other resume also has a net objective section that talks about how the person is a highly motivated and detail oriented without that last portion on the self-enhancing humor.”
Both fake applicants even had their own website created for themselves.
“What we found was that a humor bragging resume received almost three times as many visitors as the self promotion applicant website,” said Chou. “We also found that humor bragging applicant received 146 more contacts … calls, texts, emails and voice mails from these different companies. And so this is one example and one key evidence to show the causal effect of self-enhancing humor, or we what we termed ‘humor bragging,’ and its effect on instrumental benefits for our job seekers.”
Chou said she started thinking about this research while talking to UVA students about how to land that first job. But while it might help you get a foot in the door, or come across well in an interview, she cautions that it’s not going to seal the deal for you either.
“What we are arguing is that (humor bragging) is a better self-promotion technique that addresses both the appearance of warmth and competence then some of the other strategies that people may want to use, such as using self-deprecating humor or using ingratiation,” she explained.
“So on a practical level, what we see is that our findings offer an effective solution to a common challenge that many individuals may face whenever they need to present themselves — whether it’s a job interview, a presentation, a social gathering or even a call with a news reporter,” she said.
“Your own accomplishments and your achievements are still key here,” she added.
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