Foreign-born instructor humor perception and effects on self-perceived affective and cognitive learning

Abstract

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 394 U.S. American and Thai college students took an online survey investigating how they perceived humor used by their foreign-born instructors and how those perceptions then predicted their self-perceived cognitive and affective learning. Moderated mediation analyses revealed both student groups understood affiliative humor and considered it appropriate and humorous which then enhanced their learning. Aggressive humor positively predicted Thai students’ learning through the mediating role of humorousness and negatively predicted U.S. students’ learning through the mediating role of appropriateness. Self-defeating humor enhanced U.S. students’ learning through the moderating role of appropriateness. This study clarified the influence of different humor styles on learning and extended the instructional humor processing theory by demonstrating the moderating effect of culture. With the internationalization of higher education and increasing number of foreign-born instructors, this pioneering study provided preliminary suggestions for effectively using humor in cross-cultural classrooms.