The implication of our current arguments is that culture could influence the circumstances under which a joke told between two individuals belonging to the same culture is seen as funny or malignant. Second, we argue that the BVT needs to acknowledge possible power asymmetries between the two parties, and how asymmetries might influence the social distance between the joke-teller and joke-listener, as well as between each of these and the joke. Symmetric relations are based on equal possessions and asymmetric relations on the unequal distribution of material resources; the question of symmetry and asymmetry then comes down to the question of power and what constitutes equal or unequal power relations. Well, Super Asymmetry dosn’t make sense. The one form of distance that McGraw et al. Resour. The instrumentality of emotion in leader–subordinate relationships. Crossing the line(s): a dual threshold model of anger in organizations. However, to the extent that a humorous situation involves multiple persons, the sweet spot would also be likely to depend on social variables. Here, a benign violation would not necessarily be associated with humor or amusement, but could be associated with other positive emotions (e.g., appreciation, enthusiasm, respect) and have other positive personal and interpersonal consequences (e.g., organizational improvement, loyalty, identification). Examples are, respectively, humiliating people, or displaying constructive leader behavior (Rayner and Cooper, 2003). *Correspondence: Leo Kant, leo.kant@uib.no; Elisabeth Norman, elisabeth.norman@uib.no, Front. This study demonstrates the importance of addressing multiple social perspectives and power differences in humor research. According to predictions derived from the SDTP, this would crucially depend both on which form of social distance (sections “Social Distance Between Joke-Listener and Joke” to “The Relative Social Distance Between Joke-Teller, Joke, and Joke-Listener”) we are concerned with, in combination with the particular power balance in the relationship. Once it is recognized that individuals in these cooperative interactions are subject to the constraints and opportunities imposed on them by asymmetric power then they can be seen as pursuing a 'least bad' strategy to promote individual fitness - one that is nevertheless consistent with evolutionary theory. For instance, a sexual joke told by a leader to a follower in a workplace, may be perceived as harassment rather than a joke. 2016 Feb 5;371(1687):20150084. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0084. I reflected on May (1976) power dynamics while working with S which Akister (1996) categorised in four different ways namely; power against, power ov… According to this theory, two types of appraisals must be simultaneously present for something to be regarded as funny. (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications). Other models also attend to a form of sweet spot, although the correspondence to BVT mechanisms is less explicit. Each particle from one group is associated with a particle from the other, known as its super-partner, the … Culture and leadership across the world: The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. When superimposing the different maps of the high-power party and the low-power party, it does not only reveal a fixed border zone, but a disputed no-man’s-land with split opinions, perhaps even a frontier for change. 10, 123–123. In contract theory and economics, information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. Moreover, high power is associated with reduced attention and responsiveness to the mental states, thoughts and feelings of other people. Soc. LK had the main responsibility for conceptualizing and writing those parts of the manuscript that address implications and applications of the framework in a broader context. For instance, when investigating jokes in romantic relationships, in workplaces, on the sports field, and so on. Similarly, imagine your grandfather attempting a joke, using a term which is insulting among millennials. Furthermore, action taken by subordinates to deter non-reciprocation by dominants is likely to prove prohibitively costly to their fitness, making successful enforcement of reciprocal mechanisms unlikely.