Experts have revealed that making fun at your other half makes your relationship stronger. And it’s the inside jokes between couples which cement a bond.
However, while knowing how to make fun of each other, the happiest couples know where to draw the line in doing so.
Professor Jeffrey Hall, a communications studies researcher at the University of Kansas, has conducted 39 studies involving over 15,000 people over the course of 30 years.
An underlying finding from his studies concluded that humor was a critical part of building a successful relationship.
More specifically, Hall goes on to explain that partners should share a similar sense of humor to get the best results from a relationships.
Hall explained:
“People say they want a sense of humor in a mate, but that’s a broad concept. That people think you are funny or you can make a joke out of anything is not strongly related to relationship satisfaction. What is strongly related to relationship satisfaction is the humor that couples create together.”
“Say you and your partner share a quirky sense of humor, but romantic comedies or sit-coms do nothing for either of you… It’s not that any style or a sense of humor is any better or worse.”
“What matters is that you both see quirky humor as hysterical. If you share a sense of what’s funny, it affirms you and affirms your relationship through laughter.”
In another of Hall’s articles, Humor in romantic relationships: A meta-analysis, says the ability to laugh at each other builds security between partners.
“Playfulness between romantic partners is a crucial component in bonding and establishing relational security.”
“Particularly shared laughter, is an important indicator of romantic attraction between potential mates.”
However, Hall added:
“having an aggressive sense of humor is a bad sign for the relationship in general, but it is worse if the style of humor is used in the relationship. If you think that your partner tells mean-spirited jokes, then it’s likely you’ve seen that firsthand in your relationship.”
