Filing taxes is soooo much fun. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. In this context, I was using sarcasm to be funny (Did it work? Please say “yes!”); in other contexts, sarcasm can be used to criticize. Melanie Glenwright, Brent Tapley, Jacqueline Rano, and Penny Pexman have uncovered some important information about the complex process of interpreting sarcasm. Specifically, they investigated the development of the awareness of sarcasm from different perspectives and within different communicative contexts. They presented a number of social scenes to three age groups: 9-10-year-olds, 13-14-year olds, and adults. The scenarios depicted characters engaging in conversation with one of the following: a sarcastic criticism, a literal criticism, or a literal compliment. Each type of communicative act was played out in a private condition (speaker directly to receiver of criticism/compliment), public condition (speaker to receiver with a bystander), and in a gossip condition (speaker to bystander about the absent person). After each scene, the participants were asked a number of questions regarding the perspectives of the characters as well as with whom they would identify.
And so….. They found that children rated sarcastic criticisms as equally mean in both private and public conditions from the perspective of the receiver, thereby suggesting that children are not yet able to fully grasp the intent of sarcasm according to the participants in the social situation. Teens and adults, however, were similar to each other in that they rated sarcastic and literal criticisms in private conversations (directly to the receiver) as less mean than when criticisms were given within public conversations (with a bystander present). As such, unlike children, teens and adults were able to understand that the presence of a bystander increased the negative nature of criticism. Both teens and adults also had a more negative outlook on the use of literal criticisms than sarcastic ones within the public context. When it came to gossip, however, a significant difference between adults and teens was noted. Adults were more disapproving than teens were when sarcasm was utilized in gossip contexts (in the absence of the person who was being criticized) thereby suggesting that adults have a more well-developed awareness of the usefulness of sarcasm as a tool to save face by lessening the negative impact of criticism to the receivers. Thus, adults understand that sarcasm is not needed in situations when speaking about someone who is not present. As far as the identification portion of the study, children tended not to identify with the speakers of both literal and sarcastic criticisms. However, teens, significantly more so than adults, tended to relate to sarcastic gossipers. Surprise, surprise.
Why the heck is this important? Social skills training is becoming commonplace within the scope of speech-language intervention and across many disciplines. Knowing that children do not consider the presence of others when interpreting sarcasm is helpful not only for intervention and goal-setting, but also when having to assist in social problem-solving. When it comes to teens, well, at least now we know what is behind their excessive use of sarcasm. Okay, now back to my taxes….. FUN! (yes, I’m being sarcastic)
Resources
The Brains: Melanie Glenwright, Brent Tapley, Jacqueline Rano, and Penny Pexman
The full article: Glenwright, M., Tapley, B., Rano, J. K. S., & Pexman, P. (2017). Developing appreciation for sarcasm and sarcastic gossip: it depends on perspective. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60, 3295 – 3309.
http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2661758&resultClick=1
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