If you want your relationship with a man to last, it’s time to let him think he’s the funnier one.
A new study revealed what all women already believe to be true — men think they’re funnier and are happier in relationships if they’re led to believe they are superior in the comedy department.
The study — titled “Do They Fit Together Like the Joker and Harley Quinn?” — tried to understand how humor fits into long-term relationships.
“People value a good sense of humor in their potential partners,” the researchers from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, wrote.
The participants — a group of 149 heterosexual couples who had been together for an average of seven years — were surveyed on the comedic aspects of their relationships, including how often the couple joked with each other, how often their partner joked and how often they thought the other’s jokes were funny.
Researchers found that in long-term relationships, men tell more jokes than women and think their jokes are funnier. Males also use more aggressive and self-enhancing humor styles than females do. However, both men and women used self-deprecating humor.
And as it turns out, a simple way to please your man is to let him think his jokes are better than yours, researchers concluded.
Men tend to be happier in their relationship if their partner thinks their own jokes are worse than theirs, the study showed.
“Results suggest that men may feel more dyadically adjusted in relationships with women who underrate their own jokes but overrate their partner’s jokes,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Researchers also found that laughter may truly be the best medicine in a relationship, as partners laughed at each other’s jokes at the same rate.
“Laughing is a reward that signals relationship satisfaction to partners,” the study read.
Joking, laughing, humor quality ratings and humor styles all had effects on both men and women in long-term relationships, the study found.
“In courtship, humor can be an indicator of psychological traits, romantic interest, and similar values and life goals,” the researchers wrote.
“We conclude that in long-term, romantic relationships, a sense of humor is part of the mechanisms involved in building relationships.”