Some time ago, I happened to come across a research paper about children's sense of humour. This study involved 105 kindergarten children aged four and a half to five and a half from both China and Greece. The children completed two types of tasks designed to evaluate their cognitive ability and their sense of humour.

Drawing on earlier work by researchers Bariaud and McGhee, the research team identified four types of humorous elements commonly found in pictures that preschool children can understand:

• Feature transfer or substitution – when an object takes on the features of something else
• Exaggeration – when something becomes extremely big or small
• Unusual behaviour or situations – things happening in ways that don't normally occur
• Misfortune or mischievous acts

After looking at each picture, the children were asked three questions:

• What do you see in this picture?
• Do you think the picture is funny?
• Why is it funny?

From their answers, researchers could determine whether the children actually understood the joke. This ability is called humour recognition.

The children's immediate reactions were also recorded on video. Researchers later rated how strongly the children laughed on a scale from 1 (very calm) to 5 (laughing out loud). This was called the humour response.

The results showed that for both Chinese and Greek children, humour recognition was positively related to cognitive ability. In other words, children with stronger cognitive skills were better at identifying which pictures were humorous. This finding is consistent with previous theories and research.

Interestingly, the two groups of children showed completely opposite patterns in their humour responses. Among Greek children, those with higher cognitive ability tended to react more strongly to humour. They were more likely to laugh out loud. In contrast, among Chinese children, those with higher cognitive ability tended to react more calmly, even when they understood the joke.

The researchers suggest that cultural differences play a significant role. Chinese children with higher cognitive abilities may also have stronger social awareness. They may feel that laughing repeatedly in front of a teacher could be seen as impolite. So even if they find a picture very funny, they may choose not to show it during the test. Greek children, on the other hand, are generally less constrained by this cultural expectation and are more likely to express their feelings and reactions openly.

For parents, this study offers an interesting reminder: a child who doesn't laugh loudly at a joke may still fully understand it. Sometimes, what we see on the outside reflects cultural or social awareness rather than a child's ability to appreciate humour.

Reference

Guo, J., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., & Xeromeritou, A. (2011). Humour among Chinese and Greek preschool children in relation to cognitive development. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 3(3), 153-170.