Abstract
This study investigated characteristics of humor in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), focusing on their causal inferences and stimulus elaboration. Causal inference refers to incomprehensibility of the causes of incongruity, and it has a negative influence on the level of humor experienced. Stimulus elaboration involves inferences and thoughts related to the situation; it has a positive influence on the level of humor experienced. In the present study, 12 individuals with ASD and 20 typically developing (TD) control participants rated items of variable humor, items of variable causal inference, and items of variable elaboration of humorous stimuli that either contained or did not contain clues. The results showed no differences in score humor, causal inference, or elaboration among individuals with ASD. Other findings indicated that causal inference and elaboration influenced humor in individuals with TD, while only elaboration influenced humor in individuals with ASD.
