Why right-wing authoritarians share news Highlight

Ultimately, the study found that proximity matters. Participants showed heightened attention — measured through slowed heart rate — when facts immediately followed a joke. Further, humor appeared to enhance the “encoding” of facts presented near jokes. Encoding is the process of using our perceptions to create representations in our brains, thus helping us to pay attention, perceive, understand, and remember. The authors found that humor both before and after facts improved encoding, particularly when the facts and neighboring jokes were closely related.