New Equation for Humor Useful for Designers
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
One of the major differences between cognitive design and related fields such as human factors is that cognitive design seeks to create specific mental states in people. In extreme cognitive design, the mental state (e.g. pride, humor, comfort or awe) is exactly what is being designed. So I am always on the lookout for precise theories of mental states with clear design implications. Equations are the best.
Take for example the work of Alastair Clarke on humor. As reported in ScienceDaily - we live in an information intense culture and face the constant risk of making errors or being deceived:
To compensate, humor rewards us for seeing through misinformation that has come close to taking us in. The pleasure we get (h) is calculated by multiplying the degree of misinformation perceived (m) by the extent to which the individual is susceptible to taking it seriously (s)
This equation for humor, H = M * S, has clear implications for designers.
