Humor styles and emotional manipulation: A person-centered perspective

This study examines the relationship between humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, self-defeating) and emotional manipulation (ability, willingness) among university students, focusing on behavioral profiles and gender differences. Participants were 662 Greek students (66.3% women, M = 21 years). Aggressive and self-defeating humor were positively associated with all forms of emotional manipulation, whereas affiliative and self-enhancing humor showed weaker associations. Men reported higher self-enhancing humor. Students in Humanities/Law/Social Sciences reported higher self-enhancing humor than those in Health/Life Sciences, whereas students in Maths/Natural/Technological Sciences and Economics/Information Sciences reported higher aggressive and self-defeating humor. Latent Profile Analysis identified five profiles, ranging from a small group combining low affiliative and self-enhancing humor with elevated aggressive humor and manipulation, to two profiles marked by high affiliative and self-enhancing humor with low manipulation, a high-intensity profile with the strongest humor–manipulation levels, and a large intermediate profile showing moderate aggressive humor and manipulation. Gender predicted profile membership, with men more likely to belong to the high-intensity humor–manipulation profile and women to profiles characterized by higher affiliative/self-enhancing humor and lower manipulation. Findings underscore the central role of aggressive humor in emotional manipulation, while affiliative and self-enhancing humor relate to lower manipulative tendencies. • Five humor–manipulation profiles identified in 662 Greek students. • Aggressive humor robustly predicted ability and willingness to manipulate. • Affiliative and self-enhancing humor related to lower manipulation. • Men overrepresented in antagonistic profiles; women in prosocial ones. • STEM/Econ students showed higher aggressive humor than Humanities peers.