Political Humour in the Media: Effects on citizens’ social trust and efficacy

Political humour in the form of sketches featuring parody or satire has a long tradition on television and in other mass media outlets, and often reaches large audiences. Therefore, many studies have examined the effects of humorous media formats on citizens’ understanding of politics. However, these studies have focused on US formats (e.g., the Daily Show), and we do thus not know how European types of humour influences audiences. Bringing a European perspective into the study of political humour is important, given that what is funny is strongly related to cultural background, social status, and language. This study employs an experimental survey design to test the effects of political humour on citizens’ social trust and levels of efficacy in the Netherlands. Our results show that watching a humorous TV sketch results in lower social trust and efficacy among citizens than exposure to a ‘serious’ news clip on the same topic. This negative effect, however, only holds true for citizens who in general do not watch humorous formats, and who consider political humour an inappropriate form of talking about politics.