Scientific conferences can be a bore. Can jokes liven them up?

From ScienceMag:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any scientific conference, no matter how fascinating, will become a snoozefest—usually during the time slot just before lunch.

But during one such conference a few years ago, Stefano Mammola, an ecologist at the Italian National Research Council, serendipitously found a loophole to this iron law. After sitting through several dull talks, he started chatting with fellow attendee Victoria Stout, an environmental scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder who moonlighted as a stand-up comedian. They quickly realized they had both made the same observation: Whenever a speaker cracked a joke, the audience instantly became more alert and engaged, the speaker appeared more approachable, and the talk itself became more memorable. “When somebody uses humor in an effective way, I recall the information much better in the future,” Mammola explains.

The pair realized they had the makings of a research project on their hands: a comprehensive analysis of how scientists use humor as they relay their findings. “Scientists attend many conferences,” Mammola says. “Why not collect some data?” Over the next few years, the two researchers—along with a growing number of interested collaborators—attended 14 biology-related conferences, collecting data on the use of humor across 531 talks.

As the team reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists take themselves very seriously indeed: Most presentations contained no jokes at all or just a few. When they did occur, jokes tended to cluster at the beginning and end of presentations, and the majority either fell flat or elicited only polite chuckles—although the authors noted a bump in successful jokes midway through talks. Men speakers told more jokes, and jokes from men and native English speakers tended to get more laughs.

Mammola spoke to Science about the findings and about the potential of humor to improve science communication. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: How did you decide what counted as a successful joke?

A: We really wanted to capture any deliberate attempt to make people laugh, whether it was orally delivered, a gesture, or visually depicted—a meme in a slide, for example. The last two categories were more obvious, while the first was a bit more subtle. But when I was sitting together with Victoria Stout and trying to score independently, we realized that we mostly agreed when somebody was attempting a joke.

We also assessed joke success, which was not easy to standardize. We used this three-level breakdown, where if nobody was laughing or just a few people, that’s low success. Medium success is more or less half the room, and high success is when more or less the whole room starts laughing.

Q: Which jokes were the most successful?

A: We didn’t find any pattern with respect to the type of joke. Of course, some types of jokes are more frequently used, but there was not a single type of joke that was more successful than others. Anything can make people laugh or not—it’s more the delivery and timing.

In general, jokes cluster at the beginning and end of presentations. As you start, you want to engage with the audience and connect with them, or maybe you’re a bit nervous, so you throw in a joke to break the ice. And then at the end, you relax a bit. Maybe you want to leave people with a good, lasting impression.

This pattern was quite ubiquitous among all groups, except students didn’t joke as much at the beginning of talks. This category is the one with less public speaking experience, so they may be more nervous. They had the same peak at the end, so as the presentation progressed, that nervousness probably went away, and they managed to catch up.

Q: You also saw a bump in successful jokes halfway through the presentation. Why do you think that is?

A: When you are speaking to an audience, you realize at some point that you’re starting to lose them. Their minds start to drift. It’s inevitable. And I think an experienced speaker, about halfway through a presentation, is able to throw in a very nice joke to re-engage the mind.

Q: What other trends did you observe?

A: Male speakers said more jokes on average, and jokes delivered by male and native English speakers tended to attract more medium- and high-intensity laughter. Are they really better at telling jokes, or is it that people are more willing to laugh? Joking is a risky activity, because we have this idea that scientists should be serious, and the ability to take risks is not equally distributed. It’s a powerful reminder that inequality in academia affects so many things. I think part of the solution is changing the status quo, discussing these issues, and exposing them.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this research?

A: One conclusion is just the importance of thinking about science communication. The information system in science is increasingly polluted. There are so many papers, so many conferences, so many talks, so much information. The ability to stand out from the crowd and effectively engage your audience is really important and something we need to actively think about.

Q: Of all the jokes you heard, do you have a particular favorite?

A: I cannot come up with a single joke, but what is most effective to me is when people use their bodies, when there’s something totally unexpected in the way the speaker moves. To me, these are the most successful. I also really got to dislike all the stereotypical jokes from speakers talking right after lunch. I guess it’s inevitable, but my data tells me it doesn’t work. You have to be creative.

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