Abstract

This study examined the effects of disparaging humor targeting gender and older adults on adults’ humor perception and investigated the moderating role of Personal Belief in a Just World (BJW-Self). A total of 400 young adults (aged 18–39, all South Koreans) participated in an online survey. Participants were exposed to self-disparaging and other-disparaging humor stimuli and subsequently completed measures of perceived humor and hate, BJW-Self, exposure to hate speech, and feeling thermometer of the targets. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0, including basic descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis. In addition, moderation effects were analyzed using the SPSS PROCESS macro Model 1. The results were as follows. First, among male participants, self-disparaging humor targeting gender and older adults was perceived as more humorous than other-disparaging humor, whereas no significant effects were observed among female participants. Second, for men, BJW-Self significantly moderated the relationship between humor type and perceived humor, but moderating effect was not significant for women. These findings provided insight into the sociocultural implications of framing hate speech as humor and underscored its educational significance. Limitations and implications for future research were discussed.