Why So Serious: Humor and its Association with Treatment Measurements Process and Outcome

Humor is an important social construct with various roles in human communication, yet clinicians remain divided on its appropriateness and effectiveness. Despite its importance, empirical research on humor in psychotherapy is limited. This study explores the theoretical concept of “humor” by examining the operational variable of “laughs” within psychotherapy. Method: We analyzed transcriptions from 872 psychotherapy sessions involving 68 clients treated by 59 therapists. Clients self-reported their symptoms and state of well-being before each session, while both clients and therapists provided self-reports on their therapeutic alliance after each session. Through text analysis, we extracted the number of laughs and words for each session. We investigated the within-client associations between laughs and symptoms, well-being, therapeutic alliance, and clients’ number of words. Results: We found session-level associations between laughs and well-being, symptoms, and the number of words. However, no significant associations were observed between laughs and the therapeutic alliance, either from the perspective of the therapist or the client.