We all know the feeling: you’re watching a speaker, interviewing a candidate, or meeting a new teammate, and you’re not just listening to their facts—you’re searching for a vital, unspoken signal. You’re searching for humanity.
In a world increasingly dominated by polished scripts, optimized data, and AI-driven responses, how do you instantly prove you are a thinking, breathing, fully clued-in individual? The answer is simple, powerful, and often overlooked: a sense of humor.
Humour is more than just a pleasant distraction. Humour is a six-second social MRI. It doesn’t just make you likable; it is a rapid-fire proof of concept for your social, emotional, and cognitive fitness.1
A sense of humour makes you seem more human because it proves you’re not just thinking—you’re actually tuning in to the world around you.
A sense of humour makes you seem more human because it proves you’re not just thinking—you’re actually tuning in to the world around you.
If you want to move past simply delivering information and start building connections and influence, here are 9 profound ways a sense of humour serves as the ultimate signal of competence and humanity.
The 9 Signals: How Humour Demonstrates Humanity & Competence
1. Humour Shows Social Awareness.
A joke only works if you understand the shared context—the norms, the absurdities, the unsaid things. When someone uses humour well, it signals they’re tuned into how people actually think and talk, not just reciting information. It’s the difference between knowing the words and reading the room.
2. Humour Demonstrates Emotional Intelligence.
Knowing when to be funny—and when not to—shows sensitivity to mood, tension, and the people around you. Good humour is calibrated, not just delivered. A joke at the wrong moment isn’t funny—it’s a social smoke alarm.
3. Humour Creates Warmth and Connection.
Laughter acts as social glue. When someone makes another person laugh, it sparks a feeling of shared understanding—”you get me.” Since you can’t fake a genuine laugh, earning one feels like a tiny victory and a basic sign of trust and relatability.2
4. It Reveals Cognitive Flexibility.
Humour often involves shifting perspectives, spotting contradictions, or reframing something ordinary in a surprising way. It feels deeply human because it mirrors how we navigate real life—never linear, always messy and interpretive. If life were a straight line, we wouldn’t need punchlines.
5. Humour Stimulates Creativity and Problem Solving.
The mechanism of humour—connecting two seemingly unrelated ideas to create a surprising third (the punchline)—is the same engine that drives creative thinking and innovation. A good laugh acts as a cognitive reset button, freeing the brain from rigid, linear thinking and opening it to novel solutions.3
6. Humour Signals Resilience and Stress Management.
Humor, especially during difficult or high-pressure situations, demonstrates the ability to maintain perspective and emotional distance. The ability to crack a well-timed joke under pressure suggests mental toughness and an innate mechanism for cognitive reappraisal, signaling that you process stress rather than letting it consume you.4
7. Humour Shows You Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously.
Self-aware humour shows humility and groundedness. Someone who can laugh at themselves seems less rigid, less defensive, and more authentic and engaged. Taking yourself too seriously is the fastest way to become unrelatable.
8. Humour is a Powerful Leadership Tool.
Leaders who use appropriate humour are seen as more trustworthy, approachable, and effective at defusing conflict or delivering difficult news. Humour breaks down hierarchical barriers and fosters psychological safety. It’s less a weakness and more a tool for influence and team cohesion.5
9. Humour Humanizes Complexity.
Even the smartest or most serious people become approachable when they joke. Humour opens a door that intellect alone cannot. It makes difficult or serious topics accessible.6
Conclusion: Humor—The Advanced Social Lubricant
We’ve covered nine dimensions, but the core takeaway is this: a sense of humour is not a frivolous add-on or a charming quirk; it is proof of sophisticated human processing—social, emotional, and cognitive.
To deploy humour successfully is to take a calculated social risk. A failed joke falls flat, creating awkwardness. But a well-placed, timely moment of humour pays dividends that mere intellect or diligence never could—it creates immediate connection, trust, and influence. The willingness to take that risk is, in itself, a powerful signal of confidence and groundedness.
If you encounter someone who takes themselves so seriously that they cannot laugh, you are likely looking at a person who is too rigid to adapt, too defensive to connect, and too closed-off to innovate.
The Negative Metaphor: Having no sense of humour is like running on Wi-Fi with one bar; you can still function, but everyone can tell you’re not quite connected.
The Positive Metaphor: A well-placed sense of humour is like an advanced social lubricant: it reduces friction, makes the interaction run more smoothly, and leaves everyone feeling a little warmer.
Ultimately, your sense of humour is your most reliable human fingerprint. Use it well.
References:
- (2025). The success elements of humor use in workplace leadership: A proposed framework with cognitive and emotional competencies. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304650
↩︎ - Dunbar, R., Frangou, A., Grainger, F. & Pearce, E. (2021). Laughter influences social bonding but not prosocial generosity to friends and strangers. Psychological Science 32(8), pp. 1245-1253. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211024335 ↩︎
- (2024). Humor in leadership and employee creative and innovative behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology 55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101723 ↩︎
- (2024). Humor in leadership and employee creative and innovative behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology 55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101723 ↩︎
- (2024). Lighting the fire of wisdom following humor: How and when leader humor yields team creativity through team knowledge integration capability. Journal of Business Research 183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114834 ↩︎
- Aaker, J. & Bagdonas, N. (July 10, 2017). Humor Is Serious Business. Stanford Graduate School of Business. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/humor-serious-business ↩︎
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