Just Teasing: A Conceptual Analysis and Empirical Review
Keltner, Capps, Kring, Young & Heerey (2001) · Psychological Bulletin, 127(2)
Relied on in 4 places across the academy · 2 stated limits
What it found
Teasing is analysed as an intrinsically ambiguous act — an insult delivered with markers that it is not to be taken literally — and its effect depends heavily on the relationship and on the relative status of the people involved.
Teasing carries more risk of being received as hostility where the relationship is new or the difference in status is large.
The review's central claim is that teasing is ambiguous by design, and whether it functions as affection or as aggression is settled by the target rather than by the teaser's intent.
What it does not show
A conceptual review of a large and mixed literature rather than a single experiment.
And where we carry it further
A conceptual review of a large literature rather than a single experiment.
A review rather than a single result.
Where we rely on it
4 places in the academy. If this paper turned out to be wrong, this is the list that would have to change. Some of the instructions below are part of Gold; none of the findings are.
In the curriculum · 3
In the films · 1
Cited alongside it
Papers that sit under the same topics and films. Not a claim that they agree with each other — only that the same exercises lean on both.
The Effect of a Pratfall on Increasing Interpersonal Attractiveness
Aronson, Willerman & Floyd (1966)The Spotlight Effect in Social Judgment
Gilovich, Medvec & Savitsky (2000)Research
A real study. We tell you what it found, how many people were in it, and what it can't prove.
Free to read, link to and quote. If we have carried this paper further than it goes, say so at contact@suaviq.com — corrections to this registry are the most useful mail we get.