'Dad jokes' reduce stress, improve relationships: study

“Dad jokes” could potentially help reduce a person’s stress and provide health benefits, according to experts.

Psychologist Paul J Silvia from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro analyzed thousands of examples of such jokes and determined that such humor is typically rooted in puns.

“It’s a fun genre of humor because it’s welcoming. It’s kind of affable, it’s good-natured, it’s lighthearted,” said Silvia, according to the Washington Post.

In Silvia’s study titled, “What’s brown and sticky” (the answer is a stick), Silvia analyzed over 32,000 dad jokes from Reddit. The jokes are typically innocent and seen as fun examples of simple, non-complex punchlines that rely on wordplay.

But such jokes could also help with physical and mental health. Research has shown that humans have a positive impact on their well-being. A 2023 review in the research journal PLOS One found that a single session of laughter could cut a person’s cortisol levels by over 36 percent. The stress reduction takes place in a person’s prefrontal cortex, allowing the brain to process complex thoughts.

"When we see children laugh, we witness the brilliance of the brain in action: learning, connecting and growing," Jacqueline Harding, an early childhood expert at Middlesex University in London, told Fox News.

Harding’s book, "The Brain That Loves to Laugh," detailed how joy is a complex phenomenon that aids children in becoming more resilient.

"Hope and humor, it seems, are not just the seasoning of life, but foundational to a recipe for healthy development,” she said.

Humor can also help a person with their relationships with others. Steven Sultanoff, a clinical psychologist and professor at Pepperdine University, explained that “humor can be powerfully bonding.”

“That experience becomes part of a child’s fabric, and as they grow older, without realizing it, they have this level of kindness, playfulness, creativity that they then offer to others,” said Sultanoff.