Evaluating
Humor Effect
Customers better remember, engage with, and trust messages that incorporate humor, positively influencing their perception, recall, and brand loyalty.
For Example
Brands such as Old Spice and Dollar Shave Club effectively use humorous commercials, dramatically increasing brand awareness, recall, and positive customer associations. Wendy’s witty and humorous social media interactions significantly enhance customer engagement and brand loyalty.
Similar Biases
Similar biases: Bizarreness Effect, Von Restorff Effect, Positivity Effect. Opposing biases: Negativity Bias, Formality Bias, Skepticism Bias
We tend to remember tasks and goals that are not completed.
The Humor Effect describes the cognitive bias where humorous content is more easily remembered and recalled than non-humorous or neutral content. Humor enhances customers’ attention, facilitates emotional connection, and increases message retention due to positive emotional reinforcement and deeper cognitive processing. In Customer Experience (CX), brands can strategically integrate humor into messaging, interactions, and experiences to improve customer recall, satisfaction, and emotional affinity. Humor reduces psychological barriers, increases engagement, and creates lasting positive impressions. However, humor must be carefully and authentically used—offensive, insensitive, or forced humor can damage brand reputation and undermine customer trust. Successful application requires empathy, alignment with brand identity, and understanding of audience sensitivities.
Original Humor and Memory Study (Duncan, 1940)
Participants were exposed to two types of information: humorous and neutral content. Participants significantly better recalled humorous information over neutral content, demonstrating that humor enhances memory retention and recall. Meaning for CX: Incorporating humor strategically increases customers' retention of brand messages, significantly enhancing long-term brand recall and emotional connection.
Humorous Advertising and Recall (Krishnan & Chakravarti, 2003)
Participants exposed to humorous advertisements showed significantly higher recall and more positive brand attitudes compared to those viewing non-humorous ads. Humor directly improved memorability, emotional connection, and overall brand perception. Meaning for CX: Brands that incorporate humor effectively enhance customer engagement, recall, and positive emotional associations. Thoughtful humor strengthens branding effectiveness and recall.
Humor, Emotion, and Consumer Engagement (Eisend, 2009)
Analyzing multiple advertising campaigns, the study concluded that humorous advertisements significantly increased attention, engagement, and positive brand attitudes. Humor effectively reduced psychological resistance, enabling stronger emotional connections. Meaning for CX: Humor reduces skepticism and enhances customer openness, significantly improving message acceptance and customer engagement. Strategically placed humor strengthens long-term brand affinity and trust.
Grab Attention through Humor
Immediate Interest through Laughter
At initial stages, customers frequently experience uncertainty. Using humor in early brand interactions (advertisements, content marketing) immediately captures attention and makes initial messages memorable. For example, Dollar Shave Club’s humorous launch video instantly attracted customer attention, making their product feel approachable and enjoyable.
Strengthen Early Impressions
Memorable Connections Built on Humor
During awareness, humorous messaging significantly differentiates brands from competitors, making initial interactions memorable and emotionally appealing. Humorous brand personalities, such as Wendy’s playful social media banter, greatly enhance early recognition, positive associations, and recall.
Reduce Skepticism and Build Trust
Humor Breaks Down Barriers
Customers evaluating options often approach cautiously. Humor effectively reduces skepticism, builds trust, and humanizes brands, making customers feel comfortable engaging further. Brands like Geico consistently use humorous ads, significantly reducing skepticism, enhancing emotional connections, and creating positive brand affinity during the consideration phase.
Enhance Engagement through Enjoyment
Turn Curiosity into Delight
Exploration becomes deeply engaging when brands integrate humor into interactions, reducing anxiety or hesitation. Brands that use humor thoughtfully in product demonstrations, websites, or app interactions (such as Slack’s playful loading messages) significantly enhance customer exploration and positive emotional experiences.
Strengthen Positive Associations
Humor Reinforces Credibility and Enjoyment
Customers researching products often seek reassurance. Humorous but credible messaging, customer reviews, or testimonials significantly enhance credibility, reducing skepticism. Brands like Innocent Drinks use witty, humorous communication consistently, significantly enhancing positive brand associations during customer research.
Comfort Decisions with Laughter
Humor Eases Decision Anxiety
Customers often face anxiety at selection points. Humor reassures and comforts customers, reducing hesitation and anxiety. Brands employing playful humor, such as MailChimp’s playful confirmations ("High fives!") significantly ease customer decision anxiety, increasing satisfaction and comfort.
Create Delightful Transactions
Make Buying Memorable and Enjoyable
Humorous touches at checkout significantly reduce transactional friction, enhance customer delight, and increase positive emotional reinforcement. Brands like Virgin Airlines integrate humor into safety instructions and booking confirmations, significantly improving transactional experiences, emotional reinforcement, and overall satisfaction.
Foster Long-Term Relationships
Sustain Engagement through Humor
Brands using humor consistently in post-purchase communication strengthen lasting relationships, increasing loyalty, recall, and customer advocacy. Spotify’s humorous and personalized annual "Wrapped" summaries significantly boost ongoing customer engagement, satisfaction, and positive emotional reinforcement post-purchase.
Customer Experience Challenges
Typical challenges in CX where the bias can be used
- Control: Poorly executed humor can cause customers to feel misunderstood or uncomfortable, creating resistance and potential loss of control. CX teams must carefully consider audience sensitivity, ensuring humor aligns authentically with brand identity and customer values.
- Confidence: Humor perceived as forced, inappropriate, or inconsistent erodes customer confidence in brand credibility. Brands must integrate humor authentically and consistently, reinforcing trust and emotional security.
- Risk: Humor inherently carries risks of misinterpretation or offense. Brands must ensure humor remains culturally sensitive, aligned with audience expectations, and consistently positive to avoid potential backlash or damage to reputation.
- Selection: Excessive or inappropriate humor complicates customer decision-making, distracting from critical information. CX teams must strategically balance humor with clarity, ensuring humor enhances, rather than complicates, customer decisions.
- Information: Humor can inadvertently overshadow essential information. Brands must carefully manage humor integration, clearly presenting critical information without losing essential meaning or clarity.
Customer Experience Pillars
Renascence CX pillars where it can be applied most efficiently
- Integrity: Brands must use humor authentically and ethically, clearly aligning humorous messages with genuine brand values and identity, preserving integrity and trust.
- Expectations: Humor should manage customer expectations by aligning appropriately with brand promise and delivery, ensuring customers perceive humor positively, consistently, and authentically.
- Resolution: Rapidly resolving misunderstandings or negative reactions to humor maintains trust, demonstrating accountability and empathy toward customer sensitivities.
- Effort: Effective humor reduces cognitive effort, making interactions enjoyable, memorable, and easy to recall, enhancing overall customer experience simplicity.
- Emotions: Strategic humor positively influences emotional engagement, satisfaction, and affinity, significantly strengthening long-term customer relationships and brand loyalty.
Customer Experience Interfaces
Interfaces & touchpoints where it can be applied most efficiently
- Digital: Integrate witty copy, playful animations, and humorous visuals to enhance customer digital interactions, increasing emotional engagement and memorability.
- Voice: Train customer service agents to use empathetic, appropriate humor in interactions, significantly reducing customer frustration and enhancing emotional satisfaction.
- Promo: Use playful, humorous advertising and marketing campaigns to enhance recall, emotional engagement, and positive brand perception.
- Product: Embed subtle humor in product packaging, user manuals, or instructions to improve emotional enjoyment and memorability.
- Shelf: Use humorous displays or signage at retail points to attract attention, engage customers, and differentiate from competitors.
Renascence Tip
Humor, used thoughtfully, enhances memorability, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Carefully balance humor to align authentically with brand identity, customer values, and expectations, ensuring a positive, lasting customer experience.
