A Dark Sense of Humor May Mean a High IQ, Origin of the Word Orange, and Zombie Fires in the Arctic
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about how that dark sense of humor can mean a higher IQ, the origin of the word “orange,” and how the arctic produces “zombie fires.”
A Dark Sense of Humor May Mean You Have a High IQ by Joanie Faletto
- Willinger, U., Hergovich, A., Schmoeger, M., Deckert, M., Stoettner, S., Bunda, I., Witting, A., Seidler, M., Moser, R., Kacena, S., Jaeckle, D., Loader, B., Mueller, C., & Auff, E. (2017). Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence, aggressiveness and mood. Cognitive Processing, 18(2), 159–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0789-y
- Berman, R. (2017, March 10). You Can Stop Apologizing for Your Sick Sense of Humor. Big Think; Big Think. https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/you-can-stop-apologizing-for-your-dark-sense-of-humor
Which "Orange" Came First: the Color or the Fruit? By Reuben Westmaas
- Which came first - orange the colour or orange the fruit? | Independent. (2020). The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/which-came-first-orange-colour-or-orange-fruit-a6879541.html
- Guardian Staff. (2010, March 30). Notes and queries: Which came first, orange the colour or orange the fruit? When Blur were better than Oasis. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/mar/31/origin-of-the-orange
- Which Came First: Orange the Color or Orange the Fruit? (2012, February 8). Mentalfloss.Com. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29942/which-came-first-orange-color-or-orange-fruit
- Which came first - orange the colour or orange the fruit? Do the two concepts share the same word in all languages? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk. (2011). Theguardian.Com. https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-4756,00.html
Arctic wildfires can turn into "zombie fires" by Steffie Drucker
- ‘Zombie fires’ are erupting in Alaska and likely Siberia, signaling severe Arctic fire season may lie ahead. (2020, May 28). The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/05/28/zombie-fires-burning-arctic-siberia/
- Cormier, Z. (2019). Why the Arctic is smouldering. Bbc.Com. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190822-why-is-the-arctic-on-fire
- Tundra Topography and Soil. (2001). Alaska’s Tundra and Wildlife - Alaska Wildlife Curriculum Teacher’s Guide. Alaska Department of Fish and Game. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static-sf/statewide/aquatic_ed/AWC%20ACTIVITIES/TUNDRA%20&%20WILDLIFE/BACKGROUND%20INFORMATION/Tundra%20II_Topography%20and%20Soil%20Facts.pdf
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com. |
| 0:06.5 | I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:07.5 | And I'm Natalia Reagan. |
| 0:09.0 | Today you learn about how that dark sense of humor can mean a higher IQ, the origin of the word orange, and how the Arctic produces |
| 0:16.2 | zombie fires. |
| 0:18.0 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:20.6 | Ever have an inappropriate joke pop in your head during a somber moment, or maybe laughed at a joke that was a little too morbid? |
| 0:27.0 | Well, I've got some good news. Having a dark sense of humor doesn't necessarily mean you're a twisted sociopath. |
| 0:33.2 | I mean, you could be, just not necessarily. |
| 0:36.3 | But according to a study published in 2017, |
| 0:39.6 | it may mean you have a high IQ. |
| 0:42.0 | That study found that people with the highest preference and |
| 0:44.7 | comprehension of dark humor also had the highest verbal and nonverbal intelligence, |
| 0:49.6 | as well as emotional stability. To reach this conclusion the researchers recruited |
| 0:54.0 | 156 people and tested their verbal and non-verbal intelligence. |
| 0:58.5 | Next they gave the participants a series of dark jokes to read and then ask them a series of |
| 1:04.4 | questions. How hard was it to understand the joke? How surprise were they by the |
| 1:08.8 | joke's content? Was the joke novel to them? Sure enough, the people who understood and enjoyed the jokes the most |
| 1:16.0 | tended to be the more intelligent and educated of the study's participants. |
| 1:20.0 | The researchers suggest that processing morbid humor requires a little bit more brain work than processing more vanilla jokes. |
| 1:28.0 | Specifically, they pointed to a phenomenon called frame blends where a particular situation is framed in one way |
| 1:34.8 | then shifted to a different frame to create a humorous effect. When the subject matter |
... |
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