Humor

"humor functions in part to help us coordinate with close associates on what norm violations to excuse" - That's from Overcoming bias, the post is here.

I'd like to offer my own anecdotal evidence. I was at a bit of a dinner party last night. The group tended to grow as the evening progressed, and I didn't think of it at the time, but there was an interesting trend in the humor.

The group started small, and everyone knew, more-or-less, everyone's background. It was a very well educated group, and the humor was a sophisticated social-political-historical commentary. As the evening progressed, and more members joined the group, it became impossible to ascertain everyone's background, and there was clearly some political and religious variation. The humor progressively devolved as the night went on, though the members that were added to the group we no less educated or intelligent than the original participants.

The evening concluded with a bunch of lawyers and economists smiling at bathroom humor; the jokes that light up the room two hours earlier would probably have been met with blank stares or awkward seat shifting by the same people who had uproariously partaken.