Examining the emotional impact of verbal irony

People often use ironic language in everyday conversation. For example, if someone does something stupid, their friend may make the comment "That was clever!", which on the surface of it, is the opposite of what they mean. Understanding ironic comments can be more difficult than if the person had spoken directly, by saying for example, "That was stupid!". Thus, given the risk of misunderstanding, if people choose to use ironic language, it seems likely that they want it to serve some other function that would not be achieved by speaking directly, such as eliciting a particular emotional response in the recipient.
In this project, we aim to investigate the emotional impact of verbal irony using a number of techniques which can tell us about the person's immediate emotional response as they are reading or listening to ironic comments. Some theorists propose that the function of irony is to mute the emotional force of a comment, for example, to make a criticism seem less harsh, whereas others argue that it may increase the feeling of condemnation felt by the recipient. Thus, it is currently unclear whether irony enhances or mutes the emotional force of an utterance. Little is also known about which factors can affect this process, and exactly which emotions are involved.
To address these issues, in Experiment 1, we will examine whether people's emotional responses to being criticised or praised are heightened, or reduced, by the comment being delivered ironically rather than directly. We will also examine whether emotional responses are influenced by whether the ironic comment is directed at the participant themselves, or at another person. We will do this by measuring people's electrical skin conductance response, which is a direct indicator of emotional arousal, while they are listening to spoken ironies. In Experiment 2, we will use the same technique to examine people's emotional responses to written irony. We will also assess how these responses are affected by commonly used devices such as emoticons.
In Experiments 3 and 4 we wish to examine in more detail precisely which emotions are elicited by the use of irony. In Experiment 3, we will look at whether people expect characters in a story to find ironic comments more amusing than direct comments. We will again look at both written and spoken irony. In Experiment 3a, we will record people's eye movements while they are reading conversations between characters, to examine whether they expect the recipient of an ironic comment to be amused, compared to when the same message is delivered literally. We would expect to observe more disruption to eye movements during reading in cases where the character's described emotional response to the comment does not match with the reader's expectations. We will also look at whether this expectation for amusement differs depending on whether the participant takes the perspective of the person delivering the comment, or the person who is receiving it. In Experiment 3b, we will examine people's electrical brain activity while they are listening to spoken irony. This will tell us whether expectations for particular emotional responses differ across written and spoken irony, where different cues are involved (e.g., tone of voice).
In Experiment 4, in contrast to amusement, we will examine whether people expect characters to be more upset by ironic comments than direct comments. Again, we will look at both written (Experiment 4a) and spoken (Experiment 4b) irony, and will examine whether results differ depending on whether the participant takes the perspective of the speaker or the recipient of the ironic comment.
Our findings will help us to develop theories to explain emotional processes relating to using irony. These theoretical advances could inform the use of irony to communicate in professional settings, and aid understanding of conditions in which irony comprehension is impaired (e.g., autism and schizophrenia).

This research will further our knowledge of how people understand irony, in particular, the emotional aspects of using this form of language. Although the proposed project is grounded in basic research in psychology, it clearly has the potential to have impact in more applied areas in which person perception and social functioning play an important role. In the short term, the proposed project would stimulate research undertaken by a wide range of associated researchers, principally those interested in language comprehension and social cognition. In the medium term, more comprehensive theoretical accounts of emotional processes involved in language comprehension are likely to be developed. In the long term, our understanding of these processes may feed into other fields with direct social and economic impact. Specifically, it is likely that a number of user groups will ultimately benefit from this research; from clinical and educational psychologists interested in developing remedial techniques for conditions where figurative language comprehension is impaired, to practitioners interested in effective ways of delivering criticism and praise in professional settings.

Clinical and educational psychologists
Studying how people understand figurative language can contribute to our understanding of situations where this process breaks down, such as autism and schizophrenia. Indeed, a number of recent articles have highlighted the fact that people with conditions which lead to impaired social cognition also tend to have problems comprehending certain kinds of figurative language, such as metaphor and irony (see e.g., Solomon et al., 2011 as an example of recent research showing deficits in irony comprehension for participants with autism and schizophrenia). Given the very common use of figurative language in everyday communication, deficits in understanding this kind of language can present significant challenges to these populations. Building our knowledge of how figurative language is processed in non-clinical populations can feed in to the development of techniques to remediate these deficits. For instance, very recent research has highlighted ways in which this knowledge can be used to help children with autism to understand metaphors (e.g., Persicke, Tarbox, Ranick, & St. Clair, 2012). Thus, adding to the knowledge base involved in understanding how people comprehend irony could be used in a similar fashion by clinicians and educational psychologists.

Professional communication
The outcomes of this research would be relevant to practitioners interested in professional communication. Specifically, the emotional impact of using irony vs. literal language to convey criticism or praise, and the impact that this has on both the recipient, as well as other members of the team, is likely to be of interest in management and team building situations. In addition, corpus studies have shown that ironic utterances in text are often accompanied by emoticons (see Burgers, van Mulken, & Schellens, 2012, for an overview). Gaining a better understanding of how emoticons influence the emotional impact of a message has clear implications for guidance on their effective use (e.g., in email).

Research staff
The research assistant employed on the project will benefit from receiving training in a broad range of cutting edge research methodologies in Experimental Psychology, Psychophysiology, and Cognitive Neuroscience, as well as gaining the opportunity to develop a publication record, which would provide an excellent basis for a research career. In addition to these specific skills, they will gain experience in more general transferable skills such as written and verbal communication which are valued in a wide range of employment sectors.