In the context of texts that depicted either a minimally confrontational conversation (study 1) or a more confrontational argument (study 2) with a close friend, the use of ironic criticism was rated as being more humorous, polite, and positive, yet also as more sarcastic and mocking than direct criticism. Although our results were consistent with…

This article investigates the contextual components utilized to convey sarcastic verbal irony, testing whether theoretical components deemed as necessary for creating a sense of irony are, in fact, necessary. A novel task was employed: Given a set of statements that out of context were not rated as sarcastic, participants were instructed to either…

This article details a study of metaphor production by 64 same-gender dyads engaged in 2 persuasive conversations over chat software. Dyads were comprised of friends or strangers. Overall, men produced more metaphor than women, especially slang. Metaphor production differed by gender as a function of friendship status: Men produced the same amount…