The emotional impact of verbal irony: eye-tracking evidence for a two-stage process

Filik, Ruth; Brightman, Emily; Gathercole, Chloe; Leuthold, Hartmut

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the socio-emotional functions of verbal irony. Specifically, we use eye-tracking while reading to assess moment-to-moment processing of a character’s emotional response to ironic versus literal criticism. In Experiment 1, participants read stories describing a character being upset following criticism from another character. Results showed that participants initially more easily integrated a hurt response following ironic criticism; but later found it easier to integrate a hurt response following literal criticism. In Experiment 2, characters were instead described as having an amused response, which participants ultimately integrated more easily following ironic criticism. From this we propose a two-stage process of emotional responding to irony: Whilst readers may initially expect a character to be more hurt by ironic than literal criticism, they ultimately rationalise ironic criticism as being less hurtful, and more amusing.

Citation

Filik, R., Brightman, E., Gathercole, C., & Leuthold, H. (2017). The emotional impact of verbal irony: eye-tracking evidence for a two-stage process. Journal of Memory and Language, 93, 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.09.006

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 24, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 27, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Memory and Language
• Print ISSN: 0749-596X
• Electronic ISSN: 0749-596X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 93
• Pages: 193-202
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.09.006
• Keywords: Language comprehension; irony; emotion; eye-tracking
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/969783
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X16301243
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The emotional impact of verbal irony: Eye-tracking evidence for a two-stage process; Journal Title: Journal of Memory and Language; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.09.006; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.