The Science of Sarcasm?

Yeah, Right
Step 1:​ Describe a time when you used sarcasm to resolve a conflict in a humorous way. Did it work or
make the conflict worse? 

Step 2: Marking the Text

→ Underline ​EVIDENCE​ of the advantages of using sarcasm in communication
→Annotate ​EXPLAINING ​how it can sometimes be more beneficial than just stating things literally.
→ Highlight ​EVIDENCE of ​the problems of using sarcasm in communication.
-->Annotate ​EXPLAINING​ when and why sarcasm may be misunderstood.

Annotate The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right Annotate

Advantages Misunderst
By Richard Chin ​Smithsonian​, November 14, 2011 andings

Paragraph 3: In an episode of "The Simpsons," mad scientist Professor Frink Paragraph

This is demonstrates his latest creation: a sarcasm detector. 4: NOt
positive understan
because it’s "Sarcasm detector? That's a ​really​ useful invention," says another ding
a warning character, the Comic Book Guy, causing the machine to explode. sarcasm
and can lead to
warnings Actually, scientists are finding that the ability to detect sarcasm really  bullying
can help 1
is useful. For the past 20 years, researchers from ​linguists to  and
people seek perhaps
treatment. psychologists to neurologists have been studying our ability to perceive  violence
snarky2 remarks and gaining new insights into how the mind works.  against the
Sarcasm Studies have shown that ​exposure to sarcasm enhances creative  person
exposure problem solving,​ for instance. Children understand and use sarcasm by  who
helps doesn’t get
the time they get to kindergarten. ​An inability to understand sarcasm 
resolve sarcasm.
conflicts and may be an early warning sign of brain disease. 
helps you
think of
Sarcasm detection is an essential skill if one is going to function in a 
better/differe modern society dripping with irony. "Our culture in particular is 
nt solutions permeated3 with sarcasm," says Katherine Rankin, a neuropsychologist 
at the University of California at San Francisco. "​ People who don't 
understand sarcasm are immediately noticed. They're not getting it. 
​ dept4." 
They're not socially a

Sarcasm so saturates 21st-century America that according to one 

study of a ​database5 of telephone conversations, 23 percent of the 
time that the phrase "yeah, right" was used, it was uttered sarcastically. 

1
​(noun): people who study language
2
​(adj.): said in a cutting way
3
​(verb): spread throughout
4
​(adj.): skilled
5
​(noun): an organized collection of related facts, usually on a computer
 Entire phrases have almost lost their literal meanings because they are 
Paragraph
so frequently said with a sneer​. "Big deal," for example. When's the last 
5 words
time someone said that to you and meant it sincerely? "My heart bleeds 
are losing
for you" almost always equals "Tell it to someone who cares," and  their true
"Aren't you special" means you aren't.  meaning
so people
"It's practically the primary language" in modern society, says John  lose trust
Haiman, a linguist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the  and clear
author of ​Talk is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation and the Evolution of  communic
ation
Language​. 
Paragraph 7: Sarcasm seems to exercise the brain more than sincere statements do. 
More work
Scientists who have monitored the electrical activity of the brains of 
means that
the brain is test ​subjects exposed to sarcastic statements have found that brains 
working as it have to work harder to understand sarcasm. 
should, the
more you That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another 
use it the study. College students in Israel listened to complaints to a cell phone 
easier it will company's customer service line. The students were better able to 
be
solve problems creatively when the complaints were sarcastic as 
Paragraph
Paragraph 8 opposed to just plain angry. ​Sarcasm "appears to stimulate complex  9: This
The use of thinking and to ​attenuate6 the otherwise negative effects of anger,"  might
sarcasm according to the study authors.  cause
could help confusion
find The mental gymnastics needed to perceive sarcasm includes  in meaning
solutions to developing a "theory of mind" to ​see beyond the literal meaning of the  to the
problems words and understand that the speaker may be thinking of something  point of
instead of manipulati
focusing on entirely different.​ A theory of mind allows you to realize that when your  ng
the anger brother says "nice job" when you spill the milk, he means just the  people/pla
that opposite, the jerk.  ying mind
problems games
create. Sarcastic statements are sort of a true lie. You're saying something you 
don't literally mean, and the communication works as intended only if 
your listener gets that you're insincere. Sarcasm has a two-faced 
quality: it's both funny and mean. This ​dual nature7 has led to 
contradictory theories on why we use it. 

Some language experts suggest sarcasm is used as a sort of gentler 

insult, a way to tone down criticism with indirectness and humor. "How 
do you keep this room so neat?" a parent might say to a child, instead 
of "This room is a sty." 

But others researchers have found that the mocking, smug, superior 
nature of sarcasm is perceived as more hurtful than a plain-spoken 

6
​(verb): reduce the value of
7
​a double or two-sided character
 criticism. The Greek root for sarcasm, ​sarkazein​, means to tear flesh 
like dogs. 

According to Haiman, dog-eat-dog sarcastic commentary is just part of 

our quest to be cool. "You're distancing yourself, you're making yourself 
superior," Haiman says. "If you're sincere all the time, you seem naive." 

Sarcasm is also a handy tool. Most of us go through life expecting 

things to turn out well, says Penny Pexman, a University of Calgary 
psychologist who has been studying sarcasm for more than 20 years. 
Otherwise, no one would plan an outdoor wedding. When things go 
sour, Pexman says, a sarcastic comment is a way to ​simultaneously8 
express our expectation as well as our disappointment. When a 
downpour spoils a picnic and you quip, "We picked a fine day for this," 
you're saying both that you had hoped it would be sunny and you're 
upset about the rain. 

We're more likely to use sarcasm with our friends than our enemies, 
Pexman says. "There does seem to be truth to the old adage that you 
tend to tease the ones you love," she says. 

But among strangers, sarcasm use soars if the conversation is via an 
anonymous computer chat room as opposed to face to face, according 
to a study by Jeffrey Hancock, a communications professor at Cornell 
University. This may be because it's safer to risk some biting humor 
with someone you're never going to meet. He also noted that 
conversations typed on a computer take more time than a face to face 
discussion. People may use that extra time to construct more 
complicated ironic statements. 

Kids pick up the ability to detect sarcasm at a young age. Pexman and 
her colleagues in Calgary showed children short puppet shows in which 
one of the puppets made either a literal or a sarcastic statement. The 
children were asked to put a toy duck in a box if they thought the 
puppet was being nice. If they thought the puppet was being mean, 
they were supposed to put a toy shark in a box. Children as young as 5 
were able to detect sarcastic statements quickly. 

Pexman said she has encountered children as young as 4 who say, 

"smooth move, mom" at a parent's mistake. And she says parents who 
report being sarcastic themselves have kids who are better at 
understanding sarcasm. 

8
​(adv.): at the same time
 There appear to be regional variations in sarcasm. A study that 
compared college students from upstate New York with students from 
near Memphis, Tennessee, found that the Northerners were more likely 
to suggest sarcastic ​jibes9 when asked to fill in the dialogue in a 
hypothetical conversation. 

Northerners also were more likely to think sarcasm was funny: 56 
percent of Northerners found sarcasm humorous while only 35 percent 
of Southerners did. The New Yorkers and male students from either 
location were more likely to describe themselves as sarcastic. 

There isn't just one way to be sarcastic or a single sarcastic tone of 
voice. In his book, Haiman lists more than two dozen ways that a 
speaker or a writer can indicate sarcasm with pitch, tone, volume, 
pauses, duration and punctuation. For example: "Excuse me" is sincere. 
"Excuuuuuse me" is sarcastic, meaning, "I'm not sorry." 

According to Haiman, a sarcastic version of "thank you" comes out as a 

nasal "thank yewww" because speaking the words in a ​derisive10 snort 
wrinkles up your nose into an expression of disgust. That creates a 
primitive signal of insincerity, Haiman says. The message: These words 
taste bad in my mouth and I don't mean them. 

In an experiment by Patricia Rockwell, a sarcasm expert at the 

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, observers watched the facial 
expressions of people making sarcastic statements. Expressions 
around the mouth, as opposed to the eyes or eyebrows, were most 
often cited as a clue to a sarcastic statement. 

The eyes may also be a giveaway. Researchers from California 

Polytechnic University found that test subjects who were asked to 
make sarcastic statements were less likely to look the listener in the 
eye. The researchers suggest that lack of eye contact is a signal to the 
listener: "This statement is a lie." 

Another experiment that analyzed sarcasm in American TV sitcoms 

asserted that there's a "blank face" version of sarcasm delivery. 

Despite all these clues, detecting sarcasm can be difficult. There are a 
lot of things that can cause our sarcasm detectors to break down, 
scientists are finding. Conditions including autism, closed head injuries, 
brain lesions and schizophrenia can interfere with the ability to 
perceive sarcasm. 

9
​(noun): insulting remarks
10
​(adj.): expressing ridicule
 Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, for 
example, recently found that people with frontotemporal dementia 
have difficulty detecting sarcasm. Neuropsychologist Katherine Rankin 
has suggested that a loss of the ability to pick up on sarcasm could be 
used as an early warning sign to help diagnose the disease. "If 
someone who has the sensitivity loses it, that's a bad sign," Rankin 
says. "If you suddenly think Stephen Colbert is truly right wing, that's 
when I would worry." 

Many parts of the brain are involved in processing sarcasm, according 

to recent brain imaging studies. Rankin has found that the temporal 
lobes and the parahippocampus [parts of the brain] are involved in 
picking up the sarcastic tone of voice. While the left hemisphere of the 
brain seems to be responsible for interpreting literal statements, the 
right hemisphere and both frontal lobes seem to be involved in figuring 
out when the literal statement is intended to mean exactly the opposite, 
according to a study by researchers at the University of Haifa. 

Or you could just get a sarcasm detection device. It turns out scientists 
can program a computer to recognize sarcasm. Last year, Hebrew 
University computer scientists in Jerusalem developed their 
"Semi-supervised A ​ lgorithm11 for Sarcasm Identification." The program 
was able to catch 77 percent of the sarcastic statements in Amazon 
purchaser comments like "Great for i​ nsomniacs12" in a book review. 
The scientists say that a computer that could recognize sarcasm could 
do a better job of summarizing user opinions in product reviews. 

The University of Southern California's Signal Analysis and 

Interpretation Laboratory announced in 2006 that their "automatic 
sarcasm recognizer," a set of computer algorithms, was able to 
recognize sarcastic versions of "yeah, right" in recorded telephone 
conversations more than 80 percent of the time. The researchers 
suggest that a computerized phone operator that understands 
sarcasm can be programmed to "get" the joke with "​ synthetic13 
laughter." 

Now that really would be a useful invention. Yeah, right. 

11
​(noun): a computer formula for solving a repeated problem
12
​(noun): people who don’t sleep
13
​(adj.): fake or made by humans rather than nature
Writing Prompt Section: According to the author, why is it necessary to be able to
detect sarcasm?
Step A: Writing a Claim ​ (This is similar to a thesis statement)  
Do not begin your claim with "I think" or "I believe." ​Readers will know these are your thoughts and beliefs,
since you are the author. Your claim should clearly state your opinion -- based on what you learned from the reading
-- about whether or not sarcasm is a necessary tool for communication. For example,

Example: According to the author, being able to detect sarcasm is necessary because ______.

Step B : Reason​ (This is similar to a topic sentence and supporting sentence squished together. It might
define the term or provide context for the quote to come)
Provide reasons why you believe your claim.

Step C: Evidence
Provide evidence from the text to support your claim.(HINT: USE YOUR HIGHLIGHTING)

Step D: Reasoning​( This is similar to analysis and explanation sentences)

Explain how your evidence connects back to your claim​.

YOU SHOULD COMPLETE THE ABOVE PROCESS AT LEAST TWICE IN A

THINKCERCA ASSIGNMENT

Counter Argument Section​ ​Include at least one good reason why others might disagree
with your claim or provide a different point of view.
● Step a: Writing a Claim ​ (This is similar to a thesis statement)  
Do not begin your claim with "I think" or "I believe." ​Readers will know these are your thoughts and beliefs,
since you are the author. Your claim should clearly state your opinion -- based on what you learned from the reading
-- about whether or not sarcasm is a necessary tool for communication. For example,

Example: According to the author, being able to detect sarcasm is unnecessary because ______.

● Step b : Reason​ (This is similar to a topic sentence and supporting sentence squished together. It
might define the term or provide context for the quote to come)
Provide reasons why you believe your claim.

● Step c: Evidence
Provide evidence from the text to support your claim.(HINT: USE YOUR HIGHLIGHTING)

● Step d: Reasoning​( This is similar to analysis and explanation sentences)

Explain how your evidence connects back to your claim​.
YOU SHOULD COMPLETE THE Counter Argument PROCESS AT LEAST
TWICE IN A THINKCERCA ASSIGNMENT