Partners tend to evaluate each other’s personalities and behavior with some degree of accuracy and inaccuracy or idealism. A person’s humor style—the degree to which they use positive (i.e., affiliative) or negative (i.e., aggressive) forms of humor—is highly subjective, evaluative, and important for people’s relationship satisfaction. The current study extends work on partner perception by examining accuracy and bias in people’s perception of their partners’ humor styles. I recruited 261 heterosexual couples (N = 522 individuals; Mage = 65.42, SD = 12.31) who completed self- and partner-reports of humor styles. Truth and Bias modeling revealed that, although bias varied across styles of humor, participants consistently demonstrated accuracy in their judgements of their partner’s humor styles. In general, relationship satisfaction was positively associated with individuals reporting their partners using positive forms of humor (i.e. affiliative and self-enhancing humor). Relationship satisfaction was negatively associated with individuals reporting their partners using aggressive forms of humor. Bias forces were moderated by relationship satisfaction such that assumed similarity biases were stronger among those in particularly satisfying relationships. The results are discussed in the context of the origins of truth and bias in partner reports of humor in close relationships.
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