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Do aggressive jokes push us to the brink of hopelessness? Investigating the roles of team dissonance and team cultural tightness

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  • Yang, Fu
  • Gong, Yixuan
  • Hu, Xiaoran

Abstract

While leader humor is commonly valued, we have yet to grasp its negative attributes and team-level effects more fully. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, we develop a theoretical model to investigate how leader aggressive humor elicits emergent processes and the shared affective dynamics, extending the outcomes not addressed by its individual-level theories. Across a preregistered scenario-based experiment (the pilot study: n = 216 members), we provide individual-level preliminary evidence of contextual influences. To test our hypotheses, we further conducted a time-lagged field study (n = 594 members from 139 teams). Results revealed that leader aggressive humor evokes members’ collective feelings of dissonance, which in turn fosters team hopelessness. These effects are exacerbated in teams with tight cultures as compared to those with loose cultures. Overall, our work advances a novel theoretical framework on the negative attributes of leader humor in teams and unlocks essential knowledge for enhancing organizational health.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Fu & Gong, Yixuan & Hu, Xiaoran, 2026. "Do aggressive jokes push us to the brink of hopelessness? Investigating the roles of team dissonance and team cultural tightness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:214:y:2026:i:c:s0148296326002882
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116253
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