W krzywym zwierciadle ironii i autoironii. O kobietach i mężczyznach nie wprost

The distorted lens of irony and self-mockery. A gender comparison

This book presents three psychological experiments on men and women. The goal was to establish how gender, self-esteem and anxiety impact the production and perception of verbal irony and self-mockery. Further, the research analyzes the role of non-verbal language in self-identification. The experiments show that irony (‘blame by praise’ or ‘praise by blame’) are not only hinged on two linguistic levels: literal and implied; but also on gender. Though the grammatical form of the Polish word irony (“ironia”) is feminine, we find it is used more by men. Men produce more irony than women and use it in a more playful way. For women, irony is associated with spitefulness. Higher self-esteem and lower anxiety are also predictors of the use of self-mockery. The authors place a special focus on the importance of emotions in irony use and processing. The results of this research allow for the presentation of a new model of irony as a defensive mechanism for self-regulation of emotion.

Keywords: irony, self-mockery, sex, gender, stereotype, self-esteem, anxiety, humour, emotions.

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Anna Milanowicz – PhD in social sciences in the field of psychology, psychologist, linguist. A graduate of the Second High School Stefan Batory in Warsaw.

She graduated in psychology and applied linguistics at the University of Warsaw. She defended doctorate at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Barbara Bokus in 2019. Professionally associated with Global Affairs Canada for many years. He is fluent in English, Russian, French and Italian.

Author of scientific publications in the field of psycholinguistics and gender studies. He has a son, Alfie. He permanently lives in London.



Barbara Bokus – professor of humanities, psychologist, psycholinguist. In his research work, he is particularly interested in narrative discourse, processes of constructing common meaning in interactions, metaphorical conceptualisation of concepts and understanding of ironic statements by children and adults. Initiator and editor-in-chief (in 1997–2014) of the journal "Psychology of Language and Communication" (currently the honorary editor-in-chief).

Head of the Department of Psycholinguistics (1993–2013) and the Department of Cognitive Psychology (2002–2019) at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw. Co-founder of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities (MISH) at the University of Warsaw. Head of the Inter-University Program of Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the Artes Liberales Academy. Author, co-author and scientific editor of many books and articles (see: http://psych.uw.edu.pl/o-nas/pracownicy/prof.-dr-hab.-barbara-bokus/).