Israeli scientists have discovered the “anatomy of sarcasm” and found out that it takes “a complex set of cognitive skills”, one of which is empathy, to understand sarcasm.
The psychologists write in the May issue of the journal Neuropsychology that for sarcasm to register, the listener must grasp the speaker’s intentions in the context of the situation. This calls for both sophisticated social thinking and appreciating a “theory of mind,” that different people think different thoughts.
“To detect sarcasm, irony and jokes, and to better understand what people mean when they talk, we must have empathy,” said researcher Simone Shamay-Tsoory of the University of Haifa and lead author of the study.
I think, for their next study, they’re going to find that being sarcastic is a sign of intelligence.
