Sarcasm is a language just about anyone living in the 21st might understand. Why? In an age suffused with enough irony to support The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and a host lesser comedic takes on current events, an age where The Onion can legitimately claim to be America's Finest News Source, the primary cultural divide today is not between liberal and conservative, but between sarcasm and a kind of oh-so earnest oblivion. Think the smart-alecky have just a little too much time on their hands? Don't be wise.
Sarcasm seems to exercise the brain more than sincere statements do. Scientists who have monitored the electrical activity of the brains of test subjects exposed to sarcastic statements have found that brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm.
That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another study. College students in Israel listened to complaints to a cellphone company’s customer service line. The students were better able to solve problems creatively when the complaints were sarcastic as opposed to just plain angry. Sarcasm 'appears to stimulate complex thinking and to attenuate the otherwise negative effects of anger,' according to the study authors.
So if you want to be taken seriously, try a little humor. Hat tip: 3 Quarks Daily
Wayne