Slugs and Steins: Producing and Understanding Sarcasm

Have you ever had the experience of not knowing whether someone was being sarcastic? You are not alone. In this talk, Prof. Jean E. Fox Tree will present research findings from her lab on how people produce and understand sarcasm in speech and writing, including studies of how sarcasm is expressed in internet arguments, how reliable tone of voice is in identifying sarcasm, how often people experience gaps between intended and interpreted sarcasm (sarchasm), and whether sarcastic people are more likely to see sarcasm in others.

Jean E. Fox Tree is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a cognitive scientist studying the comprehension and production of verbal and nonverbal behavior across a variety of communicative settings. She has studied face to face communication, virtual communication, and written communication, among other topics. Most of her work focusses on how people communicate with each other, but she also researches how people communicate with machines. Recent topics include how to have a good conversation and how to spot hyperpartisan communication in online chat groups.