Despite the broad importance of humor, psychologists do not agree on the basic elements that cause people to experience laughter, amusement, and the perception that something is funny. There are more than 20 distinct psychological theories that propose appraisals that characterize humor appreciation. Most of these theories leverage a subset of five potential antecedents of humor appreciation: surprise, simultaneity, superiority, a violation appraisal, and conditions that facilitate a benign appraisal. We evaluate each antecedent against the existing empirical evidence and find that simultaneity, violation, and benign appraisals all help distinguish humorous from nonhumorous experiences, but surprise and superiority do not. Our review helps organize a disconnected literature, dispel popular but inaccurate ideas, offers a framework for future research, and helps answer three long-standing questions about humor: what conditions predict laughter and amusement, what are the adaptive benefits of humor, and why do different people think vastly different things are humorous?

尽管幽默具有广泛的重要性，但心理学家并不同意使人们体验欢笑、娱乐和认为某事很有趣的基本要素。有 20 多种不同的心理学理论提出了表征幽默欣赏的评价。这些理论中的大多数都利用了幽默欣赏的五个潜在前因中的一个子集：惊喜、同时性、优越性、违规评估和促进良性评估的条件。我们根据现有的经验证据评估每个前因，发现同时性、违规和良性评价都有助于区分幽默和非幽默体验，但惊喜和优越感没有。我们的评论有助于组织不连贯的文献，消除流行但不准确的想法，