Dr. Jennifer Hofmann

Work at ZHAW

Position

Instructor

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Lau, C. et al. (2022) 'Is humor temperament associated with being creative, original, and funny? : a tale of three studies', Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 18(4), pp. 561–571. doi: 10.1037/aca0000467.
• Kretzschmar, A. et al. (2022) 'Character strengths and fluid intelligence', Journal of Personality, 90(6), pp. 1057–1069. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12715.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

• Schnoz-Schmied, T. P., Wyler, S., Hofmann, J., Balzer, L., & Beywl, W. (2026). Hochschulentwicklung und Evaluation an Hochschulen. LeGes.
• Gampe, A., Heintz, S., & Hofmann, J. (2025). Can You Make Me Laugh? Toddlers’ and Parents’ Shared Positive Expressions in Playful Interactions. Social Development, 34(3), e12809.
• Lau, C., Li, C., Chiesi, F., Hofmann, J., & Saklofske, D. H. (2024). Is humor temperament associated with being creative, original, and funny? A tale of three studies. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 18(4), 561-571.
• Hofmann, J., Platt, T., Lau, C. et al. Gender differences in humor-related traits, humor appreciation, production, comprehension, (neural) responses, use, and correlates: A systematic review. Curr Psychol 42, 16451–16464 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00724-1
• Davis, J. M. & Hofmann, J. (2023). The humor transaction schema: a conceptual framework for researching the nature and effects of humor, HUMOR, vol. 36, no. 2, 323-353. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2020-0143
• Ruch, W., Wagner, L. & Hofmann, J. A lexical approach to laughter classification: Natural language distinguishes six (classes of) formal characteristics. Curr Psychol 42, 16234–16246 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00369-9
• Hofmann, J. & Ruch, W. (2023). Amusement. In Emotion Theory: The Routledge Comprehensive Guide (A. Scarantino, Ed.), 27-45.
• Clifton, A. B. W., Stahlmann, A. G., Hofmann, J., Chirico, A., Cadwallader, R., & Clifton, J. D. W. (2023). Improving Scale Equivalence by Increasing Access to Scale-Specific Information. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(4), 843-853.
• Heintz, S., & Hofmann, J. (2022). Assessing Humor and Its Kin. Handbook of Positive Psychology Assessment, 122.
• Ruch, W., Heintz, S., Gander, F., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Proyer, R. T. (2021). The long and winding road: A comprehensive analysis of 50 years of Eysenck instruments for the assessment of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110070.
• Bäker, A., Hofmann, J., & Mechtel, M. (2021). Relational competence, social status, and humor: Evidence from two experiments. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2021, No. 1, p. 13347). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
• Gander, F., Hofmann, J. & Ruch, W. From Unemployment to Employment and Back: Professional Trajectories and Well-Being. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 739–751 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09797-y
• Lau, C., Chiesi, F., Hofmann, J., Saklofske, D. H., & Ruch, W. (2021). Development and Linguistic Cue Analysis of the State-Trait Cheerfulness Inventory–Short Form. Journal of Personality Assessment, 103(4), 547–557. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2020.1779733
• Gander, F., Hofmann, J., Proyer, R. T., & Ruch, W. (2020). Character strengths–Stability, change, and relationships with well-being changes. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15(2), 349-367.
• Gander F, Hofmann J and Ruch W (2020) Character Strengths: Person–Environment Fit and Relationships With Job and Life Satisfaction. Front. Psychol. 11:1582. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01582
• Hofmann, J., Heintz, S., Pang, D. et al. Differential Relationships of Light and Darker Forms of Humor with Mindfulness. Applied Research Quality Life 15, 369–393 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-018-9698-9
• Stahlmann, A. G., Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., Heintz, S., & Clifton, J. D. (2020). The higher-order structure of primal world beliefs in German-speaking countries: Adaptation and initial validation of the German Primals Inventory (PI-66-G). Personality and Individual Differences, 163, 110054.
• Ruch, W., Wagner, L., & Hofmann, J. (2019). A lexical approach to laughter classification: Natural language distinguishes six (classes of) formal characteristics. Current Psychology. doi:10.1007/s12144-019-00369-9
• Hofmann, J., & Giuliani, F. (2019). Humor ist trainierbar: Ein Überblick über den Forschungsstand und Einblick in das Praxis-Projekt „Beziehungspflege mit Humor“ In C. Müller (Ed.), HumorCare: Das Heiterkeitsbuch für Pflege und Gesundheitsberufe (pp. 207-224). Bern, Switzerland: Hogrefe.
• Lau, C., Chiesi, F., Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., & Saklofske, D.H. (2019). The Italian version of the state-trait cheerfulness inventory trait form: Psychometric validation and evaluation of measurement invariance. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. Advance Online. DOI: 10.1177/0734282919875639
• Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W. (2019). Moving forward in fostering humor: Towards training lighter forms of humour in multicultural contexts. In L.E. van Zyl & S. Rothmann (Eds.), Theoretical Approaches to Multi-cultural Positive Psychological Interventions (vol. 1, chapter 1, pp- 1-20). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20583-6_1
• Hofmann, J., & Stahlmann, A. G. (2019). Humor und Umgebungsgestaltung: Wo kann Erheiterung gelingen? [Humor and the design of physical environments: Where does exhilaration start?] In C. Müller (Ed.), HumorCare: Das Heiterkeitsbuch für Pflege und Gesundheitsberufe (pp. 225-240). Bern, Switzerland: Hogrefe.
• Hofmann, J., & Rodden, F. (2019). Representing, detecting, and translating humor in the monolingual and multilingual brain. In: J. W. Schwieter (Ed.), The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism (pp. 335-354). Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781119387725.ch16
• Hofmann, J., Heintz, S., Pang, D., & Ruch, W. (2019). Differential relationships of light and darker forms of humor with mindfulness. Applied Research in Quality of Life, Special Issue “Character strengths, well-being, and health in educational and vocational settings”. doi:10.1007/s11482-018-9698-9
• Massoudi, K., Urbanaviciute, I., Hofmann. J. & Gander, F. (2019). Des vulnérabilités aux vertus : une approche positive du bien-être au travail. In J. Masdonati, K. Massoudi, and J. Rossier, (Eds.), Repères pour l’orientation (chapter 9). Lausanne: Antipodes.
• Ruch, W., Gander, F., Platt, T., & Hofmann, J. (2018). Team roles: Their relationships to character strengths and job satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13, 190–199. doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1257051
• Gander, F., Ruch, W., Platt, T., Hofmann, J., & Elmer, T. (2018). Current and ideal team roles: Relationships to job satisfaction and calling. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, Special Issue on “Positive Psychology”, 4, 277-289. dx.doi.org/10.1037/tps0000165
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., Rusch, S., & Stolz, H. (2018). The impact of the 7 Humor Habits Program on the sense of humor and satisfaction with life. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Festschrift for Paul McGhee: Humor across the lifespan, theory, measurement, and applications doi.org/10.1515/humor-2017-0099
• Hofmann, J., Carretero-Dios, H., Carrell, A. (2018). Assessing the temperamental basis of the sense of humor: adaptation of the English language version of the State-Trait Cheerfulness Inventory long and standard form. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02255
• Hofmann, J. (2018). Putting “Laughing at yourself” to the test. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Special Issue Festschrift for Paul McGhee: Humor across the lifespan, theory, measurement, and applications, 273-286. doi: 10.1515/humor-2016-0075
• Hofmann, J., Gander, F., & Ruch, W. (2018). Exploring differences in well-being across occupation type and skill. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, Special Issue on “Positive Psychology”, 4, 290-303. dx.doi.org/10.1037/tps0000167
• Aranda, A. P., Hofmann, J., Soler, A. F., Ramirez Maestre, C., Rodriguez, L. A., Ruch, W., & Luciano, J. V. Laughing away the pain: A narrative review of humor, sense of humor, and pain. European Journal of Pain, 23, 220-233. doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1309.
• Hofmann, J. & Ruch, W. (2018). Humorous TV ads and the 3WD: Evidence for generalizability of humour appreciation across media? European Journal of Humor Research, 5, 194 – 215. dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2017.5.4.hofmann
• Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Ruch, W. (2017). Laughter and smiling in 16 positive emotions. IEEE Transactions in Affective Computing, Special Issue on Laughter, 8, 495-507. doi: 10.1109/TAFFC.2017.2737000
• Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W. (2017). Laughter. In Dana S. Dunn (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online. New York: Oxford University Press. Article accepted for publication 23.12.2016. www.oxfordbibliographies.com
• Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., Proyer, R. T., Platt, T., &, Gander, F. (2017). Assessing dispositions towards ridicule and laughter in the workplace: Adapting and validating the PhoPhiKat-9 questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00714
• Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. (2017). Psychologie, Medizin, Hirnforschung. [Humor in Psychology, Medicine, and Brain Research] In U. Wirth (Ed.), Handbuch der Komik [Handbook of the comic] (pp. 89–101). Stuttgart, Germany: J. B. Metzler. doi: 10.1007/978-3-476-05391-6_16
• Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. (2017). Fostering humor. In C. Proctor (Ed.), Positive psychology interventions in practice (pp. 65–80). New York: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51787-2_5
• Hofmann, J. (2016). Book Review: Kai Rugenstein “Humor: Die Verflüssigung des Subjektes bei Hippokrates, Jean Paul, Kierkegaard und Freud”. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 2, 329 – 323. doi: 10.1515/humor-2016-0025
• Platt, T., Proyer, R. T., Hofmann, J., Ventis, L. (2016). Gelotophobia in practice and the implications of ignoring it. European Journal of Humor Research, 4, 46 – 56. doi: dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2016.4.2.platt
• Bruntsch, R., Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W (2016). Virgin soil in irony research. Translational Issues in Psychological Science. Special Issue on “The Psychology of Humor”, 2, 25 – 34.
• Dupont, S. Cakmak, H., Curran, W., Dutoit, Th., Hofmann, J., McKeown, G., Pietiquin, O., Platt, T., Ruch, W., & Urbain, J. (2016). Laughter Research: a Review of the ILHAIRE Project. In A. Esposito and L. C. Chain (Eds.) Toward Robotic Socially Believable Behaving Systems - Volume I – Modelling Emotions (pp.147-181). New York, USA: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-31056-5_9
• Hofmann, J. (2015). Smiling and laughter in positive emotions: Personality influences and expressive features. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
• Hofmann, J., Platt, T., Ruch, W., & Niewiadomski, R., Urbain, J. (2015). The influence of a virtual companion on amusement when watching funny films. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 434-447. doi: 10.1007/s11031-014-9461-y
• Hofmann, J. & Platt, T. (2015). Duchenne Lächeln In M. A. Wirtz (Ed.), Dorsch – Lexikon der Psychologie. Abgerufen am 26.06.2015, von portal.hogrefe.com/dorsch/duchenne-laecheln/
• Hofmann, J. (2015). Schadenfreude. In M. A. Wirtz (Ed.), Dorsch – Lexikon der Psychologie. Abgerufen am 26.06.2015, von portal.hogrefe.com/dorsch/schadenfreude/
• Hofmann, J., Platt, T., Ruch, W. & Proyer, R. (2015). Individual differences in gelotophobia predict responses to joy and contempt. Sage Open, 5(2), 1 – 12. doi: 10.1177/2158244015581191
• Hofmann, J. & Ruch, W. (2015). Lachen. In M. A. Wirtz (Ed.), Dorsch – Lexikon der Psychologie. Abgerufen am 26.06.2015, von portal.hogrefe.com/dorsch/lachen/
• Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W. (2015). Gibt es ein Lachen der Schadenfreude? [Is there a laughter of schadenfreude?] Zeitschrift für Semiotik (Sonderheft Lachen) [Semiotics, Special Issue on Laughter], 37, 55 – 80.
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Platt, T. (2015). Individual differences in gelotophobia and responses to laughter-eliciting emotions. Personality and Individual Differences, 72, 117 – 121. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.08.034
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Proyer, R. T. (2014). The state-of-the art in gelotophobia research: A review and some theoretical extensions. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 27, 23-45. doi: 10.1515/humor-2013-0046.
• Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W. (2014). Cheerfulness, Seriousness, and Humor. In S. Attardo (ed.), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (pp. 118-120). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. doi:10.4135/9781483346175.n54
• Ruch, W., Platt, T., & Hofmann, J. (2014). The character strengths of class clowns. Frontiers in Personality and Social Psychology, 5. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01075
• Ruch, W., Platt, T., Hofmann, J., Niewiadomski, R., Urbain, J., Mancini, M, & Dupont, S. (2014). Gelotophobia and the challenges of implementing laughter into Virtual Agents interactions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 8:928. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00928
• Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. (2014). Factor analysis of humor items. In S. Attardo (ed.), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (pp. 226-228). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. doi:10.4135/9781483346175.n107
• Auerbach, S., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Ruch, W. (2014). An investigation of the emotions elicited by hospital clowns
in comparison to circus
clowns and nursing staff. European Journal of Humor Research, 3(1), 26-45.
• Hofmann, J. (2014). Intense or malicious? The decoding of eyebrow-lowering frowning in laughter animations depends on the presentation mode. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:1306. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01306
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Vuori, A. (2013). Die Stärken der Pfadi: Positives Erleben und positive Eigenschaften bei Kindern und Jugendlichen in Jugendverbänden The strengths of the scouts: Positive experience and positive traits in children and adolescents participating in youth organizations. Psychologie und Erziehung (P&E 1.13), 39, 22-31.
• Ruch, W. & Hofmann, J. (2013). Humor. In Dana S. Dunn (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online. New York: Oxford University Press. Article accepted for publication December 17, 2012. www.oxfordbibliographies.com. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0127
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Platt, T. (2013). Investigating facial features of four types of laughter in historic illustrations. European Journal of Humor Research, 1(1), 98-118.
• Urbain, J., Niewiadomski, R., Hofmann, J., Bantegnie, E., Baur, T., Berthouze, N., Cakmak, H., Cruz, R. T., Dupont, S., Geist, M., Griffin, H., Lingenfelser, F., Mancini, M., Miranda, M., McKeown, G., Pammi, S., Pietquin, O., Piot, B., Platt, T., Ruch, W., Sharma, A., Volpe, G., & Wagner, J. (2013). Laugh Machine. Proceedings eNTERFACE’12. The 8th International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, 2nd – 27th of July 2012 (pp. 13-34). Metz, France: Supélec.
• Platt, T., Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2013). Duchenne Display responses towards sixteen enjoyable emotions: Individual differences between no and fear of being laughed at. Motivation and Emotion, 37, 776–786. doi:10.1007/s11031-013-9342-9.
• Niewiadomski, R., Hofmann, J., Urbain, J., Platt, T., Wagner, J., Piot, B., Cakmak, H., Pammi, S., Baur, T., Dupont, S., Geist, M., Lingenfelser, F., McKeown, G., Pietquin, O., & Ruch, W. (2013). Laugh-aware virtual agent and its impact on user amusement. In T. Ito, C. Jonker, M. Gini, and O. Shehory (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2013) (pp. 619-626). Minnesota, USA. doi:10.13140/2.1.1984.0960
• Mancini, M., Hofmann, J., Volpe, G., Varni, G., Platt, T., Glowinski, D., Ruch, W., & Camurri, A. (2013). Towards automated full body detection of laughter driven by human expert annotation. 5th International Workshop on Affective Interaction in Natural Environments (AFFINE), 757-762. doi:10.1109/acii.2013.140
• Platt, T., Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., Niewiadomski, R., & Urbain, J. (2012). Experimental standards in research on AI and humor when considering psychology. Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence of Humor Proceedings, Washington, USA, 2-4 of November, 54-61.
• Niewiadomski, R., Pammi, S., Sharma, A., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., Cruz, R.T., Qu, B. (2012). Visual laughter synthesis: Initial approaches. Interdisciplinary Workshop on Laughter and other Non-Verbal Vocalisations in Speech Proceedings, Dublin, Ireland, 26-27 of October (pp. 10-12).
• Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., & Platt, T. (2012). The en- and decoding of schadenfreude laughter. Sheer joy expressed by a Duchenne laugh or emotional blend with a distinct morphological expression? Interdisciplinary Workshop on Laughter and other Non-Verbal Vocalizations in Speech Proceedings, Dublin, Ireland, 26-27 of October (pp. 8-10).
• Platt, T., Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Proyer, R. T. (2012). Extreme fear of being laughed at: components of gelotophobia. Israeli Journal of Humor Research: An international Journal, 1, 86-106.
• Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. (2012). A temperament approach to humor. In P. Gremigni (Ed.), Humor and health promotion (pp. 79-113). Hauppauge, NY USA: Nova Science Publishers.

Other publications

• Hofmann, J. (2019). Das Lächeln. In R. F. Lacher (Ed.), Scherz, die heitere Seite der Aufklärung (pp. 85–88). Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.
• Ruch, W., & Hofmann, J. (2019). Komik im Werk Elfriede Jelineks. In Komik und Subversion. Ideologiekritische Strategien (pp. 349-360). fpjelinek.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/proj_ejfz/PDF-Downloads/Komik_-_Ruch-Hofmann.pdf (5.4.2018)
• Heintz, S. & Hofmann, J. (2017). War es nur Spass oder war es Spott? Beiträge aus der psychologischen Forschung zu Humor und Lachen. [was it just fun or mockery? Contributions from psychological research on teasing] Sticheleien im Müsigricht (Anthologie) (pp. 94 – 105). Steinen: Verein Kulturplatz Müsigricht.
• Hofmann, J., & Ruch, W. (2015). Humor stärkt mich [Humor strengthens me]. Polyarthritis Info Magazin, 138, 5–11.
• Hofmann, J. (2015). Humor- wo er nährt und wo er stört [Humor: Where it nurtures and where it is inappropriate]. Schulblatt Thurgau, 6, 7 – 11.
• Hofmann, J. (2015). Humor in der sozialen Arbeit. Sozial Aktuell, 2, 10-14.
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Proyer, R. T. (2014). Lach’ mal wieder [Laugh again!]. Well, 4, 10 – 11.
• Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., Platt, T, & Auerbach, S. (2014). Humor als Ressource im Alter: Zur Fähigkeit, über sich selber lachen zu können. [Humor as a resource in old age: About the ability to laugh at oneself] ProAlter, 4(1), 49-51.
• Hofmann J., & Ruch, W. (2014). Lachforschung? Ist das ein Witz? Neue Entwicklungen in der ernsthaften Forschung zum Lachen. [Laughter research? Is this a joke? New developments in the serious research on laughter]. Die Furche, 29(1), 4-5.
• Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Proyer, R. (2014). Ein Überblick über Forschung zu Humor und deren Anwendung: Ein Forschungsthema ohne Altersbeschränkung. Seniorenreport der Landesseniorenvertretung Thüringen, 19(3), 8–10.

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