Dr Seuss Better Understood Through New Scientific Research

Dec. 16, 2015 - PRLog -- Authored by Richard Robbins of CustomVinylDecor.com

The Legacy of Dr Seuss

Dr Seuss is a common name among millions of households in the United States, Canada, and in other English-speaking countries, where his books have been used for generations to entertain and inspire. His books have been adapted to created television series, feature films, plays, and other spin-offs. Even some twenty-plus years after his death, the writings of Theodor Seuss Geisel ("Dr Seuss) continue to influence. Movies and plays such Seussical the Musical (2000), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and most recently The Lorax (2012) demonstrate that the formalized musings Dr Seuss have become timeless.

What is it about Dr Seuss' style of writing that makes him so appealing across a diverse population spanning more than fifty years and several generations? Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton think they may have figured it out.

The "Quantifiable Theory of Humor"

While conducting a study of a speech and language disorder, Chris Westbury, a University of Alberta psychology professor, came across something intriguing. His reading of silly, madeup words like "snunkoople" and "truffula" elicited responses of amusement and and even laughter.

Westbury's intrigue at the notion that meaningless, nonsensical words had such entertainment power spurred him to research exactly what makes those words funny. The research involved understanding humor and its sources, including the "inconguity theory", which explains that people tend to find humor in things that are supprisingly unexpected.

The field of mathematics lent some clarification. Westbury developed his treatise on humor by borrowing from the mathematical concept of Shannon entropy, which quantifies how much disorder exists within a body of communication. His study, conducted with colleagues at the University of Alberta and two linguists from Germany, concluded that the more disordered a word is, the funnier it is. Dr Seuss' books and writings evidently contain a significant amount of disorderly words compared to other authors. This is what makes his writings funny, which gives them appeal to the audiences he's reached.

Westbury will be publishing his quantifiable theory of humor in the January 2016 Journal of Memory and Language. The published research will comprise the first of its sort, where humor is quantified.

So next time you hear one of Dr Seusss' random quotes and find yourself chuckling at the saying while doing your best to get your head around what it means, you can understand that there is some scientific backing for what you just experienced.

Find Dr Seuss quotes to decorate your home at: http://customvinyldecor.com/dr-seuss-vinyl-wall-quotes/