A Guy Walks Into a Bar...

It wasn't long ago—1975, to be exact—that both men and women rated a joke funnier when a female was the butt of it. But that may be changing. Psychologists at Indiana University Northwest report that current male undergrads are equally amused whether a joke makes fun of a guy or a gal. The pendulum has swung even farther for women: they now find jokes less funny when the butt is one of their own.

What does it all mean? Perhaps it's one more sign that men are finally coming to judge women as equals, researchers say. Women's distaste for jokes about fellow females, meanwhile, might reflect increased sensitivity to suggestions of female inferiority—even if it's all in fun.