Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 September 14

= September 14 =

Half full half empty
Why is this funny? Which psychological mechanism is taking part? Which theory of humor is applicable? Etan J. Tal(talk) 10:02, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't understand your questions. Why is what funny – the photo, or the old conundrum to which it refers? --Viennese Waltz 10:16, 14 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Seems akin to the concept of signed zero and the intuitive uncomfortableness that that raises. 2A01:E34:EF5E:4640:55B3:ED87:DFE3:A4F8 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 11:23, 14 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Maybe the OP is unfamiliar with the old saw. Here are a couple of variations:
 * The optimist says it's half full; the pessimist says it's half empty; the efficiency expert says you have 50 percent too much glass.
 * The answer to half full or half empty is, "It depends on whether you're pouring or drinking."
 * ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:36, 14 September 2018 (UTC)


 * I would refer the OP to one of the best cartoons by the genius Gary Larson (now retired), detailing the "Four Basic Personality Types" - a |psychological profiling tool that I often usefully employ at Wikipedia. (The image can easily be found via Google Image search). Martinevans123 (talk) 12:45, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Optimist: This glass is half full
 * Pessimist: This glass is half empty
 * Pragmatist: Right, time for another round, who’s buying?
 * Denialist: I had a full glass a second ago... has someone been drinking my beer?
 * Feminist: Half-pints are patriarchal oppression!
 * (we could go on) Blueboar (talk) 14:35, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Europeanist: If you want to serve beer in imperial measures, then 51.89% is plainly more than half. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:59, 14 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Just to be clear, the basic question of whether a glass is half full or half empty is not meant to be humorous; it's meant to expose whether the respondent is optimistic (optimists are presumed to reply that it is half full) or pessimistic (pessimists are presumed to answer that it's half empty). As you can see from above, this is frequently used as a framework to humourous additions, but the original piece was not meant to be funny. Matt Deres (talk) 16:59, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't think it's a rigorous psychological test, either. It's kind of a metaphor. It also reminds me of something Alan Dershowitz said on a TV show about genealogy. He said sometimes the Jewish attitude towards someone who's a mixed-faith product can go either way. If he's thought to be ill-informed, they might say, "Oh, he's only half Jewish." But if he's thought to be very astute, they might say, "He's half Jewish!" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:55, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Well apparently it's to do with how caustic or acidic a politician is. Like for example, I guess, if Jeremy Corbyn's only half as bad as Hitler, etc.?? Martinevans123 (talk) 22:07, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * "Half as bad as Hitler" would imply having killed "only" 3 million Jews, as opposed to 6 million. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:37, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * The wording often accompanying the "half-full"/"half-empty" terminology is "sees the glass as". Therefore the overall phrase refers to a perspective, which presumably makes sense in the context in which it is used. Bus stop (talk) 23:10, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * It never made sense to me, from the day I first heard it as a nerdy, pedantic, mathematics obsessed teenager. I simply saw half-full and half-empty as different ways of saying precisely the same thing. HiLo48 (talk) 23:39, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * In terms of numerical measurement, it is. It's not really about that - it's a metaphor about positive or negative attitudes. Like, is something an impediment, or is it an opportunity? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:47, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Right from the start I gathered it wasn't meant to be about precise measurements, but my character at the time could not see another perspective. This WAS half a century ago. HiLo48 (talk) 00:16, 15 September 2018 (UTC)
 * A lot of things we encounter when we're young can take a while to make sense. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:19, 15 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Who says it's meant to be funny? I don't find it funny. Just sort of decorative. † dismas †|(talk) 22:17, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Which of the two markings is informative depends whether the reader is the barman or the drinker. There is a titillating sense of Paradox in the notion that being half-way through emptying can be indistinguishable from being half-way through filling, which may be called an example of Dialetheism. DroneB (talk) 22:48, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
 * (The above responses copied from the OP's double-posting at the Misc desk. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:50, 14 September 2018 (UTC))
 * . Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:54, 15 September 2018 (UTC)


 * The Wikipedia article this is from claims it's an example of "Incongruous juxtaposition". ie: We don't intuitively expect "Half full" and "half empty" to both be marked by the same line, and so we're surprised to be reminded that they're the same value stated from different frames of reference.
 * I disagree. Maybe when the half-full/half-empty idiom was first introduced that was the case, but now that it's a very well-known trope, this bar glass is just engaging in reference humor.  Like when a sit-com mentions a pop-culture thing without really saying anything witty about it. ApLundell (talk) 18:42, 17 September 2018 (UTC)