Examining the Structure of the Sarcasm Self-Report Scale Cross-Culturally: Evidence from Canada, Poland, and Türkiye

Sarcasm is an indirect speech act that expresses an idea that is different from its literal meaning and highlights a discrepancy between prior expectations and reality. The Sarcasm Self-Report Scale is a measure of self-reported sarcasm use. It consists of four components: general sarcasm, face-saving, frustration diffusion, and embarrassment diffusion. While the SSS has been cited frequently for the past 20 years, it has only been used with English speakers, and it has not been compared cross-culturally. In the current study, we administered the SSS in an online survey to Polish speakers living in Poland (n = 316), Turkish speakers living in Türkiye (n = 352), and English speakers living in Canada (n = 551). A principal component analysis showed that the SSS had the same components in all three samples, as in the original SSS study. In each sample, we found four statistically significant components, with some differences in factor loadings between the items. However, almost all the components of the SSS were consistent across cultures. General sarcasm and embarrassment diffusion were present in the structures for all countries. Face-saving and frustration diffusion were found in the Canadian and Turkish samples. These findings show that the SSS remains a reliable measure of sarcasm use and, although all three cultural groups use sarcasm, they may differ in their reasons for why they use sarcasm.