Title: How to Deal with Sarcastic People | Savvy Psychologist
Headings: How to Deal with Mean Sarcasm
How to Deal with Mean Sarcasm
6-minute read
Featured on QDT
Sarcasm requires more advanced thinking skills
This doesn't mean sarcastic people are smarter, despite what some Internet articles might want you to believe.
Neither human judges nor machine algorithms are very good at identifying sarcasm on Twitter.
Why do people use sarcasm?
Next time you call customer service, your best bet is to be nice.
How to respond to mean sarcasm
Response #1: Answer them literally
Respond with the opposite of sarcasm—sincerity.
Response #2: Ignore them (and maybe throw some compassion their way)
Response #3: Label real feelings and follow up with sincere questions
Response #4: Give some free advice
About the Author
Jade Wu, PhD
More Tips from Savvy Psychologist

Content: Here's what some of them mean and examples of how to use them. More often, though, sarcasm is used to demonstrate irritation or just to be plain old mean: “ Yeah, that’s a real genius idea" or maybe "Could you be less competent?” Before we talk about how to respond when you're the target of someone's mean sarcasm, let’s get a little nerdy about the science of sarcasm. Sarcasm requires more advanced thinking skills
Research shows that sarcasm is understood through both what we say and how we say it. What we say is the opposite of what we really mean, which a listener has to get from the context of the situation. How we say it tends to be lower, slower, and louder. And all of this information is processed lightning-fast, on the spot. So for all the social mayhem they cause, sarcastic people actually employ some pretty advanced social cognition. Why advanced?