Studies often treat sense of humour as a unidimensional construct. Recently, however, four different humour styles have been hypothesized and validated by the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). In the present two studies, first, the HSQ received cross‐cultural validation among French‐speaking Belgian students (94 high school and 87 college students). Second, apart from some similarities (Extraversion, low need for closure), the four humour styles were found to be differently related to personality. Social and self‐enhancing humour styles were positively related to Agreeableness, Openness, and self‐esteem, whereas hostile humour was negatively related to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Self‐defeating humour was negatively related to Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, security in attachment, and self‐esteem. Finally, students' humour styles were neither direct nor indirect predictors of school performance, but self‐defeating and hostile humour styles were typical of students with low school motivation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.