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Dealing with laughter and ridicule in adolescence: relations with bullying and emotional responses

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Abstract

We investigated the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), the joy in being laughed at (gelotophilia), and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) in adolescent students (N = 324, 13–15 years). Gelotophobia was associated primarily with the victim and katagelasticism with the bully-role (self- and peer reports). Gelotophobia correlated with laughing at oneself if experiencing an embarrassing situation. Gelotophilia increased with the propensity to laugh if observing or experiencing embarrassment; katagelasticism increased with laughing if observing something embarrassing in another person. Imagining potentially embarrassing situations was associated with greater feelings of anxiety, shame, sadness, and embarrassment; gelotophilia with joy and cheerfulness. The study breaks the ground for a better understanding on how adolescent students deal with laughter and ridicule.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded to RTP and WR (SNSF; 100014_126967) and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n 270780 (ILHAIRE project).

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/7, 8050 , Zurich, Switzerland

    René T. Proyer, Lukas E. Meier, Tracey Platt & Willibald Ruch

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  1. René T. Proyer
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  2. Lukas E. Meier
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  3. Tracey Platt
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Correspondence to René T. Proyer.

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Proyer, R.T., Meier, L.E., Platt, T. et al. Dealing with laughter and ridicule in adolescence: relations with bullying and emotional responses. Soc Psychol Educ 16, 399–420 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-013-9221-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-013-9221-y

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