Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The ridiculed Impostor: Testing the associations between dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at and the Impostor Phenomenon

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Individual differences in how people experience and engage in laughter and ridicule can be described by three personality dispositions: gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (joy in being laughed at), and katagelasticism (joy in laughing at others). We study the correlates of how people deal with ridicule and being laughed at with the Impostor Phenomenon (IP; individual differences in the failure to internalize success and feelings of intellectual fraud). We tested our hypotheses in two independently collected samples of students and working professionals (N = 315/229; M = 22.7/37.1 years; 54.9/59.4% females). In line with previous studies, the IP was more pronounced in the students (g = 0.45). As expected, the fear of being laughed at best predicted the IP robustly positively (26–31% explained variance), and only numerically small effects (≤ 3% explained variance) existed for joy in being laughed at and laughing at others. Associations between the laughter-related dispositions and the IP did not differ between students and professionals. We discuss the findings with respect to expectations derived from theory, potential mediators, and future research directions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bechtoldt, M. N. (2015). Wanted: Self-doubting employees-managers scoring positively in impostorism favor insecure employees in task delegation. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 482–486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergson, H. (1900/1914). Laughter: An essay on the meaning of the comic. New York: Macmillian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, N. S., Dollinger, S. J., & Ramaniah, N. V. (2002). Applying the Big Five personality factors to the impostor phenomenon. Journal of Personality Assessment, 78, 321–333. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327752JPA7802_07.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blondeau, L. A., & Awad, G. H. (2018). The relation of the impostor phenomenon to future intentions of mathematics-related school and work. Journal of Career Development, 45, 253–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845316680769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brauer, K., & Proyer, R. T. (2017). Are Impostors playful? Testing the association between adult playfulness and the Impostor Phenomenon. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 57–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.029.

  • Brauer, K., & Proyer, R. T. (2018). To love and laugh: Testing actor-, partner-, and similarity effects of three dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at on relationship satisfaction. Journal of Research in Personality, 76, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2018.08.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brauer, K., & Wolf, A. (2016). Validation of the German-language Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 153–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.071.

  • Carretero-Dios, H., Ruch, W., Agudelo, D., Platt, T., & Proyer, R. T. (2010). Fear of being laughed at and social anxiety: A preliminary psychometric study. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 52, 108–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrisman, S. M., Pieper, W. A., Clance, P. R., Holland, C. L., & Glickauf-Hughes, C. (1995). Validation of the Clance impostor phenomenon scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65, 456–467. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6503_6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clance, P. R. (1985). The impostor phenomenon: Overcoming the fear that haunts your success. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree.

  • Clance, P. R. (1988). Erfolgreiche Versager: Das Hochstapler-Phänomen. Munich, Germany: Heyne.

  • Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15, 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Professional manual for the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curran, W., McKeown, G. J., Rychlowska, M., André, E., Wagner, J., & Lingenfelser, F. (2018). Social context disambiguates the interpretation of laughter. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02342.

  • Darwin, C. (1872/1998). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. Oxford: University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dursun, P., Dalğar, I., Brauer, K., Yerlikaya, E., & Proyer, R. T. (2019). Assessing dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at: Development and initial validation of the Turkish PhoPhiKat-45. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9725-2.

  • Edwards, K. R., Martin, R. A., & Dozois, D. J. A. (2010). The fear of being laughed at, social anxiety, and memories of being teased during childhood. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 52, 94–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48, 384–392. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.4.384.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Davidson, R. J., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). The Duchenne smile: Emotional expression and brain physiology: II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 342–353. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.342.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & Hager, J. C. (2002). Facial Action Coding System: A technique for the measurement of facial movement. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari, J. R., & Thompson, T. (2006). Impostor fears: Links with self-presentational concerns and self-handicapping behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.07.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Führ, M., Platt, T., & Proyer, R. T. (2015). Testing the relations of gelotophobia with humour as a coping strategy, self-ascribed loneliness, reflectivity, attractiveness, self-acceptance, and life expectations. European Journal of Humour Research, 3, 84–97. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2015.3.1.fuhr.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, J., Platt, T., Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2015). Individual differences in gelotophobia predict responses to joy and contempt. SAGE Open, 5, 215824401558119. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015581191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, J., Ruch, W., Proyer, R. T., Platt, T., & Gander, F. (2017). Assessing dispositions toward ridicule and laughter in the workplace: Adapting and validating the PhoPhiKat-9 questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00714.

  • Holmes, J. (2000). Politeness, power, and provocation: How humour functions in the workplace. Discourse Studies, 2, 159–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445600002002002.

  • Kangasharju, H., & Nikko, T. (2009). Emotions in organizations: Joint laughter in workplace meetings. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943608325750.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyton, J., & Beck, S. J. (2010). Examining laughter functionality in jury deliberations. Small Group Research, 41, 386–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496410366311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurtz, L. E., & Algoe, S. B. (2015). Putting laughter in context: Shared laughter as behavioral indicator of relationship well-being. Personal Relationships, 22, 573–590. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12095.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Langford, J., & Clance, P. R. (1993). The imposter phenomenon: Recent research findings regarding dynamics, personality and family patterns and their implications for treatment. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 30, 495–501. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.30.3.495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, M. R., Patton, K. M., Orlando, A. E., & Funk, W. W. (2000). The impostor phenomenon: Self-perceptions, reflected appraisal, and interpersonal strategies. Journal of Personality, 68, 725–756. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00114.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, O. (2010). Cooking with humor: In-group humor as social organization. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 23, 127–159. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2010.007.

  • Neureiter, M., & Traut-Mattausch, E. (2016). An inner barrier to career development: Pre- conditions of the impostor phenomenon and consequences for career development. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00048.

  • Papousek, I., Aydin, N., Lackner, H. K., Weiss, E. M., Bühner, M., Schulter, G., et al. (2014). Laughter as a social rejection cue: Gelotophobia and transient cardiac responses to other persons’ laughter and insult. Psychophysiology, 51, 1112–1121. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12259.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Platt, T., & Forabosco, G. (2012). Gelotophobia: The fear of being laughed at. In P. Gremigni (ed.), Humor and health promotion, 229–253. New York, NY: Nova Science.

  • Proyer, R. T., & Neukom, M. (2013). Ridicule and being laughed at in the family: Gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism in young children and their parents. International Journal of Psychology, 48, 1191–1195. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2013.775448.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Proyer, R. T., & Ruch, W. (2009). How virtuous are gelotophobes? Self- and peer-reported character strengths among those who fear of being laughed at. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 145–163. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.007.

  • Proyer, R. T., Hempelmann, C. F., & Ruch, W. (2009a). Were they really laughed at? That much? Gelotophobes and their history of perceived derisibility. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 213–231. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.010.

  • Proyer, R. T., Ruch, W., Ali, N. S., Al-Olimat, H. S., Amemiya, T., Adal, T. A., et al. (2009b). Breaking ground in cross-cultural research on the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia): A multi-national study involving 73 countries. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 253–279. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.012.

  • Proyer, R. T., Neukom, M., Platt, T., & Ruch, W. (2012a). Assessing gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism in children: An initial study on how six to nine-year-olds deal with laughter and ridicule and how this relates to bullying and victimization. Child Indicators Research, 5, 297–316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-011-9127-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Proyer, R. T., Ruch, W., & Chan, G. H. (2012b). Gelotophobia: Life satisfaction and happiness across cultures. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 25, 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2012-0002.

  • Proyer, R. T., Wellenzohn, S., & Ruch, W. (2014). Character and dealing with laughter: The relation of self- and peer-reported strengths of character with gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism. The Journal of Psychology, 148, 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.752336.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rees, C. E., & Monrouxe, L. V. (2010). “I should be lucky ha ha ha ha”: The construction of power, identity and gender through laughter within medical workplace learning encounters. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 3384–3399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.05.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renner, K.-H., & Manthey, L. (2018). Relations of dispositions toward ridicule and histrionic self-presentation with quantitative and qualitative humor creation abilities. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00078.

  • Ross, S. R., Stewart, J., Mugge, M., & Fultz, B. (2000). The impostor phenomenon, achievement orientations, and the five factor model. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 1347–1355. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00228-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W. (1992). Assessment of appreciation of humor: Studies with the 3 WD humor test. In C. D. Spielberger & J. N. Butcher (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment (pp. 27–75). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., & Heintz, S. (2016). The virtue gap in humor: Exploring benevolent and corrective humor. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 2, 35–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000063.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2008a). The fear of being laughed at: Individual and group differences in gelotophobia. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 21, 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMOR.2008.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2008b). Who is gelotophobic? Assessment criteria for the fear of being laughed at. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 67, 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185.67.1.19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2009a). Extending the study of gelotophobia: On gelotophiles and katagelasticists. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 183–212. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2009b). Intelligence and gelotophobia: The relations of self-estimated and psychometrically measured intelligence to the fear of being laughed at. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.008.

  • Ruch, W., & Proyer, R. T. (2009c). Who fears being laughed at? The location of gelotophobia in the Eysenckian PEN-model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 627–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., Altfreder, O., & Proyer, R. T. (2009a). How do gelotophobes interpret laughter in ambiguous situations? An experimental validation of the concept. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 63–89. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.004.

  • Ruch, W., Beermann, U., & Proyer, R. T. (2009b). Investigating the humor of gelotophobes: Does feeling ridiculous equal being humorless? Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 22, 111–143. https://doi.org/10.1515/HUMR.2009.006.

  • Ruch, W., Harzer, C., & Proyer, R. T. (2013). Beyond being timid, witty, and cynical: Big Five personality characteristics of gelotophobes, gelotophiles, and katagelasticists. International Studies in Humor, 2, 24–42.

  • Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., Platt, T., & Proyer, R. T. (2014a). The state-of-the-art in gelotophobia research: A review and some theoretical extensions. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 27, 23–45. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2013-0046.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., Platt, T., Hofmann, J., Niewiadomski, R., Urbain, J., Mancini, M., & Dupont, S. (2014b). Gelotophobia and the challenges of implementing laughter into virtual agents’ interactions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00928.

  • Ruch, W., Hofmann, J., & Platt, T. (2015). Individual differences in gelotophobia and responses to laughter-eliciting emotions. Personality and Individual Differences, 72, 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.08.034.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, W., Platt, T., Bruntsch, R., & Ďurka, R. (2017). Evaluation of a picture-based test for the assessment of gelotophobia. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02043.

  • Ruch, W., Heintz, S., Platt, T., Wagner, L., & Proyer, R. T. (2018). Broadening humor: Comic styles differentially tap into temperament, character, and ability. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00006.

  • Samson, A. C., & Meyer, Y. (2010). Perception of aggressive humor in relation to gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 52, 217–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, N., & Bowker, A. (2019). Examining the impostor phenomenon in relation to self-esteem level and self-esteem instability. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9650-4.

  • Thompson, T., Davis, H., & Davidson, J. (1998). Attributional and affective responses of impostors to academic success and failure outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 863–874. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00065-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torres-Marín, J., Carretero-Dios, H., Acosta, A., & Lupiáñez, J. (2017). Eye contact and fear of being laughed at in a gaze discrimination task. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01954.

  • Twain, M. (1935). Notebook. New York, NY: Harper & Bros.

  • Vergauwe, J., Wille, B., Feys, M., De Fruyt, F., & Anseel, F. (2015). Fear of being exposed: The trait-relatedness of the impostor phenomenon and its relevance in the work context. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30, 565–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-014-9382-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Emil-Abderhalden-Straße 26-27, 06099, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Kay Brauer & René T. Proyer

Authors
  1. Kay Brauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. René T. Proyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human Studies

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 15 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Brauer, K., Proyer, R.T. The ridiculed Impostor: Testing the associations between dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at and the Impostor Phenomenon. Curr Psychol 42, 16166–16175 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00262-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00262-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation