Extreme gelotophobia: Affective and physical responses to ridicule and teasing

Abstract

Our understand of gelotophobia remains incomplete, as samples seldom include large numbers of individuals with marked and extreme fear, due to their low prevalence. Consequently, little is known about how they differ from those at the lower end of the continuum of fear. With the aim of expanding on the study of Platt (2008), in the current study, participants covering the spectrum from no fear, slight, marked and extreme gelotophobia were randomly assigned to the Ridicule Teasing Scenarios questionnaire (RTSq; n = 295) or the Gelotophobia Checklist (GC; n = 143). When answering the RTSq, extreme gelotophobes, compared to marked gelotophobes, experienced more surprise and higher shame (but not higher fear) in response to ridicule. Furthermore, for these individuals the teasing scenarios elicited lower joy, higher surprise, shame and fear. The GC revealed that extreme gelotophobes have higher subjective intensity ratings of fear than marked but they did not differ in the number of physical symptoms experienced. Gelotophobes tend to experience muscle tension, sweating and blushing most frequently when encountering laughter. These findings will assist with developing programs for helping gelotophobes manage both their fear and the resulting symptoms.