Volume 21, Issue 2

The present study examined the hypothesis that gelotophobia blurs the emotional responses between ridicule and good-natured teasing. Ridicule should induce negative feelings and teasing happiness and surprise in individuals not suffering gelotophobia. Gelotophobes will discriminate less between the two. Their responses to teasing will be similar to ridicule. A sample of adults (N = 105) specified which emotions they would experience in nine scenarios of social interactions pre-selected to represent bullying ridicule or good-natured teasing. Ridicule elicited strong responses of shame, fear and anger, and other negative emotions but low happiness and surprise. Responses of gelotophobes and non-gelotophobes were highly parallel, with the exception that among extreme gelotophobes stronger shame and fear were displayed than among non-gelotophobes. Good-natured teasing seemed to elicit happiness and surprise and low levels of negative emotions among the non-gelotophobes. Among the gelotophobes, however, it was the negative emotions; primarily shame, fear, and anger that were exhibited as the emotional response pattern. In fact, the emotion profile to good-humored teasing was highly similar to the profile in response to the bullying-ridiculing situations. Gelotophobes' perceptions do not discriminate between playful teasing and good-natured teasing. They do not identify the safe and non-threatening quality of the teasing situations. Treatment of gelotophobes should, therefore, involve helping them to identify the play-signals, i.e., the meta-message that the interaction is playful, for fun and that no harm is intended.

This study examines the relationship between trait Neuroticism and appreciation of humor structure (incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor). Higher levels of Neuroticism are associated with increased anxiety, and more anxious people are known to dislike novel situations more than less anxious individuals do. Given that nonsense humor is an instance of a novel state of affairs, it was predicted that increases in Neuroticism would be associated with a decreased preference (indicated by funniness ratings) for nonsense humor compared to humor in which the incongruity is fully resolved. Results obtained from a total of 107 participants (34 males and 73 females) supported that prediction. It is argued that these results, as well as those which indicate associations between humor structure preferences and various other personality constructs, can be accounted for by reference to an individual's trait and/or state arousal levels. Implications of the findings for theories of humor are examined.

Psychological studies of responses to humor employ a variety of different recording methods and modes of presentation, but few have addressed whether these methodological differences affect people's responses to comedy. In the present study, participants' expressive (laughter and smiling) and cognitive (ratings of funniness and enjoyment) responses to a popular British comedy program presented via videotape, audiotape, or in script form were measured. Behavioral response was recorded either covertly or overtly by a video camera. Mode of presentation significantly affected behavioral response: the videotape and the audiotape conditions generated significantly greater laughter and smiling than did the script condition. Although the presence of the camera was not regarded as obtrusive, its presence did inhibit laughter and depressed enjoyment (but not amusement). The paper suggests that research using humorous material should carefully consider the mode of presentation and the behavioral recording conditions employed.

Participants' reports of recent stressors and anticipated stressors were predicted using a measure of sense of humor that assessed positive and negative uses of humor and measures of positive personality characteristics: optimism, hope, and happiness. The prediction was the tendency to use positive humor and/or avoid negative humor would be associated with higher levels of positive personality qualities, and that the positive personality qualities would mediate the relationship between sense of humor styles and perceptions of stress. The mediator model was supported for both past and future measures of perceived stress. Sense of humor differences explained variance in perceived stressors, but the inclusion of the positive personality qualities in the model virtually eliminated the contributions of sense of humor. It appears that appropriate uses of humor may support the selected positive personality qualities, which contribute to less extreme construal of stressors.

Sociotropy and autonomy are personality dimensions that represent vulnerabilities for depression, although relatively little is known about the social-psychological mechanisms underlying this association. The present research tested associations between personality-vulnerability dimensions, depressive symptoms, and positive and negative styles of humor in undergraduates as one means of characterizing the social interaction patterns of sociotropic and autonomous individuals. Sociotropy was associated with a self-defeating humor style, whereas Need for Control (an autonomy dimension) was related to the use of an aggressive humor style. Increased use of a self-defeating humor style and decreased use of self-enhancing and affliative humor styles, were associated with increased depressive symptoms. The results are discussed relative to personality-vulnerability theories of depression.

While previous research has related humor preferences to a range of normal personality dispositions and pathologies, it has not related humor preference to schizotypy, a construct at the interface between normal personality and psychopathology. Nor has it related humor preference to autism, as this appears within the normal population. The present study employed a multi-factorial measure of schizotypy, the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Student participants completed the self-report measure and rated how funny and unpleasant/aversive they found 48 purportedly humorous stimuli differentiated according to whether they were violent or neutral, and whether they comprised jokes, real-life situations involving others, or real-life situations involving the self. A Principal Components Analysis of the ratings produced five factors. Subsequent correlation and regression analyses related each obliquely rotated factor to at least one individual-differences variable: Sex differences was most clearly related to Lack of Empathy, O-LIFE Unusual Experiences to Sense of Humor—Joke Oriented, O-LIFE Introvertive Anhedonia to Sense of Humor—Reality Oriented, O-LIFE Cognitive Disorganization to Personal Sensitivity, and the AQ to Aversive Reaction to Humor. The data point to the usefulness in humor research of constructs at the interface between abnormal and normal personality.