HUMOR.2008

The fear of being laughed at: Individual and group differences in
Gelotophobia.

Ruch, Willibald1
Proyer, René T1
1University of Zurich

Single case studies led to the discovery and phenomenological
description of Gelotophobia and its definition as the pathological
fear of appearing to social partners as a ridiculous object (Titze
1995, 1996, 1997). The aim of the present study is to empirically
examine the core assumptions about the fear of being laughed at in a
sample comprising a total of 863 clinical and non-clinical
participants. Discriminant function analysis yielded that gelotophobes
can be separated from other shame-based neurotics, non-shame-based
neurotics, and controls. Separation was best for statements
specifically describing the gelotophobic symptomatology and less
potent for more general questions describing socially avoidant
behaviors. Factor analysis demonstrates that while Gelotophobia is
composed of a set of correlated elements in homogenous samples,
overall the concept is best conceptualized as unidimensional.
Predicted and actual group membership converged well in a cross-
classification (approximately 69% of correctly classified cases).
Overall, it can be concluded that the fear of being laughed at varies
tremendously among adults and might hold a key to understanding
certain forms of humorlessness.