Alberto Dionigi

• MSc Psychology, PhD
• Head of Department at Federazione Nazionale Clowndottori

Clown doctors play a crucial role in enhancing the well-being of patients through the use of humor. However, little is known about how the use of humor by clown doctors changes in relation to the developmental age of patients. This research explores the interplay between the type of humor used by clown doctors, their experience (in terms of years o...

Despite increasing interest in the relationship between humor and psychological distress, investigations have failed to focus on specific categories of humor and negative mental conditions. A sample of 686 Italian participants (187 men and 499 women), aged between 20 and 76 years, completed an online survey, data from which was used to investigate...

Healthcare clowning represents a well-established method for relieving patients and their relatives of discomfort during hospitalization. Although studies concerning the effectiveness of this approach are increasing in number, state-of-the-art studies conducted to evaluate the psychological characteristics of clown doctors are scarce. In this cross...

Humor comprehension and appreciation are two basic domains of humor research and central stages in humor processing. In the present study, 238 Italian adults rated 20 jokes to investigate how a humor comprehension task influences subsequent funniness ratings. Additionally, the relationships between humor comprehension and funniness were investigate...

In this study, the relationship between individuals’ insecure attachment styles and eight comic styles was explored. A sample of 636 Italian adults (206 males, 428 females, 2 non-binary), aged 18 to 81 years (M = 41.44; DS = 13.44) completed an online survey to investigate the relationship between insecure attachment styles, namely anxious and avoi...

The present study investigated the relationships between the eight comic style markers and the dark triad traits of personality. A sample of 715 adults (188 men and 527 women aged 19 to 83 years; M = 42.40; SD = 12.74) completed two questionnaires: the Comic Style Markers (CSM) and the Short Dark Triad (SD3). All the darker styles were related to t...

The aim of this qualitative research is to describe how the parents perceive the work of hospital clowns in the context of bereavement. Using the text analysis software T-LAB (Version 9.1.3) with a co-occurrence strategy we examined several bereaved parents’ narratives related to the clowning. We showed six themes from parents’ narratives: “The Fun...

Little research was conducted to understand how comic styles relate to anxiety and well-being. To fill this gap, the present study tested the relationship between eight comic styles (fun, benevolent humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism), worry and general well-being. A sample of 254 adults (131 men and 123 women aged 18 to 67...

The aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Comic Style Markers (CSM; assessing fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) and explore the relationship between the eight comic styles and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuro...

Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N...

Optimism and self-efficacy have been associated with psychological health. Empathy has also been found to have a unique role in community health volunteering and promote positive functioning. This study investigated whether self-efficacy and optimism were associated with psychological health in terms of psychological and subjective well-being in he...

Optimism and self-efficacy have been associated with psychological health. Empathy has also been found to promote positive functioning and to have a unique role in community health volunteering. This study investigated whether self-efficacy and optimism were associated with psychological and subjective well-being in a group of healthcare volunteers...

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the relationship between humor and intelligence by manipulating the stimulus variable. A list of 20 jokes with four options, where participants had to choose the one that best completed the joke setup, was administered to 43 participants associated with the Italian Mensa (with an IQ score ≥98thpe...

The medical clown is a healthcare practitioner whose character is strictly associated with the performer's own personality. In this study, the relationships between the level of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), caregiving strategies and humour in Italian and Israeli clowns were examined. Participants were 159 medical clowns (97 Italian and 62...

Despite increasing interest in healthcare clowning, especially to evaluate its effectiveness in a large variety of settings, no investigations have been oriented toward exploring the potential risks associated with burnout in clown doctors. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits, emotional intelligence, and burno...

La ricerca scientifica dedicata alla valutazione della presenza del clown in ambito sociosanitario ha avuto un notevole incremento negli ultimi anni. È stato ampiamente dimostrato come il clowning possa avere un impatto positivo sulle condizioni cliniche dei pazienti, sullo svolgimento di procedure medico-infermieristiche, sulla relazione con i fam...

The purpose of this study was to investigate several aspects of humour in cognitive therapy. Eight first therapy sessions were examined and seven examples of humour originating from the therapists or the clients are reported: three represent examples of humour initiated by the client, while four are representative of humour initiated by the therapi...

Clowning has a varied tradition and a long history. Recently, clowns have entered the medical setting and this has become an appreciated approach aimed at decreasing the negative emotions that can be experienced during hospitalization and medical procedures, as well as inducing positive feelings in patients, their relatives, and the hospital’s staf...

Recently, two forms of virtue-related humor, benevolent and corrective, have been introduced. Benevolent humor treats human weaknesses and wrongdoings benevolently, while corrective humor aims at correcting and bettering them. Twelve marker items for benevolent and corrective humor (the BenCor) were developed, and it was demonstrated that they fill...

This study reports an analysis using the conversation analytical (CA) approach of the use of laughter within a corpus of cognitive therapy sessions. The results relating to eight first encounter sessions reveal that a client’s laughter may accompany disagreement as well as agreement with the therapist. In both cases, the therapist does not reciproc...

Hospitalized children who undergo painful procedures are more susceptible than others to experiencing iatrogenic effects, such as anxiety, pain, and severe stress. Clowns in clinical setting have been found to be effective in reducing children's experiences of these effects during hospitalization and before procedures. This article provides an over...

Aims: To test whether a combined intervention of art therapy and clown visits could enhance the efficacy of oral medication in reducing children's anxiety at parental separation prior to induction of anesthesia. Background: Approximately 50% of children undergoing surgery report high anxiety at anesthesia induction. Complementary therapies have...

Within the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in investigating the effects of clown intervention in a large variety of clinical settings. Many studies have focused on the effects of clown intervention on children. However, few studies have investigated clowning effects on adults. This paper presents an overview of the concept of medica...

In recent years, both professional and volunteer clowns have become familiar in health settings. The clown represents a peculiar humorist’s character, strictly associated with the performer’s own personality. In this study, the Big Five personality traits (BFI) of 155 Italian clown doctors (130 volunteers and 25 professionals) were compared to publ...

According to the cognitive approach to humour, understanding of humorous texts implies a moment of surprise, even confusion of thought, produced by the recognition of an incongruity, defined as an incoherent piece of the text. The problem solving activity involved in humor understanding aims at resolving the incongruity. Our goal is to contribute t...

Working in health settings as a clown requires the ability to differentiate between the own persona and the clown persona and to stay in the role, despite a variety of challenging situations. This passage requires a cognitive shift that can be interfered with, or facilitated, by several variables. This study aims at operationalising the components...

This study investigated whether a clown doctor intervention could reduce preoperative anxiety in children hospitalized for minor surgery and in their parents. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 77 children and 119 parents: the clown group consisted of 52 children accompanied in the preoperating room by their parents (n = 89) and two c...

Nel corso degli ultimi anni, un numero crescente di persone ha intrapreso l'attività di clown in ambito sociale e sanitario. Questa pratica consiste nell'attuazione di tecniche clownesche, derivate dal circo e dal teatro di strada, in contesti di disagio per facilitare il processo di cura in persone che vivono un malessere personale, psichico e fis...

In this chapter the focus is on the major theories which are referred to when it comes to humor. The aim is to answer questions like: What is humor? What makes us laugh? What are the necessary elements to make something funny? Why is humor so enjoyable and why are we motivated to look for it? These questions have interested many thinkers over the c...

Humor is a healing matter. The benefits of it are nowadays well known. Even if its healing potential is evident, there is a shortage of interest in studying humor in psychotherapy. The use of humor in psychotherapy is a controversial topic, but in recent years many therapists and researchers have put their attention on this field. For a long period...

Lay definitions and interpretations that ordinary (non-academic) people give to the word "humor" do not capture the complexity of this concept. In this chapter, we try to shed light on the concepts of humor and sense of humor, highlighting the differences and difficulties in finding clear definitions of them. After a brief history of the term "humo...

In recent decades, humor has become to be considered as an important component of mental and physical health other than a mere socially desirable individual's trait. Clown therapy represents a peculiar way of using humor in order to promote people's well-being. Clown therapy officially started in 1986 and presently, it is easy to meet clown doctors...

In recent decades, humor has become to be considered as an important component of mental and physical health other than a mere socially desirable individual’s trait. Clown therapy represents a peculiar way of using humor in order to promote people’s well-being. Clown therapy officially started in 1986 and presently, it is easy to meet clown doctors...

Da diversi anni la popolazione scientifica sta rivolgendo sempre di più il proprio interesse verso l’umorismo. Una figura particolare che sta inserendosi in un numero sempre maggiore di contesti è data dal personaggio del Clown sia come figura di supporto psicologico che come strumento pedagogico.

In breve Quali sono gli elementi costitutivi dell’umorismo? Che funzione ha all’interno della società? Uomini e donne ridono per le stesse cose? Il senso dell’humour, in una coppia, aiuta a mantenere salda l’unione? Ridere serve a combattere stress e malattie? Nel rispondere a queste domande, il libro propone una rassegna aggiornata su meccanismi,...

Varie ricerche si sono poste l'obiettivo di trovare una relazione fra adattamento psicologico e utilizzo dello humour, cercando di confermare la convinzione che persone dotate di un maggior senso dell'umorismo siano meno inclini a sviluppare sintomatologie ansiose e depressive. In questa ricerca lo humour non è stato valutato come unico costrutto,...

Various research work has aimed to find a relationship between psychological adaptation and the use of humour, endeavouring to confirm the belief that people with a greater sense of humour are less prone to developing anxiety and depression symptoms. In this study, the humour style was not evaluated as a single construct but rather as composed of f...