Tracey Platt

University of Sunderland · Department of Psychology

Two studies investigated whether a brief dose of an environment influenced subjective wellbeing and the perceived restorativeness of the setting; and if either varied by place preference. Participants (NS1 = 211; NS2 = 338) were randomly allocated to view one environment online for 30-seconds, rated perceived restorativeness and indicated state moo...

This introduction to the “Festschrift for Willibald Ruch” outlines his impressive achievements in humor research, especially in the areas of measurement, individual differences as well as models and theories. Though mostly focusing on the psychology of humor and the sense of humor, Willibald also pioneered interdisciplinary and cross-cultural humor...

Affect is involved in many psychological phenomena, but a descriptive structure, long sought, has been elusive. Valence and arousal are fundamental, and a key question-the focus of the present study-is the relationship between them. Valence is sometimes thought to be independent of arousal, but, in some studies (representing too few societies in th...

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, p...

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...

All available peer-reviewed literature on humor and gender differences (1977–2018) was screened and evaluated according to a priori defined QUALSYST criteria. The 77 papers surpassing a conservative quality criterion generated seven emergent themes around humor and gender differences. In short, men score higher in the aggressive humor style (M > F)...

Instruments for the assessment of the Eysenckian superfactors of personality, Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), and Neuroticism (N), were developed over the course of almost 50 years. Typically the convergence with the precursor was examined when a new scale was published. In the present study the continuity and change of the substance of P, E, a...

Previous research (Ruch et al. 2014) identified four dimensions of class clown behavior (identifying as a class clown, comic talent, disruptive rule-breaker, and subversive joker), and confirmed their relevance for well-being in adolescents and school achievement. However, the correlational patterns between the four class clown behaviors and humor...

Editorial to special issue

Successful teamwork is an important factor for positive outcomes at the organizational and the individual level. Best results should be expected when every team member can contribute his or her specific set of strengths and skills, with all of the necessary skills being present in a team. Recently a new model of team roles developed from a positive...

Background: Humor, both producing and appreciating, underpins positive social interactions. It acts as a facilitator of communication. There are clear links to wellbeing that go along with this form of social engagement. However, humor appears to be a seldom studied, cross-disciplinary area of investigation when applied to people with an intellectu...

Weight bias toward obese youths is often accompanied by the experience of psychological stress in those affected. Therefore, the fear of being laughed at (i.e., gelotophobia) in overweight children and adolescents can be rather serious. In four explorative studies, the importance of relative weight, self-awareness of weight (incl. satisfaction with...

Three related studies are presented with the aim of investigating the individual differences in humour appreciation, sensation seeking and need for closure. In order to accomplish this, the construction and initial validation of a new instrument will be presented. The Humour Structure Appreciation Scale (HSAS) distinguishes between incongruity-reso...

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...

The present study introduces eight comic styles (i.e., fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) and examines the validity of a set of 48 marker items for their assessment, the Comic Style Markers (CSM). These styles were originally developed to describe literary work and are used here to describe individual differences. Stud...

This study examines whether coding open answers in a picture-based test, as to the extent they reflect the fear of being laughed at (i.e., gelotophobia), demonstrates sufficient validity to construct a semi-projective test for the assessment of gelotophobia. Previous findings indicate that cartoon stimuli depicting laughter situations (i.e., in the...

This study investigated the elicitation of smiling and laughter and the role of facial display regulation markers (e.g., down-regulating of a smile or laugh) in positive emotions. In a structured group conversation setting, the frequency and intensity of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles and laughs when telling memories of 16 positive emotions propo...

The current paper addresses the measurement of three dispositions toward ridicule and laughter; i.e., gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (the joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others). These traits explain inter-individual differences in responses to humor, laughter, and social situations r...

ABSTRACT Well-functioning teamwork has frequently been linked to increased work satisfaction and performance. However, there is a paucity of research on the di erent types of roles in teams. Recently, a new model of role behavior in teams was proposed (comprising seven such team roles: Idea creator, information gatherer, decision-maker, implementer...

Recent research (Ruch, Platt, & Hofmann, 2014) identified four dimensions of class clown behavior (identifying as a class clown, comic talent, disruptive rule-breaker, and subversive joker). This study investigates whether these dimensions show differential relationships with school achievement, self-reported school satisfaction, positive experienc...

Over 85 empirical articles investigating the fear of being laughed at have been published. Still, the question “why bother with another inter-individual differences variable?” arises. This quantitative paper based on 240 people, aims to show why gelotophobia has been widely neglected in therapeutic settings and why therapists may not have come acro...

Laughter is everywhere. So much so that we often do not even notice it. First, laughter has a strong connection with humour. Most of us seek out laughter and people who make us laugh, and it is what we do when we gather together as groups relaxing and having a good time. But laughter also plays an important role in making sure we interact with each...

This article discusses the psychology of humor, how it translates, and what it means to basic research. Humor is inherently ironic. It is obvious and instantly recognizable. Similar to beauty, we all intuitively “know” what humor is, yet we find it difficult to precisely define. Indeed, there is not a single definition of humor that is accepted by...

In a paradigm facilitating smile misattribution, facial responses and ratings to contempt and joy were investigated in individuals with or without gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at). Participants from two independent samples (N1 = 83, N2 = 50) rated the intensity of eight emotions in 16 photos depicting joy, contempt, and different smiles. Fac...

In a paradigm facilitating smile misattribution, facial responses and ratings to contempt and joy were investigated in individuals with or without gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at). Participants from two independent samples (N1 = 83, N2 = 50) rated the intensity of eight emotions in 16 photos depicting joy, contempt, and different smiles. Fac...

We investigated the role of a virtual companion and trait cheerfulness on the elicitation of amusement. Ninety participants watched funny films in four conditions: either alone, with a virtual companion laughing or verbally expressing amusement at fixed time points (pre-scripted), or additionally joining the participant’s laughter (responsive compa...

Gelotophobes (individuals with a fear of being laughed at) have even been found to express less joy and more contempt towards joyfully smiling/laughing faces compared to non-gelotophobes. However, it is unclear whether the lower levels of joy and higher levels of contempt are related to joy per se or only to those elements of joy associated with la...

This study investigated which features of AVATAR laughter are perceived threatening for individuals with a fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), and individuals with no gelotophobia. Laughter samples were systematically varied (e.g., intensity, laughter pitch, and energy for the voice, intensity of facial actions of the face) in three modalities...

Class clowns traditionally were studied as a type concept and identified via sociometric procedures. In the present study a variable-centered approach was favored and class clown behaviors were studied in the context of character strengths, orientations to happiness and satisfaction with life. A sample of 672 Swiss children and adolescents filled i...

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...

Research on gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) has come a long way since the first empirical studies published in 2008. Based on a review of the findings on gelotophobia, its structure, causes and consequences, updates to the model are introduced emphasizing the context of the fear and its dynamic nature. More precisely, external and inter...

We investigated the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), the joy in being laughed at (gelotophilia), and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) in adolescent students (N = 324, 13–15 years). Gelotophobia was associated primarily with the victim and katagelasticism with the bully-role (self- and peer reports). Gelotophobia correlated wi...

The present study aims to identify whether individuals’ with a fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), respond with less facially displayed joy (Duchenne display) generally towards enjoyable emotions or only those eliciting laughter. Forty participants (no vs. gelotophobia) described their feelings to scenarios prototypical for the 16 enjoyable em...

Abstract: Research on gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) has come a long way since the first empirical studies published in 2008. Based on a review of the findings on gelotophobia, its structure, causes and consequences, updates to the model are introduced emphasizing the context of the fear and its dynamic nature. More precisely, external...

Within the EU ILHAIRE Project, researchers of several disciplines (e.g., computer sciences, psychology) collab-orate to investigate the psychological foundations of laughter, and to bring this knowledge into shape for the use in new technologies (i.e., affective computing). Within this framework, in order to endow machines with laughter capabilitie...

The present research aims at identifying emotional states induced in observers of hospital clown interventions utilizing a list of clown-specific ratings, the 29 Clown Emotion List (CLEM-29, Auerbach et al. 2012a). Study 1 investigated whether hospital clowns elicit emotional states other than those already covered by scales representing existing m...

Gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) was studied in a sample of N = 1,322 Danish adolescents aged 11 to 16. When using a measure of coping humor in three different respects (using humor to (1) overcome uncertainty and stress, (2) in relation to aggression and sexuality, and (3) to get cheered up), it was indicated that the fear of being laug...

In this paper we present a complete interactive system en- abled to detect human laughs and respond appropriately, by integrating the information of the human behavior and the context. Furthermore, the impact of our autonomous laughter-aware agent on the humor experience of the user and interaction between user and agent is evaluated by sub- jectiv...

In this paper we present an complete interactive system enabled to detect human laughs and responding appropriately, by integrating the information of the human behavior and the context. Furthermore, the impact of our autonomous laughter- aware agent on the humor experience of the user and interaction between user and agent is evaluated by subjecti...

Der Beitrag beleuchtet anhand der Pfadfinderbewegung die Rolle von Jugendverbänden aus Sicht der Positiven Psychologie. Die von Baden Powell vor mehr als 100 Jahren gegründete Pfadfinderbewegung kann als eine positive Organisation verstanden werden, welche positives Erleben und die Entwicklung des guten Charakters fördert. In einer Studie mit 163 P...

This study investigates the facial features of different laughter types in historic illustrations. Several conceptually different types of laughter were proposed in the historic literature, but only four types were represented in visual and verbal illustrations by four or more historic illustrators (joyful, intense, schadenfreude laughter, grinning...

Being ridiculed and laughed at by others typically leads to shame that is emotionally painful and aversive. While some wipe this off more easily or even share the laughter, for others an anticipatory fear of being laughed at exist, which may go along with a generalized conviction of ones own ridiculousness. The aim of this chapter is to explore gel...

Based on recent experiences between a laughing virtual agent and a human user at the intersection AI and humor and laughter, this paper aims to highlight some of the psychological considerations, when conducting AI and humor experiments. The systematic and standardized approach outlined in this paper will demonstrate how to reduce error variance th...

This study investigates the facial features of schadenfreude laughter in historic illustrations by applying the Facial Action Coding System and assesses the decoding by naïve subjects. Results show that while the encoding of schadenfreude laughter is heterogeneous, schadenfreude is decoded when the facial expression unites markers of joy (Duchenne...

The Laugh Machine project aims at endowing virtual agents with the capability to laugh naturally, at the right moment and with the correct intensity, when interacting with human participants. In this report we present the technical development and evaluation of such an agent in one specific scenario: watching TV along with a participant. The agent...

This scoping study examines the relation of the sense of humor and three dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at to psychopathic personality traits. Based on self-reports from 233 adults, psychopathic personality traits were robustly related to enjoying laughing at others, which most strongly related to a manipulative/impulsive lifestyle...

For a long time humor theorists have acknowledged that content and structure of humor (or: joke work vs. tendency, [4]; thematic vs. schematic, [12]; cognitive vs. orectic factors, [3]) have to be distinguished as two different sources of pleasure [6]. Nevertheless, against all evidence, taxonomies of humor are stuck in (serial) unimodal classifica...

The present study investigated individuals with slight, marked and extreme fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) (Ruch & Proyer, 2008a). Altogether 640 individuals filled in the GELOPH<15> (Ruch & Proyer, 2008b) online and 228 filled in a paper and pencil version. In both samples principal components analyses of the 15 items were computed for sub...

Being ridiculed and laughed at by others typically leads to shame that is emotionally painful and aversive. While some wipe this off more easily or even share the laughter, for others an anticipatory fear of being laughed at exists, which may go along with a generalized conviction of ones own ridiculousness. The aim of this chapter is to explore ge...

The study describes the development and initial assessment of a questionnaire for the assessment of the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), the joy in being laughed at (gelotophilia), and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) in a sample of 386 six to 9 year olds. The 30-item measure (PhoPhiKat-30c) demonstrated a robust three-factor...

This study explores the associations between concepts of ‘laughing at’ and shame with the addition of other self-conscious emotion variables: guilt, detachment, externalization and alpha (relating to character) and beta (relating to behavior) pride, which will be used to investigate the first standardized relationship of gelotophobia, gelotophilia...

The present study examines how dispositions to ridicule and being laughed at (gelotophobic, gelotophilic or katagelasticistic) assist, or hinder, coping with age-related problems or vulnerabilities. A sample of 131 adult participants completed the PhoPhiKat-30, the PPK-Vulnerability Statement Comparison (PPK-VSC), and the Third Age Vulnerabilities...

The present study examines the relationship between questionnaire measures of social phobia and gelotophobia. A sample of 211 Colombian adults filled in Spanish versions of the Social Anxiety and Distress scale (SAD; Watson & Friend, 1969), the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (FNE; Watson & Friend, 1969) and the GELOPH<15> (Ruch & Proyer, 2008)....

This paper reviews recent literature on gelotophobia (i.e., the fear of being laughed at) with an emphasis on age-specific aspects. Research with two instruments, the GELOPH and PhoPhiKat questionnaires, is presented with special attention being given to sociodemographic correlates and differences in intelligence, character strengths, personality,...

Within the framework of social interaction this paper relates experiences of being bullied to the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) in two empirical studies. Study 1 (N = 252) describes the adaptation of a German-language instrument for the assessment of gelotophobia into English (the GELOPH<15>). The translation yielded good psychometric pro...

The present research examines the hypothesis that the fear of being laughed at is related to three emotions: shame, fear, and (low) joy. In two self-report studies the participants (N = 234, N = 102)filled in the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze 1998) for the assessment of the level of gelotophobia and the Anchor Que question form (Ekman 2007) measuring five...

The current study examines whether the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) can be assessed reliably and validly by means of a self-report instrument in different countries of the world. All items of the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze, GELOPH〈46〉, University of Düsseldorf, 1998; Ruch and Proyer, Swiss Journal of Psychology 67:19–27, 2008b) were translat...

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 su¤ering gelotophobia. Gelotophobes will discriminate less between the two. Their responses to teasing will be similar to...