Scientific article
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English

Perception of aggressive humor in relation to gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism

Published inPsychological Test and Assessment Modeling, vol. 52, no. 2, p. 217-230
Publication date2010
Abstract

The present study investigates humor appreciation of aggressive cartoons in relation to gelotophobia, gelotophilia, and katagelasticism. These traits were described to have a peculiar relation to laughter-related phenomena, in particular to disparagement humor. 185 participants rated highly aggressive and non-aggressive humorous stimuli for funniness and aversiveness and their scores on the gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism scales were measured. The cartoons were controlled for their structural basis, i.e., incongruity-resolution and nonsense humor, as these two types of humor strongly influence the appreciation of humorous stimuli. The results revealed that high scores on gelotophobia lead to higher aversion to aggressive humor, whereas high scores on katagelasticism lead to more enjoyment of aggressive humor with less aversion. Gelotophobia and katagelasticism lead to sensitivity to aggression in humor, which fits the overt behavior of reacting sensitively towards laughter (gelotophobia) and enjoying to laugh at others (katagelasticism). Gelotophilia did not predict reactions to either aggressive or non-aggressive humor but did predict more amusement in general: High scorers on gelotoph ilia seem to be relaxed towards any form of humor, even if it has an aggressive note. This study confirms the three dimensions to have peculiar responses to aggressive types of humor and opens up several questions to be explored in future research

Keywords
  • Gelotophilia
  • Gelotophobia
  • Katagelasticism
  • Humor
  • Cartoon
  • Aggression
Research groups
Citation (ISO format)
SAMSON, Andrea Christiane, MEYER, Yonni. Perception of aggressive humor in relation to gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism. In: Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 2010, vol. 52, n° 2, p. 217–230.
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Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
  • PID : unige:98075
Journal ISSN2190-0493
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609downloads

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