| Title |
A lifetime of fear of being laughed at
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, December 2009
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00391-009-0083-z |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
T. Platt, W. Ruch, R.T. Proyer |
| Abstract |
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, emotion, and humor. Quite consistently gelotophobes tend to misread positively motivated smiling and laughter (e.g. in social interactions, photographs or auditorily presented) and have lower values in many, but not all, components of humor. They have a low propensity to joy and a disposition to experience shame and fear. More generally they tend to describe themselves as being introverted and neurotic, and they underestimate their own potential while not actually being less capable. Furthermore, new data are presented suggesting that age-related vulnerabilities may be additional sources of ridicule making gelotophobia more of a problem for the elderly. Finally, the prevalence of this fear over the lifespan and potential cohort effects are discussed. It is concluded that more research into this fear and its adverse impact on social interactions, even humorous ones, of the elderly is needed. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 1 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 14 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 14 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 2 | 14% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 1 | 7% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 1 | 7% |
| Student > Bachelor | 1 | 7% |
| Unknown | 9 | 64% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 4 | 29% |
| Sports and Recreations | 1 | 7% |
| Unknown | 9 | 64% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 21. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 August 2020.
All research outputs
#1,510,904
of 22,696,971 outputs
Outputs from Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie
#11
of 359 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,271
of 151,152 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie
#2
of 3 outputs
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So far Altmetric has tracked 359 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
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