Individual differences in gelotophobia predict responses to joy and contempt

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. Facial responses were coded by the Facial Action Coding System in the second study. Compared with non-fearful individuals, gelotophobes rated joy smiles as less joyful and more contemptuous. Moreover, gelotophobes showed less facial joy and more contempt markers. The contempt ratings were comparable between the two groups. Looking at the photos of smiles lifted the positive mood of non-gelotophobes, whereas gelotophobes did not experience an increase. We hypothesize that the interpretation bias of “joyful faces hiding evil minds” (i.e., being also contemptuous) and exhibiting less joy facially may complicate social interactions for gelotophobes and serve as a maintaining factor of gelotophobia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015581191 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110542 Published Version Originally published at: Hofmann, Jennifer; Platt, Tracey; Ruch, Willibald; Proyer, Rene T (2015). Individual differences in gelotophobia predict responses to joy and contempt. SAGE Open, 5(2):1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015581191 SAGE Open April-June 2015: 1 –12 © The Author(s) 2015 DOI: 10.1177/2158244015581191 sgo.sagepub.com Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm). Article Broad personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism have been shown to influence the expression and interpretation of facial expressions of emotions and display rules (e.g., Fok, Hui, Bond, Matsumoto, & Yoo, 2008; Riggio & Riggio, 2002; Rogers & Revelle, 1998). For example, extraverts habitually display smiling and laughter more intensely and more often compared to introverts (Ruch, 2005; see also Hofmann, Platt, Ruch, Niewiadomski, & Urbain, 2015). Extraverts also tend to lessen the expressive control over joy, while increasing the expressive control over contempt (Fok et al., 2008). Within the extraversion–neuroticism quadrant, one stable inter-individual differences variable is known to account for biases in the processing of joy, humor, and laughter: gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at; Ruch & Proyer, 2008a). Individuals with gelotophobia describe themselves primarily as introvert-neurotics (Ruch & Proyer, 2009). They express less smiling and laughter (Platt, Hofmann, Ruch, & Proyer, 2013; Ruch, Hofmann, & Platt, 2015), report experiencing less joy in a variety of situations (see Ruch, Hofmann, Platt, & Proyer, 2014 for a review), and others’ positive laughter is experienced as malicious (Ruch, Altfreder, & Proyer, 2009). Also, they respond with a marked heart rate deceleration toward hearing laughter (indicating a “freezinglike” response; Papousek et al., 2014). Gelotophobes interpret laughter as a weapon utilized for putting them down and falsely attribute it to mockery directed toward them (Ruch & Proyer, 2008b). Consequently, they respond fearfully to benevolent laughter (Ruch & Proyer, 2009), implying a possible bias in interpreting joy and emotions potentially going along with laughter/ridicule (i.e., contempt). Thus, while extraversion and neuroticism partially predict responses toward joy and contempt, gelotophobia is a specific trait that biases joy responses and their interpretation (see Ruch et al., 2014). As gelotophobia goes beyond global personality dimensions and is also sufficiently different from lower order concepts such as shame-proneness, timidity, and social anxiety (Ruch et al., 2014), it is necessary to investigate its relation to responses and interpretation of joy and contempt smiles. Therefore, the present research investigated how individuals with or without gelotophobia respond toward facially expressed types of smiles (with a special focus on smiles of joy and contempt). This is important, as a bias in perceiving smiles and laughs might lead to important consequences in social interactions (see Fredrickson, 1998; Johnston, Miles, & Macrae, 2010; Papa & Bonanno, 2008). It is expected that gelotophobes have a specific bias in interpreting facially expressed smiling 581191 SGOXXX10.1177/2158244015581191SAGE OpenHofmann et al. research-article2015 University of Zurich, Switzerland Corresponding Author: Jennifer Hofmann, Department of Psychology, Personality and Assessment, University of Zurich, Binzmuhlestrasse 14/7, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland. Email: [email protected] Individual Differences in Gelotophobia Predict Responses to Joy and Contempt Jennifer Hofmann, Tracey Platt, Willibald Ruch, and René T. Proyer Abstract 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 (N 1 = 83, N 2 = 50) rated the intensity of eight emotions in 16 photos depicting joy, contempt, and different smiles. Facial responses were coded by the Facial Action Coding System in the second study. Compared with non-fearful individuals, gelotophobes rated joy smiles as less joyful and more contemptuous. Moreover, gelotophobes showed less facial joy and more contempt markers. The contempt ratings were comparable between the two groups. Looking at the photos of smiles lifted the positive mood of nongelotophobes, whereas gelotophobes did not experience an increase. We hypothesize that the interpretation bias of “joyful faces hiding evil minds” (i.e., being also contemptuous) and exhibiting less joy facially may complicate social interactions for gelotophobes and serve as a maintaining factor of gelotophobia.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 (N 1 = 83, N 2 = 50) rated the intensity of eight emotions in 16 photos depicting joy, contempt, and different smiles. Facial responses were coded by the Facial Action Coding System in the second study. Compared with non-fearful individuals, gelotophobes rated joy smiles as less joyful and more contemptuous. Moreover, gelotophobes showed less facial joy and more contempt markers. The contempt ratings were comparable between the two groups. Looking at the photos of smiles lifted the positive mood of nongelotophobes, whereas gelotophobes did not experience an increase. We hypothesize that the interpretation bias of “joyful faces hiding evil minds” (i.e., being also contemptuous) and exhibiting less joy facially may complicate social interactions for gelotophobes and serve as a maintaining factor of gelotophobia.