Self-conscious emotions and ridicule: Shameful gelotophobes and guilt free katagelasticists

Abstract

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 and katagelasticism. N = 317 participants completed the TOSCA-3 and PhoPhiKat-45 instruments. Results show that gelotophobia is related to shame-proneness and externalize shameful situations. Katagelasticists have low guilt and can also be predicted by shame, age and gender. None of the TOSCA-3 dimensions predicted gelotophilia. The study gives a better indication of the dynamics of the self-conscious emotions, especially shame and guilt, which attributes to how people react to or use laughing at themselves and others when interacting with others.