Assessing individual differences in the way people deal with ridicule and being laughed at: The Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45

The PhoPhiKat-45 assesses individual differences in the way people deal with ridicule and being laughed at. This instrument encompasses three intercorrelated—but independent—laughter-related traits: the fear of (gelotophobia) and the joy in (gelotophilia) being laughed at, and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism). This research tested the psychometric properties of the Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45. A total of 636 individuals whose ages ranged from 18 to 70 years participated in three different studies. Our data indicated good reliability coefficients and an adequate-to-good fit for the expected three-factor structure across all samples. As indicators of external validity, prior associations among these three laughter-related traits and diverse research variables were examined. Gelotophobia correlated with low self-enhancing humor; gelotophilia correlated with a high use of all humor styles, especially affiliative and self-defeating humor; and katagelasticism correlated with high aggressive and high self-defeating humor. Moreover, gelotophobia correlated with high subclinical autistic traits and high trait anxiety; gelotophilia correlated with low trait anxiety; and katagelasticism existed independently from both subclinical constructs. Finally, we replicated the location of the three dispositions in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) assessed by NEO-FFI. Additionally, curvilinear relationships among the traits of the FFM and gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism were explored. Inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationships between agreeableness-gelotophobia and neuroticism-katagelasticism emerged. Our results suggest that the Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45 can be considered a promising instrument for the study of these dimensions in Spain.