Attitudes to Humor and Laughter as a Psychological and Social-Cultural Phenomenon

10.33876/2311-0546/2024-1/308-328

Abstract

The article contains a psychological analysis of the attitude to humor and laughter from the joker’s and the audience’s point of view. Motivation of the joker is operationalized through the concept of humor styles, while the recipient’s attitude to humor and laughter – through the notions of gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism. The paper also provides a brief review of the modern studies of these phenomena within psychology of individual differences and psychopathology. We suggest an increasing role of humor, laughter and psychological phenomena related to them in the modern society. Basing on a series of studies conducted on Russian sample, we discuss national specifics of the attitude to humor and laughter in Russia in the context of cultural-historical dynamics, through the philosophical dichotomies of “laughter-shame”, “laughter-fear”, “laughter-aggression”, “laughter-seriousness”.