Russian attitudes towards humour and laughter

Abstract

Different phenomena related to humour and laughter, such as humour styles, gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism, were investigated in a series of psychological studies in Russia. As far as the samples were rather heterogeneous in regard with age, gender, region of Russia, and included besides big cities also small towns and villages, the data allows to discuss not only psychological, but also a certain cultural perspective. It is concluded that self-defeating humour style plays an important role in the structure of Russian cultural attitude towards humour and laughter. The most adaptive affiliative humour style is highly connected with self-defeating and aggressive styles. Similar pattern was shown for humour and laughter perception: a fear of being laughed at paradoxically provokes active involvement into exchange of jokes. A comparison between the two Russian capitals and regional sample revealed more similarities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg with western data than with the regional Russian sample which is supposed to reflect more of traditional national character.

Is parody dangerous?

“…In Russian culture today, I observe a serious attitude to parody and laughter, a tendency towards gelotophobia (Ivanova et al 2017) that could be explained by the strongly hierarchical character of Russian society, where "shame is one of the main mechanisms of social control" (Ivanova et al 2017: 86;Davies 2009). In official media, any humorous statement (in the broad 17 Minority policy is considered by the European juridical system as a foundation of international peace and security in the post-Westphalian period.…”

„Русский” Юмор В Контексте Направлений Юмористической Коммуникации: Причины Гелотофобии Как Социального Явления

“…Предложенный Михаэлем Титцем термин гелотофобия для обозначения страха насмешки как особой формы тревожности у психически больных (Titze) быстро вышел за пределы только психиатрии и клинической психологии. Современные исследования гелотофобии показывают ее наличие также у здоровых людей (Ivanova et al 2012;Ivanova et al 2016;Ivanova et al 2017). Предположение об укорененности гелотофобии как тенденции в культуре постепенно находят подтверждение (Ivanova), хотя эти предположения носят пока еще предварительный характер, но, как кажется, истоки гелотофобии стоит искать в культурной среде, в которой субъект вырастает и живет, а также в культурных установках.…”