Fear of being laughed at and social anxiety: A preliminary psychometric study

The present study examines the relationship between questionnaire measures of social phobia and gelotophobia. A sample of 211 Colombian adults filled in Spanish versions of the Social Anxiety and Distress scale (SAD; Watson & Friend, 1969), the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (FNE; Watson & Friend, 1969) and the GELOPH<15> (Ruch & Proyer, 2008). Results confirmed that both Social Anxiety and Distress and Fear of Negative Evaluation scale overlapped with the fear of being laughed at without being identical with it. The SAD and FNE correlated highly with the GELOPH<15> but not all high scorers in these scales expressed a fear of being laughed at. Furthermore, an item factor analysis yielded three factors that were mostly loaded by items of the respective scales. This three-factor structure was verified using confirmatory factor analysis. A measure model where one general factor of social anxiety was specified, or another one where two different factors were defined (gelotophobia vs. social anxiety assessed by SAD and FNE) showed a very poor fit to the data. It is concluded that the fear of being laughed cannot fully be accounted for by these measures of social phobia.