“A bit of salt, a bit of pepper, and a bit of irony:” A qualitative analysis of attitudes towards verbal irony in gelotophobes and nongelotophobes

• Authors: Piotr Kałowski

Abstracts

EN

A qualitative study was carried out to survey attitudes towards and feelings associated with verbal irony among gelotophobes and nongelotophobes (gelotophobia denoting the fear of being laughed at). Sixty-one people (13 gelotophobes) were surveyed using an open-ended online questionnaire. An inductive, manifest content analysis was carried out. The analysis distinguished that non-gelotophobes treat verbal irony as a skillful way of drawing attention to absurdity. Irony was also often seen as a personal quality rather than a linguistic form. Concerns with recognizing irony appeared very rarely. In contrast, the gelotophobes’ responses displayed a more negative and one-sided attitude towards irony, describing it mostly as a way to put down and insult. These findings, though obtained in a general exploration, present a perspective complementary to that seen in linguistic and psycholinguistic literature as they draw attention to matters of personal experience of irony use. Additionally, the study’s methodological limitations and further directions for research are discussed.

Keywords

EN

verbal irony; irony understanding; individual differences; gelotophobia; content analysis

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 324-334

Dates

published

2020

Contributors

author

Piotr Kałowski

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2128966