Abstract
We explored the relationship between four types of forced laughter (expression control, intimacy maintenance, action control, and affect manipulation) and mental health as well as the mediating effects of social support and self-concept clarity. The Forced Laughter Scale (FLS), General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MPSS), and Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCC) were completed by 184 (63 male, 119 female) Japanese university students. The results of investigating the relationships between the four types of forced laughter and mental health demonstrated that expression control had a negative correlation with mental health, while intimacy maintenance had a positive correlation. Affect manipulation and action control did not demonstrate significant correlations. Mediation analysis revealed that the negative correlation between expression control and mental health can be explained by a low level of perceived social support and self-concept clarity. Conversely, it was revealed that the positive correlation between intimacy maintenance and mental health can be explained by a high level of perceived social support. This study found that forced laughter in daily life can have both positive and negative correlations with mental health depending on the situation in which one forces a laugh and their intention for doing so.
Highlights
1.1 Humor, Laughter, and Mental HealthThough the concept of humour is extremely ambiguous, Martin (2007) stated that humour is an ‘emotional response of mirth in a social context that is elicited by a perception of playful incongruity’ (p. 10)
The Forced Laughter Scale (FLS) is a scale with 20 items and four subscales: Expression Control (‘When a friend is laughing, I pretend to laugh even if it isn’t funny’); Intimacy Maintenance (‘In order to brighten the atmosphere of the place, I intentionally laugh a lot’); Action Control (‘I make fun of a different group and laugh on purpose with my friends’) and Affect Manipulation (‘When another person looks to be in a bad mood, I purposely meet them with a smile’)
We examined the mediating effects of social support and self-concept clarity, with expression control and intimacy maintenance as the independent variables and mental health as the dependent variable
Summary
1.1 Humor, Laughter, and Mental HealthThough the concept of humour is extremely ambiguous, Martin (2007) stated that humour is an ‘emotional response of mirth in a social context that is elicited by a perception of playful incongruity’ (p. 10). Research using the correlational method conceptualises individual differences in individuals’ humour and laughter as their ‘sense of humour’ and explores the relationship with various mental health indexes. Sense of humour scales can assess humour and laughter occurring in an individual’s daily life and in various social contexts. The HSQ assesses the individual differences in individuals’ humour and laughter on four subscales: Affiliative Humour, Self-Enhancing Humour, Aggressive Humour, and Self-Defeating Humour. Affiliative Humour assesses trends in the use of humour or laughter for the enjoyment of others or deepening relationships. Self-Enhancing Humour assesses trends in coping with stress through humour or laughter. Aggressive Humour assesses trends in the use of humour or laughter to criticise or dominate others. Self-Defeating Humour assesses trends in the use of humour or laughter in a self-sacrificing manner to gain someone’s favour.
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