The effect of public self-consciousness on forced laughter

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of public self-consciousness on forced laughter. Participants (N = 409) were asked to imagine a group of either friends or acquaintances, and then to indicate how often he or she exhibited forced laughter toward the group members. They also completed Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). Results indicated that persons with high public self-consciousness reported more frequent expressions of all types of forced laughter--expression control, intimacy maintenance, action control, and affect manipulation--than those who were low, regardless of interpersonal intimacy level. Besides public self-consciousness, both gender and intimate feeling toward group members influenced frequency of forced laughter. Implications for the nature of public self-consciousness and forced laughter were discussed.