The Relationship between Gelotophobia, Gelotophilia, Katagelasticism and Creativity in Fifth and Sixth Grade Students in Taiwanese Elementary Schools

Background: Creativity has been an indispensable part of today's education. The issue about whether one is afraid to be laughed at and how much one can show his creativity is worth of discussion. Aims: This study investigated the relationships between creativity and humour-related traits in Taiwanese elementary school students. Sample: 1038 students, 515 boys and 523girls, from northern, central and southern Taiwan participated in the study. And they are between 10 and 12. Method:The PhoPhiKat-TC scale and The New Tests of Creative Thinking were used in the study. And the data were analyzed by Analysis of Regresion. Results:Gelotophilia was found to be positively correlated with figural fluency, flexibility and originality, while gelotophobia was inversely correlated with all three of these skills and katagelasticism was inversely correlated to elaboration. (All correlations were significant.) Gelotophilia was a better predictor of verbal creativity and figural creativity than were gelotophobia and katagelasticism, and a better predictor of figural creativity than of verbal creativity. Conclusion:The study concludes with the suggestion that future correlational studies of PhoPhiKat and creativity might take variables such as creative thinking tendency or IQ into account.