To love and laugh: Testing actor-, partner-, and similarity effects of dispositions towards ridicule and being laughed at on relationship satisfaction

People differ in how they deal with ridicule and being laughed at along three individual differences variables; namely, the fear (gelotophobia) and joy (gelotophilia) of being laughed at and joy of laughing at others (katagelasticism). This study examines their associations with facets of relationship satisfaction (RS). Actor-Partner-Interdependence Model analyses of 154 heterosexual couples showed that gelotophobia was negatively associated with RS while gelotophilia (mainly in females) was positively related. Katagelasticism existed independently from RS, except for higher levels of disagreement. Further, romantic partners were robustly similar in their traits and profiles (overall and distinctive). The unique similarity-RS associations were positive but of small size. Overall, our findings support the notion that the dispositions are differentially related with facets of RS.