Shy people often avoid situations that force close contact with other people. They worry that something they say or do will make others laugh at them.

But some people worry much more than others about being the target of laughter. These people are frightened. They suffer from an emotional disorder called gelotophobia. That long name comes from the Greek language. The word Gelos means laugh, while phobos means fear.

Victor Rubio is an expert on human behavior at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He says people laugh at others for many different reasons. He says being laughed at causes a fear response in the victim. That fear leads the victim to avoid social situations.

Gelotophobia limits the way they lead their lives.

Victor Rubio was among researchers in a huge international study about laughter. The researchers wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another goal was to measure the fear of being laughed at within different cultures.

A team from the University of Zurich led ninety-three researchers from many countries in search of answers. The researchers surveyed more than twenty-two thousand people. They used questions provided in forty-two languages. Their findings were reported in the scientific publication Humor.

Some of the people questioned said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations. But they hid their feelings. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before. People also admitted to differing levels of fear that they themselves were the targets of other peoples laughter.

The researchers measured and compared all these reactions. Fear of being laughed at, being made fun of, is a common emotion. But the researchers learned that these feelings differed from nation to nation. For example, the study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia are likely to hide insecure feelings when they are around others’ laughter. But people in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan who feel they have been victims before may avoid such situations.

People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Only eight and a half percent of Finns said they would — compared to eighty percent of those questioned in Thailand.

What would you think? You can comment at voaspecialenglish.com.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 09Dec2009)

Duration : 0:4:1

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FYI:
Articles by Dr. Aslam Farukhi
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/archive/040509/books2.htm

Dr. Farukhi narrates his article on Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi. In this article Dr. Farukhi talks about two upright people he met in his life: Quaid-e—Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and .Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi.
http://www.urduvision.com/play.php?vid=213

Duration : 0:6:17

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Last week, we discussed one problem for medical journals: the question of authorship. You would think that all the scientists who took part in a research study would be listed as authors. But that is not always the case. Sometimes there are honorary authors and ghost authors. Honorary authors, also called guest authors, receive credit in a published study but had little to do with designing it or writing the article.

Ghost authors work on studies but are not credited. Sometimes they are paid by drug companies to place articles in journals to support the companys products. One example was described in September at a meeting of international medical journal editors in Vancouver, Canada.

Three researchers at the University of California at San Francisco presented information about a drug companys marketing campaign that included placing research articles in medical journals.

In the nineteen nineties, the drug company Parke Davis paid another company, Medical Education Systems, to produce journal articles in support of one of its drugs. Medical Education Systems worked with authors chosen by Parke Davis to research, develop and write articles for publication.

Editors of the journals that published the studies did not know about the companies involvement.

Another study presented at the meeting was done by editors at the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers questioned authors of nine hundred articles published last year in six top medical journals.

They found that twenty-one percent of the papers published in those journals had honorary authors. Eight percent had ghost authors. Two percent had both.

They compared this to a similar study in nineteen ninety-six. It found that nineteen percent of articles had honorary authors, twelve percent had ghost authors and two percent had both.

The researchers noted the drop in the percentage of ghost authors from twelve percent to eight percent. Annette Flanagin and Joe Wislar said they were pleased about the decrease but had hoped it would be larger.

Some researchers and editors say changes must be made to stop such false author claims. Some have called for journals to identify ghostwritten articles and ban their authors from future publication.

And thats the VOA Special English Education Report.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 08Oct2009)

Duration : 0:4:2

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