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Personality of Clown Doctors. An exploratotory study

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 Volume 37 / Number 1 / 2016

Volume 37 / Number 1 / 2016

Journal of

Individual
Differences

Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Individual Differences

André Beacuducel

Associate Editors
Philip J. Corr
Sam Gosling
Jürgen Hennig
Philipp Y. Herzberg
Aljoscha Neubauer
Thomas Rammsayer
Willibald Ruch
Stefan Schmukle
Astrid Schütz
Andrzej Sekowski
Jutta Stahl
Martin Vocarek

jid_55-0-41-3_58-60_positiv.indd 3 09.12.2015 11:14:30

Contents
Original Articles Gymnasts and Orienteers Display Better Mental Rotation Performance 1
Than Nonathletes
Mirko Schmidt, Fabienne Egger, Mario Kieliger, Benjamin Rubeli,
and Julia Schüler

Conscientiousness Is the Most Powerful Noncognitive Predictor 8

of School Achievement in Adolescents
Barbara Dumfart and Aljoscha C. Neubauer

Perception of Emotional Expressions in Adults: The Role 16

of Temperament and Mood
Chit Yuen Yi, Matthew W. E. Murry, and Amy L. Gentzler

The Relationships Between the Dark Triad, the Moral Judgment Level, 24
and the Students’ Disciplinary Choice: Self-Selection, Indoctrination,
or Both?
Annika Krick, Stephanie Tresp, Mirijam Vatter, Antonia Ludwig,
Michael Wihlenda, and Martin Rettenberger

Social Support, Emotional Intelligence, and Posttraumatic Stress 31

Disorder Symptoms: A Mediation Analysis
Nicole L. Hofman, Austin M. Hahn, Christine K. Tirabassi,
and Raluca M. Gaher

Rank-Order Consistency and Profile Stability of Self- and Informant- 40

Reports of Personal Values in Comparison to Personality Traits
Henrik Dobewall and Toivo Aavik

Personality of Clown Doctors: An Exploratory Study 49

Alberto Dionigi

Validation and Revision of a German Version of the Balanced Measure 56

of Psychological Needs Scale
Andreas B. Neubauer and Andreas Voss

Ó 2016 Hogrefe Publishing Journal of Individual Differences 2016; Vol. 37(1)

 Journal of
Individual
Differences

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 Author’s personal copy (e-offprint)

Original Article

Personality of Clown Doctors

An Exploratory Study
Alberto Dionigi
Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, University of Macerata, Italy

Abstract. In recent years, both professional and volunteer clowns have become familiar in health settings. The clown represents a peculiar
humorist’s character, strictly associated with the performer’s own personality. In this study, the Big Five personality traits (BFI) of 155 Italian
clown doctors (130 volunteers and 25 professionals) were compared to published data for the normal population. This study highlighted specific
differences between clown doctors and the general population: Clown doctors showed higher agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and
extraversion, as well as lower neuroticism compared to other people. Moreover, specific differences emerged comparing volunteers and
professionals: Professional clowns showed significantly lower in agreeableness compared to their unpaid colleagues. The results are also
discussed with reference to previous studies conducted on groups of humorists. Clowns’ personalities showed some peculiarities that can help to
explain the facility for their performances in the health setting and that are different than those of other groups of humorists.

Keywords: clown doctors, personality profile, Big Five, volunteers, professionals

Humor is an important part of life. Numerous studies have
been conducted in order to understand why people laugh,
and theories have been proposed to explain the mechanisms
of humor (for a review, see Ruch, 2008). Research has
mainly dealt with individual differences in the appreciation
of humor by most people while the psychological character-
istics of comic performers, such as cartoonists, humor writ-
ers, stand-up comedians, and clowns, have only marginally
been investigated. In particular, studies have been con-
ducted on humorists aimed at investigating whether they
have particular personality traits that differ from those of
the others and whether there are differences with amateur
or less effective humor producers. Generally, a distinction
in personality traits depending upon being a creator (e.g.,
writers) or an interpreter (e.g., actors) was highlighted
(Kogan, 2002).
The psychological research in this field has mainly
focused on comedians’ personality, which revealed a spe-
cific pattern. In an early study, following a psychoanalytical
approach based both on projective tests and analyses of
dreams, comedians were found to be sad, depressive,
despondent, and angry (Janus, 1975). When investigating
gender differences, male comedians were more introverted
than females, who were found to be vivacious, frenetic, and
hypomanic (Janus, Bess, & Janus, 1978). When compared
to the general population, both professional and amateur
comedians showed significantly lower conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness, and higher openness compared
to college students (Greengross & Miller, 2009). Interest-
ingly, comedians and actors were also found to score higher
in Psychoticism with respect to the rest of society’s norms
(Ando, Claridge, & Clark, 2014). These findings are
consistent with research conducted on male professional
British cartoonists (Pearson, 1983), who were found to be
high on Psychoticism suggesting a link between artistic cre-
ativity and Psychoticism. The psychological profile of pro-
fessional comedians was also compared to clowns’ profiles
in a Rorschach inkblot test (Fisher & Fisher, 1981). Come-
dians showed more references to themes of good and evil
and a lower perception of self-worthiness and made a
higher number of negative remarks about themselves.
According to these results, an unusual personality structure
may help to explain the facility for comedians’ perfor-
mances and be helpful in making people laugh. As Psych-
oticism is closely related to creativity (Eysenck, 1995), the
high P-scorer is more capable of coming up with unusual,
incongruous, and wittier punch lines (Köhler & Ruch,
1996).
Research on the personality of humorists has mainly
focused on comedians, although clowns – as pranksters,
jesters, jokers, harlequins, and mythologized tricksters –
have been around for quite a long time and have attracted
much popular interest. The clown is, by definition, a curi-
ous figure that projects itself on a different wavelength than
that of societies’ status quo (Dionigi, Ruch, & Platt, 2014).
The clown is a performer who acts foolishly and childishly
in order to elicit positive emotions, and it is strictly associ-
ated with the performer’s own personality, physical body,
and subjectivity (Lecoq, 2011). This personality is often
also reflected in a specific costume, as adopting a costume
frequently helps to construct and define a new role (Miller,
Jasper, & Hill, 1991). Differently from an actor, a clown
does not play a character and develops this based on the
performer’s physical and psychological characteristics

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DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000187
 Author’s personal copy (e-offprint)
50 A. Dionigi: Clown Doctor’s Personality
(Peacock, 2009). Clowns have appeared in a large variety of
environments, and, in the last three decades, many more
have been integrated into health settings. This practice
was first started by Michael Christensen in 1986, a profes-
sional clown who set up the first Clown Care Unit (Dionigi,
Flangini, & Gremigni, 2012).
The art of clinic clowning is rooted both in the figures
of fools and jesters and in shamans and folk healers. In
many cultures, people believe that fools, clowns, and trick-
sters possess magical powers, enabling healing (Grinberg,
Pendzik, Kowalsky, & Goshen, 2012). Although the figures
of the circus clown and of the clown doctors are often
linked, fundamental differences exist between them. These
differences lie in the goal and methodology of clowning uti-
lized in a health setting. The main aim of circus and street
clowns is to entertain and amuse audiences, while the pur-
pose of clown doctors is to assist patients in the healing pro-
cess, distracting them from painful procedures, reducing
anxiety triggered by hospitalization, and enhancing their
moods (Dionigi, Sangiorgi, & Flangini, 2014; Grinberg
et al., 2012; Pendzik & Raviv, 2011). To accomplish this
goal, clown doctors must be bright performers and talented
humorists, yet be empathetic and attentive to patients’
needs. Moreover, they must have high emotional intelli-
gence as their purpose is to modify the moods of patients
and change their emotional states to positive ones (Dionigi
et al., 2012; Warren & Spitzer, 2013).
Research has been carried out on a variety of other
humorists and social groups, as yet no empirical studies
have been done on the personality traits of clown doctors.
Therefore, to further understand the effectiveness of these
clowns in their dual roles as healers and humorists, it is
of interest to establish what the typical psychological char-
acteristics of clown doctors are. The purpose of this study is
to investigate the personalities of a sample of clown doc-
tors, using the five-factor model of personality (FFM)
(McCrae & Costa, 2003). The hypothesis was that the per-
sonality profiles of clown doctors are significantly different
from the general non-clown population.
As performing artists, clowns show similarities in per-
sonality when compared to actors and comedians as clown
doctors perform in front of crowds to elicit positive emo-
tions. High extroversion is associated with the desire for
being the center of social attention (Nettle, 2006), so clown
doctors were expected to score high on extroversion.
Clown doctors, similar to comedians, tune their acts to
the crowd’s reactions (Greengross & Miller, 2009). They
must also put the patients’ needs first and cooperate with
colleagues, healthcare staff, and patients’ relatives. There-
fore, clown doctors were predicted to score high on
agreeableness.
Previous studies have shown that creative people
are low on conscientiousness and high on openness
(Greengross & Miller, 2009; Nettle, 2006; Nowakowska,
Strong, Santosa, Wang, & Ketter, 2005). Creativity is
required in clown doctors as well; however, since they per-
form in peculiar settings, such as hospitals, they must man-
age their emotions and be self-disciplined. Clown doctors
were thus expected to score high on both conscientiousness
and openness.
Journal of Individual Differences 2016; Vol. 37(1):49–55
Neurotic individuals are more prone to experience anx-
iety, worry about life events, and evaluate themselves more
critically (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Furthermore, anxious
individuals are more susceptible to focusing on potential
threats in their environment (Eysenck & Derakshan,
2011). High neuroticism in performers leads to stronger
stage fright (Steptoe et al., 1995). As clown doctors are
required to stay in tune with patients and manage their
and others’ emotions in order to perform well and accom-
plish their task, they were predicted to score low on neurot-
icism as compared to the general non-clown population.
Finally, as an increasing number of people practice as
clown doctors, they include a wide variety of professional
backgrounds (Koller & Gryski, 2008). Currently, it is com-
mon to find both professional and volunteer clown doctors
in hospitals (Dionigi, Ruch, & Platt, 2014), so differences in
personality traits between volunteers and professionals were
also investigated.
Aim of the Study
At the time of this writing, there is no reported research
about personalities of clowns working in health settings.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the psycholog-
ical characteristics of a sample of Italian clown doctors,
both professionals and volunteers, and to compare findings
with published normative data. Due to the characteristics
required to work as a clown in health settings, it was
expected that clown doctors would score higher in agree-
ableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness
and lower in neuroticism when compared to the normal
population. Moreover, as friendliness and sociability go
along with the need to help it was expected that volunteers
score higher in agreeableness compared to professional
clowns.
Method
Participants
The total sample consisted of 155 clown doctors (40 males,
115 females) varying in age between 21 and 66 years
(M = 37.99, SD = 10.25). Participants were well-educated
adults (0.6% primary school, 5.8% low secondary school,
41.9% upper secondary school, 52.3% university). With ref-
erence to marital status, 86 were not married, 51 were mar-
ried or cohabiting, 15 were divorced, and three were
widowed. Participants had different levels of experience
in the art of clowning in health settings (M = 5.51 years,
SD = 3.07, range = 0–13 years).
Instruments
Participants completed a short demographic questionnaire
and the Big Five Inventory (BFI; John & Srivastava, 1999)
Ó 2016 Hogrefe Publishing
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A. Dionigi: Clown Doctor’s Personality 51

to assess the Big Five dimensions of personality. The BFI
consists of 44 short-phrase items, rated on a 5-point scale
(1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly). The items assess
the core traits that define each Big Five domain. The BFI
items are assigned to five scales measuring Extraversion
(E; 8 items), Agreeableness (A; 9 items), Conscientiousness
(C; 9 items), Neuroticism (N; 8 items), and Openness to
experience (O; 10 items). Prior researchers have presented
adequate evidence of the reliability and validity of the BFI
scales (John & Srivastava, 1999). In this study, the Italian
version translated and validated by Ubbiali, Chiorri,
Hampton, and Donati (2013) was used.
Procedures
Data was collected in an online survey, and the study was
conducted among a broad sample of Italian clown doctors.
Participants were recruited via e-mails sent to the coordina-
tors of Italian clown care units asking them to forward to
clown doctors belonging to each unit. The e-mail contained
a link to the survey created on Survey Monkey and an
explanation of the aim of the study. All participants were
guaranteed anonymity. The sample that fully completed
the questionnaire was composed of 155 clown doctors.
All statistical procedures were performed using the software
package SPSS (21.0, IBM Inc., New York, NY, USA).
Results
Comparison Between the Clown Doctor
Sample and the General Population
Comparison data for the FFM personality traits were taken
from a large Italian general sample composed of 1,023
participants (female = 56.9%, M = 34.80, SD = 14.53,
range 18–80 years old) recruited to study the psychometric
properties of the Italian adaptation of the BFI (Ubbiali
et al., 2013). The clown doctor scores on the scales showed
good to acceptable reliabilities (Cronbach’s a: Openness to
experience: .80; Conscientiousness: .79; Extraversion: .77;
Agreeableness: .70; Neuroticism: .75). Comparisons
between means, standard deviations of BFI traits, as well
as correlations with age, and education are reported in
Table 1.
Each dimension of the FFM was compared to the values
of the Italian population (Ubbiali et al., 2013) using a one-
sample t-test (Table 1). A significant difference in each
concept of the Big Five was found (all p < .001), with a
large effect size in O (d = 0.86) and medium effect size
in A (d = 0.67), N (d = 0.66), E (d = 0.46), C (d = 0.42).
Thus, the sample of clown doctors investigated can gener-
ally be described as more extraverted, agreeable, conscien-
tious, open, and low in neuroticism compared to the general
population. In the clown doctors’sample, a positive correla-
tion (r = .19, p < .05) emerged between age and agreeable-
ness while older clown doctors scored lower in neuroticism
(r = .16, p < .05). No significant correlations were found
between the five personality traits and education.
An independent-samples t-test was also conducted to
compare the scores on the Big Five dimensions of male
and female clown doctors (Table 2).
Female clowns scored higher in neuroticism compared
to males (Mmales = 2.37, SD = 0.66; Mfemales = 2.69,
SD = 0.64); t(153) = 2.76, p = .06, with a moderate effect
size (d = 0.49), while no other significant gender-related
differences emerged. In their study, Ubbiali et al. (2013)
computed a point-biserial correlation, showing a significant
relationship between genders of Italian population and spe-
cific dimensions of the Big Five: Females were found to be
significantly higher in Agreeableness and Neuroticism
compared to males.

Table 1. BFI scale means, standard deviations, associations with age and education of clown doctors and italian
population
Clown doctors General population
E A C N O E A C N O
Min 2.25 2.44 1.89 1.00 2.50 1.00 1.89 1.33 1.00 1.00
Max 4.88 5.00 5.00 4.50 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
M 3.63 4.09 3.90 2.61 4.18 3.32 3.72 3.62 3.09 3.67
SD 0.61 0.51 0.60 0.66 0.51 0.74 0.59 0.74 0.78 0.67
t-test values (df = 154)
t 6.88*** 8.94*** 5.78*** 9.17*** 12.64***
d 0.46 0.67 0.42 0.66 0.86
Associations with age and education
Age .06 .19* .11 .16* .08 .00 .09** .26** .18** .06*
Education .05 .13 .01 .05 .07 .01 .03 .10** .14** .08**
Notes. E = Extraversion; A = Agreeableness; C = Conscientiousness; N = Neuroticism; O = Openness; Min/Max = minimum/
maximum; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation; df = degree of freedom; d = Effect size; Number of Clown Doctors = 155 (%female =
74.20, M =37.99, SD = 10.25 range 21–66 years old). Source of general population data: Ubbiali et al. (2013), n = 1023 (%female =
56.9, M = 34.80, SD = 14.53, range 18–80 years old). *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. All tests were two-tailed.

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 Author’s personal copy (e-offprint)
52 A. Dionigi: Clown Doctor’s Personality

Table 2. Independent t-test for gender differences in five factor model personality traits in clown doctors
Females Males
M SD M SD t Effect size
Extraversion 3.64 0.62 3.70 0.58 0.54 .10
Agreeableness 4.09 0.49 4.08 0.57 0.18 .02
Conscientiousness 3.91 0.58 3.88 0.66 0.26 .05
Neuroticism 2.69 0.64 2.37 0.66 2.76** .49
Openness 4.19 0.51 4.16 0.49 0.29 .06
Notes. Number of female clown doctors = 115; number of male clown doctors = 40; Effect size = d. **p < 0.01 (two-tailed).

Differences Between Volunteers
and Professionals
In order to assess differences between clowns, two sub-
groups were established: Volunteer and professional clown
doctors. The volunteer group was composed of participants
whose clown activity does not represent their main job and
who are not paid for it. The professional group includes par-
ticipants who reported to do this activity as a job and who
receive money for it. The volunteer group was composed of
130 clown doctors (31 males and 99 females; M = 38.15,
SD = 10.61, range = 21–66 years old) while the profes-
sional group included 25 people (9 males and 16 females;
M = 37.16; SD = 8.28; range = 27–62 years old).
In the next step, the Big Five dimensions of volunteer
and professional clowns were compared. Due to the small
sample of professional clowns, the assumption of normality
of all five dimensions of the Big Five was examined using
normal probability plots. No apparent deviations from nor-
mality emerged. Following, Levene’s homogeneity of vari-
ance test was conducted: The variances of the Big Five
dimensions of the two groups were not different from each
other (Extraversion: F(1, 153) = 0.32, p = .57; Agreeable-
ness: F(1, 153) = 0.26, p = .61; Conscientiousness:
F(1, 153) = 1.61, p = .21; Neuroticism: F(1, 153) = 3.19,
p = .77; Openness to experience: F(1, 153) = 0.95,
p = .33). Therefore, it was safe to continue with the
ANOVA, controlling for both age and gender. Results are
presented in Table 3.
Table 3 shows the comparisons among volunteer and
professional clown doctors groups based on the Big Five
personality. An ANCOVA [between-subjects factor:
professionalism (volunteer, professional); covariates: age
and gender] revealed a significant group difference for
Agreeableness as volunteer clowns scored higher than pro-
fessionals, F(1, 151) = 6.29, p < .01, and a moderate effect
size ( f = .57). ANCOVA revealed no main effects of
gender, F(1, 151) = .02, p = .88, and a main effect of
age, F(1, 151) = 5.67, p < .05.
Discussion
This is the first study aimed at investigating personality
characteristics of clown doctors; the data for this study
shows that this sample of clown doctors showed peculiar
characteristics that distinguish them from the general Italian
non-clown population. Clown doctors score higher in Extra-
version, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness
to experience, and lower in Neuroticism compared to pub-
lished normative data of the populace. These results con-
firm what was suggested by theoretical manuscripts
written in this area (Dionigi et al., 2012; Warren & Spitzer,
2013).
The clown doctor is a comic character required to be
creative in order to improvise according to what is found
in the healthcare setting. Extraversion is related to the flu-
ency component of creativity (Eysenck, 1995) and humor,
creativity, and extraversion have been found to be positively
correlated (Koppel & Sechrest, 1970). Extraverts are char-
acterized by traits such as being sociable, lively, active,
assertive, tending to enjoy human interactions, and being
enthusiastic, talkative, assertive, and gregarious. In the field
of humor, extraverts (as compared to introverts) are more
cheerful, less serious, and able to produce a higher quantity

Table 3. Comparisons between volunteer and professional clown doctors

Volunteer clowns Professional clowns
M SD M SD F Effect size
Extraversion 3.67 0.61 3.60 0.58 0.53 .12
Agreeableness 4.13 0.51 3.85 0.48 6.29** .57
Conscientiousness 3.94 0.61 3.71 0.51 2.83 .41
Neuroticism 2.60 0.68 2.62 0.50 0.10 .03
Openness 4.18 0.51 4.21 0.49 0.16 .06
Notes. Number of volunteers = 130; number of professionals = 25; Effect size = f. **p < 0.01 (two-tailed).

Journal of Individual Differences 2016; Vol. 37(1):49–55 Ó 2016 Hogrefe Publishing

 Author’s personal copy (e-offprint)
A. Dionigi: Clown Doctor’s Personality
of humor content (Köhler & Ruch, 1996). As clowns
expose themselves with the intention of being the laughing
stock for others, probably extraversion may provide respon-
siveness toward the interpersonal reward of being the center
of an audience’s attention (Nettle, 2006).
Clown doctors show high Agreeableness compared to
other people. This dimension is related to the ability to
be sensitive toward others’ needs, compassionate, and coop-
erative. Moreover, other public figures who want to be
loved and appreciated, such as actors and politicians, are
high on this dimension (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Consiglio,
Picconi, & Zimbardo, 2003; Nettle, 2006). Agreeableness
represents the core dispositional trait contributing to proso-
cial behaviors as agreeable individuals are altruistic,
straightforward, trusting, softhearted, modest, and compli-
ant (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Researchers found significant
positive relations between agreeableness and volunteering,
as people scoring high on Agreeableness are more likely
to comply with requests from others (Carlo, Okun, Knight,
& de Guzman, 2005). In the present study, volunteers
scored higher than professionals in agreeableness. One pos-
sible explanation can be that volunteers are more altruistic,
modest, and compliant compared to their paid colleagues
(Liao-Troth, 2005).
The sample of clown doctors was also high on Consci-
entiousness compared to normative data. Clowns are
required to attend rigorous training before entering the
health setting and must be aware of their role as well as
of the risks related to a wrong approach to patients or to
a lack of competence. As conscientious individuals are able
to manage emotions, be self-disciplined, and focus on goal
achievement, it is not surprising that clown doctors score
high on this trait.
As predicted, clown doctors have been found to be more
open to experience than the general population. This find-
ing is consistent with those of previous studies that showed
that other creative groups are also high on Openness to
experience (Nettle, 2006). Clown doctors are required to
be curious and possess a high imagination as they must look
at the world in a different, unconventional, and imaginative
way where (almost) anything is possible and permitted
(Dionigi, Ruch, & Platt, 2014). Furthermore, Openness to
experience has consistently been positively related to crea-
tivity in general, and clown doctors need to continually
adjust their way to approach patients in order to make their
work evolve.
Finally, clown doctors scored low in Neuroticism. This
result is not surprising, as neuroticism is made up of traits
like anxious, depressed, guilt feelings, low self-esteem, irra-
tional, and shyness; that is not representative of the clown’s
profile. Moreover, neuroticism was found to be negatively
correlated with cheerfulness (Köhler & Ruch, 1996).
Studies on other creative people like poets and writers show
that they are high in this dimension. However, differently
from clown doctors, they do not have to perform their
creation on stage (Nowakowska et al., 2005). Research con-
ducted on comedians showed no differences in neuroticism
compared with the rest of society (Greengross & Miller,
2009). This finding is consistent with what has been
recently found about the ability to remain in the role during
Ó 2016 Hogrefe Publishing
53
the performance. Clown doctors who were better able to
differentiate between their persona and their clown persona
were less interfered by external cues and internal thoughts;
they experienced less anxiety before and during the activity
(Dionigi, Ruch, & Platt, 2014).
The results of the present study also shed light on how
groups of humorists may differ. A cheerful temperament is
involved in the sense of humor and it goes along with high
extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, and open-
ness, and low conscientiousness (Ruch & Köhler, 1998).
Compared to this, clowns are relatively similar with the
exception that they are higher (and not lower) in conscien-
tiousness. In particular, volunteers are high on both agree-
ableness and conscientiousness. Clowns thus seem to be
very different though from the witty professionals and witty
amateurs. Cartoonists (Pearson, 1983) and those able to
provide funnier punch lines are high in P (Köhler & Ruch,
1996) and stand-up comedians are higher in schizotypy
(Ando et al., 2014). Likewise, stand-up comedians in
Greengross and Miller’s (2009) study were significantly
lower in both Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. High
P is an indicator of low Agreeableness and low Conscien-
tiousness, and here we can assume that witty people and
clowns are on the opposite poles of the Psychoticism
dimensions. However, clowns (in this study), comedians
(Greengross, Martin, & Miller, 2012; Greengross & Miller,
2009), and witty people share higher openness to experi-
ence. In their study, Ruch and Köhler (1998) showed that
the ability to produce witty punch lines goes along with
high openness and low seriousness. The clowns in the pres-
ent study were higher in Extraversion and lower in Neurot-
icism, which is again different from the witty. Comedians
were lower in Extraversion (Ando et al., 2014; Greengross
& Miller, 2009; Greengross et al., 2012).
The results of this study showed that the sample of clown
doctors examined possess specific personality characteris-
tics in comparison to Italian non-clown population. Signifi-
cant differences were found between volunteers and
professionals. Although these findings shed light on a topic
that previous authors have only addressed theoretically, some
limitations to extending the findings to other clown doctors
need to be acknowledged. The study was conducted on a
sample of Italian clown doctors, and further research is
needed to confirm these results for other cultures and nation-
alities. The relatively small sample of professional clown
doctors further limits the findings, and replications on larger
samples are required. A comparison was not possible with
published normative data where study samples had been sep-
arated into subgroups by age and gender, which prevented
verification of personality differences using these criteria.
Future studies will include a control group, instead of com-
paring results with published data, in order to address this
concern, as well as to investigate possible differences in per-
sonalities of clinic versus circus clowns.
Finally, as personality is a complex phenomenon, fur-
ther research should explore specific personality traits that
can play a role in clinic clowning, such as narcissism and
emotional intelligence. Narcissists support their self-image
through feedback and admiration received from others
(Atlas & Them, 2008), which may lead to feelings of
Journal of Individual Differences 2016; Vol. 37(1):49–55
 Author’s personal copy (e-offprint)
54 A. Dionigi: Clown Doctor’s Personality
anxiety after perceived negative feedback. These individu-
als may fail to develop appropriate strategies for dealing
with intense emotions. On the other hand, emotional intel-
ligence has been indicated as important for clown doctors,
since individuals scoring high on emotional intelligence are
better able to use, manage, understand, and pay attention to
emotions (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004).
Acknowledgments
The study was conducted during the research stay of the
author at the University of Zürich: the author is grateful
to Willibald Ruch, Jennifer Hofmann and Tracey Platt for
the precious help and assistance received. Many thanks to
Carlo Chiorri, Chiara Manfredi and Giulia Casu for the
helpful hints and comments.
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