Fear of flying: Can humour help?

This study aims to examine whether humour can shape certain phenomena linked to fear of flying, including anxiousness, distracting and coping phenomena, and potential mediators in those relationships. An online experiment was conducted with 442 respondents, and three parallel multiple mediator models were utilised in the analyses. After watching the humorous rather than the emotionless video, respondents reported increased emotional levels and increased humour levels, both of which were subsequently related to increased distracting levels and increased coping levels. Knowledge generated from this study can be utilised to educate the flying public and health professionals who treat people with flying phobia.