Humor Styles, Perceived Threat, Funniness of COVID-19 Memes, and Affective Mood in the Early Stages of COVID-19 Lockdown.

Existing psychological research has long considered humor as a useful strategy for individuals in coping with adverse circumstances and life stressors. However, empirical studies are called for to better understand the role of humor in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a community sample of 527 Spanish adults, we investigated the associations between humor styles, perceived threat from COVID-19, funniness of COVID-19 memes, and individuals' affective mood. Data were collected during the third week of lockdown in Spain (from 26 to 31 March 2020). Our results suggest that intrapsychic humor styles were associated with better coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling showed that self-enhancing and aggressive humor styles were related to perceiving COVID-19 as less psychologically threatening, which, in turn, was associated with a greater perceived funniness of COVID-19 memes, thus predicting higher levels of happiness. Interestingly, the opposite pattern of connections was found for self-defeating humor. These findings suggest that humor styles aimed at boosting one's own self, irrespective of their potentially lighter or darker nature, may contribute to alleviating adverse psychological consequences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eye tracking and attentional bias for depressive internet memes in depression.

Previous research highlights the potential benefits of engaging with depressive internet memes for those experiencing symptoms of depression. This study aimed to determine whether: compared to non-depressed controls, individuals experiencing depressive symptoms were quicker to orient and maintain overall attention for internet memes depicting depressive content relative to neutral memes. N = 21 individuals were grouped based on the severity of reported depression symptoms using the PhQ-9. Specifically, a score of: ≤ 4 denoted the control group; and ≥ 15 the depressive symptoms group. Participants viewed a series of meme pairs depicting depressive and neutral memes for periods of 4000 ms. Data for the first fixation onset and duration, total fixation count and total fixation and gaze duration of eye-movements were recorded. A significant group x meme-type interaction indicated that participants with depressive symptoms displayed significantly more fixations on depressive rather than neutral memes. These outcomes provide suggestive evidence for the notion that depressive symptoms are associated with an attentional bias towards socio-emotionally salient stimuli.

Epilepsy: Lessons for clinicians from popular memes on social media.

Memes are a very effective, visual means of communication on social media sites. In this study, we examined some of the most popular memes posted on Instagram labeled with an epilepsy hashtag, in order to gain an insight into the thoughts, feelings and concerns of people with epilepsy. 'Awareness', 'warrior' and 'sucks' were the three most common words paired with epilepsy in the hashtag search. The most popular (liked or shared) #epilepsy memes could be classified into 9 broad categories: Seeking advice, Raising awareness, Inspirational quotes, Celebrations of seizure free milestones, Living with Epilepsy, Sharing the diagnosis, Experience of seizures, Medications and Doctor/patient interactions. Popular memes in this latter category highlighted people's difficulties in taking in information with respect to both the breadth and complexity of the discussions in neurological consultations. Other memes in this category depicted the social and psychological challenges associated with some investigations, particularly video-telemetry studies. Analyses of some of the most popular memes posted on social media point to a number of ways in which we can improve the patient/clinician interaction. Practical strategies to address some of these issues are discussed. Memes posted on social media by people with epilepsy provide a valuable source of feedback for clinicians which enables us to improve the care we provide for this group.

Cognitive and motivational factors driving sharing of internet memes.

As naturally occurring examples of folk culture and creativity, internet memes provide a rich testbed to examine the interrelationships among cognitive and motivational factors that influence their impact. In two studies with participants recruited over the internet, we measured a variety of appraisals of both apolitical and political memes with a focus on the role of metaphorical aptness and personal relatability as predictors of comprehensibility and humor. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze interconnections among appraisals. A major network path connects relatability to aptness, which in turn is linked to appraisals of comprehensibility, humor, and propensity to share. For political memes, the congruity of the meme with the person's political position (liberal or conservative) has a powerful but indirect impact on the propensity to share it. These findings indicate that appraisals of memes are based on cognitive and motivational processes that also underlie metaphor comprehension and appreciation of humor.

A thematic analysis of Instagram's gendered memes on COVID-19.

We investigate the gendered use of Instagram memes on COVID-19 using a mixed-analysis approach. We find that memes referencing women are mostly related to community support and healthcare, which often express gratitude for frontline workers, while the majority of memes on men refer to news and promotion as well as suffering due to the high death rates and other financial hardships. As for sexual and gender minorities, memes mostly mention community support similar to the case of the memes referencing women. We argue that internet memes offer insight into ongoing trends in the public's perceptions of pandemics, and they should be further examined because they often communicate vital information on gender groups and public health.

Effects of amusing memes on concern for unappealing species.

There is limited knowledge of the mechanisms that can inspire people's concern and engagement in the protection of unpopular and unappealing species. We analyzed Polish people's interest in themed internet memes featuring the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and the consequences of this interest for conservation marketing. We examined Google Trends data, used Google Search, and searched popular media materials to estimate interest in the proboscis monkey in Poland. Photos of the proboscis monkey when presented with humor in internet memes attracted as much interest as usually more popular species (e.g., koala, panda, and orangutan) used in marketing by nongovernmental organizations. Amusing internet memes spread by social media positively correlated with increasing interest in the unappealing species, such as proboscis monkey. Interest in amusing internet memes positively correlated with individuals' decisions to donate to 6 crowdfunding actions. Thus, conservation marketing that includes amusing memes and social media may provide a worthwhile complement to traditional campaigns and are likely to influence individuals who are unaffected by the usual means.

Efectos de los Memes Divertidos sobre el Interés por las Especies Poco Atractivas Resumen El conocimiento existente sobre los mecanismos que pueden incentivar el interés y la participación de las personas en la protección de especies poco populares y poco atractivas actualmente es limitado. Analizamos el interés del pueblo polaco por algunos memes temáticos de internet en los que aparecía el mono násico (Nasalis larvatus) y la relevancia que tiene este interés para la mercadotecnia de la conservación. Examinamos los datos en Tendencias de Google, usamos el buscador de Google y buscamos entre los materiales populares en los medios digitales para estimar el interés por el mono násico en Polonia. Las fotografías del mono násico, al ser presentadas con humor en los memes, atrajeron tal nivel de interés como lo hacen otras especies generalmente más populares (p. ej., koalas, panda, orangután) usadas por organizaciones no gubernamentales en su publicidad. Los memes divertidos de distribuidos en las redes sociales tuvieron una correlación positiva con el aumento en el interés por especies poco atractivas, como el mono násico. El interés por estos memes divertidos también tuvo una correlación positiva con las decisión individual de donar a seis acciones de financiación colectiva. Por lo tanto, la mercadotecnia de la conservación que incluye memes divertidos o graciosos y a las redes sociales puede proporcionar un complemento provechoso para las campañas tradicionales y es probable que influya sobre aquellos individuos a los que los medios tradicionales no suelen generar efecto alguno.

Using Online Memes to Communicate About Health: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review of the literature on online health memes to (a) detect and describe the available research, (b) identify key findings, and (c) delineate future research needs/opportunities. DATA SOURCE: Databases, communication and public health journals, and ancestry search. STUDY INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Empirical studies, in English, published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and focused on memes to discuss health-related topics. DATA EXTRACTION: We scrutinized 357 empirical articles and included 35. DATA SYNTHESIS: Descriptive summary of the locations where studies were conducted, the health topics addressed, theories and methods used, features of memes analyzed, study outcomes, and researchers' challenges. RESULTS: Most studies were conducted in the USA (n = 14); focused on COVID-19 (n = 15); were a-theoretical (n = 19); and quantitative (n = 19). Most explored the themes and use of the memes available online (n = 19); compared meme variations (n = 12) by health issue, content, or participants' group; examined meme' effects on health outcomes (n = 1); or evaluated memes as part of a health campaign (n = 3). We summarized the studies' limitations and key findings. CONCLUSIONS: Memes are a promising message strategy for health promotion and education, but more research is necessary. Considering the information retrieved, we provide five specific recommendations for future research directions when studying health memes, including suggestions on the multiple health issues to address and promising theories to adopt and expand.

Impact of Pharmacy-Related Memes on Students' Professional Identity Formation.

OBJECTIVE: Professional identity formation (PIF) is the process which one internalizes the values and norms of a profession, ultimately becoming a member of that profession. The objective of this study was to determine the perceived professional identities of pharmacists in memes and how pharmacy-related memes affect students' PIF. METHODS: Student pharmacists from a single academic institution participated in focus groups to discuss the concept of professional identity, view self-submitted pharmacy-related memes, and reflect on the memes' impact on their PIF. An inductive, thematic content analysis was performed, and a theoretical model was developed to illustrate the themes observed. RESULTS: Twenty-six student pharmacists participated in the study. Before exposure to the self-submitted memes, the participants described the professional identity of a pharmacist in a more idealistic way, noting pharmacist roles such as medication expert, educator, and patient care provider. After exposure to the memes, the participants' responses reflected a pharmacist identity based on feelings of being antagonized, overwhelmed, and misperceived. Despite these challenges, the participants noted the importance of remaining professional. CONCLUSION: When exposed to pharmacy-related memes, the students' perceptions of the pharmacist identity changed from one based on idealistic roles to an identity based on negative feelings and interactions. Owing to memes' ability to reflect one's experiences, it is important to recognize the impact memes may have on PIF. Further research is needed to determine how pharmacy educators can help students navigate identity dissonances that arise from the students' pharmacy experiences.

Age differences in emotional reactions to ageist memes and changes in age of one's Best Self.

Memes on social media can carry ageist messages and can elicit reactions that are both emotional and self-evaluative. The present study investigates age-related differences in nine discrete emotions and in the evaluation of when individuals have been or will be their best selves. Participants (n = 360) representing young (m = 26 years), middle-aged (m = 39 years) and older adults (m = 63 years) were randomly assigned to view either non-ageist (animals) or ageist (e.g., incompetent older people) memes. After viewing memes, we assessed nine emotional reactions (i.e., fear, anger, sadness, happiness, anxiety, discomfort, disgust, surprise, enjoyment) and Best Self evaluations. Younger and middle-aged people reported more intense emotional reactions to memes than older people, with the exception that older people reported more discomfort and disgust in response to ageist versus non-ageist memes. Younger adults were less surprised by ageist memes (vs. non-ageist) and for all age groups ageist memes (vs. non-ageist) elicited less happiness and enjoyment and were less likely to be shared. With respect to evaluations of one's Best Self, older individuals were more likely to report being their best selves in the past, while after viewing ageist memes, younger individuals were more likely to report being their best selves in the future. Emotions of disgust and discomfort were related to identifying one's Best Self as further in the past. The current study adds to the literature on the impact of ageism by examining age-related differences in the emotions and self-evaluations experienced when confronted with memes on social media.

Memes Adoption in Basic Medical Science Education as a Successful Learning Model: A Mixed Method Quasi-Experimental Study.

Purpose: Basic medical sciences are of a solid abstract nature. Pharmacology is a challenging discipline delivered in all healthcare-related curricula with different aims and goals. Memes are one of aiding instructional designs proved to surge students' performance and satisfaction with the educational process. Apart from assessing medical students' and faculty's perception of meme use in pharmacology learning, the current study aimed to explore the criteria of preferences and factors associated with successful memes' adoption in this discipline as one of the most challenging basic medical sciences. Methods: A biphasic study was conducted among second-year undergraduate medical students and faculty members. The study involved assessing the perceptions of staff and students, and thematic content analysis was performed on the narrative responses of the participants to explore factors contributing to the success of learning memes. Additionally, students' performance was also analyzed. Results: The use of memes in pharmacology was well perceived by medical students, with a mean satisfaction rating of 4.5/5 for high-achieving students and 4.33 for low-achieving students. Memes were associated with a performance surge (p = 0.022). Six themes emerged as criteria for a successful learning experience of meme use: previous scientific background on the meme topic, scenario context of the meme, learning concepts tackled by memes, the simplicity of meme's message, the relevance of meme's message to practice, and the modality of meme's use in the topic of education. Regarding the perception of meme use in pharmacology learning, four themes emerged: the mode and engagement of learning experience mode, the feasibility of meme use in pharmacology learning, students' attitudes towards further meme inclusion in their study, and the perceived impact of memes on students' cognitive skills. Conclusion: The use of memes in pharmacology yields positive learning outcomes. A careful selection of memes is required to ensure a successful learning experience.

To meme or not to meme? Political social media posts and ideologically motivated aggression in job recommendations.

This study tested the notion of ideological asymmetry, which proposes that conservatives are more prejudiced than liberals. It involved 682 self-identified conservative (n = 383) and liberal (n = 299) perceivers (MTurk workers; 54% female) who evaluated a target person's professional attributes, personal character, and job suitability based on the target's social media posts. The results did not support ideological asymmetry as both conservative and liberal participants negatively evaluated an ideologically opposite target. Interestingly, liberals showed three times more bias than conservatives. This study better supports a worldview conflict hypothesis, an alternative to ideological asymmetry, with both sides showing indirect aggression in an apolitical setting.

Online sports fans communities: humor, trivial knowledge, and anti-modern tendencies.

Recent technical developments and the widespread use of social networks have led to the emergence of a variety of online communities built around common interests. Among these virtual communities, one notable category revolves around sports fans. This conceptual article uses several examples of online sports fan communities in Israel to analyze their core elements. Within this context, the article focuses on the significance of humor, trivial knowledge, and counter-modern concepts as the key elements fostering unity among fans. Humor serves as a common thread that encourages interactions, also providing a platform for fans to showcase their niche knowledge, symbolizing their dedication to fan culture. Meanwhile, the prevalence of counter-modern inclinations within these communities highlights the fans' constant devotion to the sport, demonstrating a profound loyalty. Collectively, these elements signify a shift from supporting specific teams to becoming keen fans of the broader sporting domain.

Corrigendum: Exposure to depression memes on social media increases depressive mood and it is moderated by self-regulation: Evidence from self-report and resting EEG assessments.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.880065.].

Using memes to promote student engagement and classroom community during remote learning.

As colleges moved to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, many instructors found it difficult to maintain student engagement and classroom community in the virtual environment. We developed a semester-long activity for a molecular biology research methodology course where students created, and shared original memes related to course content with peers through group chat. Surveys and semi-structured interviews revealed that the exercise was effective in promoting student engagement, a sense of community, and relieving stress.

Exploring Definition of Cyberbullying and its Forms From the Perspective of Adolescents Living in Pakistan.

There exists a great disparity in the literature on the definition of cyberbullying. This research aimed to explore the definition and forms of cyberbullying from adolescents' perspectives. Six focus groups (N = 36) were conducted with participants aged 16-21 years (M = 17.6, SD = 1.8). The focus group guide was used to gain an understanding of adolescents' perceptions and experiences of cyberbullying. The thematic analysis revealed that, contrary to the literature, participants do not apply traditional bullying definition (intention, repetition, and power imbalance) to cyberbullying. They argue about the relevance of traditional bullying criteria in certain contexts. For example, they stressed upon the perception of the victim, if the victim perceives something emotionally damaging, then intention, repetition and power imbalance become completely irrelevant. Memes and cybermobs were also found to be novel forms of cyberbullying. The current research extends the literature by adding adolescents' perceived definitions and novel forms of cyberbullying.

Popular media and the bombardment of evolution misconceptions.

Background: Many students enter science classrooms with misconceptions about scientific principles. One of the most perceived controversial scientific principle for students is evolution. Students struggle to learn and accept evolution due to the many misconceptions students have interacted with before they enter a biology class. Evolution misconceptions come from many sources, such as religious beliefs, textbooks, and even unprepared educators. However, with students spending on average over seven hours a day viewing popular media, it is crucial to investigate further the accuracy of the portrayals of evolution in popular media. Results: We gathered data on the sources students saw evolution portrayed in popular media and determined what misconceptions were present in these popular media references. We found that 96% of the popular media references mentioned by students in our study inaccurately depicted evolution. The two most common misconceptions we observed in popular media were that evolution was depicted as a linear process and that individual organisms evolve instead of populations. Conclusion: Popular media does a poor job depicting evolution, which may be why many students are hesitant to learn evolution and overcome misconceptions. We suggest that these incorrect portrayals of evolution may provide an engaging way to teach correct evolutionary principles in the classroom.

"Even more than that, men love cars": "Car guy" memes and hegemonic masculinity.

The construction of gender identities occurs through a variety of social forces, including memes widely circulated on social media. Beyond the function of internet memes as entertainment, they also promote gender-based bonding through humor in ways that encourage performative gender roles central to self-image. Decoding memes as a form of contemporary data reveals desires and fears, both conscious and unconscious, that underlie dramaturgical performances supporting hegemonic masculinity. In the case of "car guys," car aficionados whose passion for cars is integral to their identity, memes reflect the group's aspirational presentation of self, including cars, as a symbolic physical embodiment of hegemonic masculinity. This semiotic study of 60 car guy memes shared on social media uncovered recurrent motifs centered around cars' ability to affirm men's position in the metaphorical driver's seat. Flashy cars were often portrayed as more desirable than women, a sentiment encapsulated by the meme, "Men love women, but even more than that, men love cars." This novel analysis of memes explores the ostensible male preference for fantasy cars over emotionally risky relationships. Two salient themes relevant to conceptions of masculinity emerged: (1) car guys' apprehensions about male-female interdependence and (2) frustration with women's discretion in meeting men's emotional and sexual needs. Memes as a cross-sectional, unfiltered data source provide insight into the need to reconcile car culture with gender equality.

Metaphors and metonymies used in memes to depict COVID-19 in Jordanian social media websites.

This study provides an analysis of the monomodal and multimodal metaphors and metonymies depicting COVID-19 in a corpus of 250 memes. The theoretical framework adopted in this study included Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), Forceville's (2008) Mono-modal and Multimodal Metaphor Theory, and Musolff's (2006) approach in identifying source domains scenarios. Various source domains that depict different aspects of COVID-19 were used, and some of them reflected certain aspects of the Jordanian culture. The analysis also revealed that multimodal metaphors were more frequent compared to monomodal ones. Primarily, the researchers ascribed the salient presence of multimodality to the medium-determined specificities characteristic where pictorial and textual cues are carefully selected to reinforce the message the meme intends to convey. Furthermore, conceptualizing a new pandemic required the pervasive use of multimodality. The analysis also demonstrated the crucial role of metonymy in interpreting certain conceptual metaphors.

"Remember this picture when you take more than you need": Constructing morality through instrumental ageism in COVID-19 memes on social media.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, a parallel pandemic of ageism is spreading through social media. This paper argues that COVID-19 health securitisation logic and the urgent need to disseminate public health information have allowed nuanced forms of ageism to be reproduced in online forums. I use a critical discourse analysis and social semiotic analysis to deconstruct the use of ageist representations of older adults in COVID-19 memes, which have been organised into four illustrative categories. The analysis attends to ageist representations that both reinforce stereotypical messages and exacerbate intergenerational tensions. Drawing upon moral anthropology, I propose that the memes employ "instrumental ageism," a nuanced form of ageism that advances the health securitisation agenda during the pandemic. The paper concludes with a recognition of the impact of ageist pandemic memes on intergenerational tensions and a call for attention to nuanced forms of ageism in our online and offline social worlds.

Benchmark dataset of memes with text transcriptions for automatic detection of multi-modal misogynistic content.

In this paper we present a benchmark dataset generated as part of a project for automatic identification of misogyny within online content, which focuses in particular on memes. The benchmark here described is composed of 800 memes collected from the most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, and consulting websites dedicated to collection and creation of memes. To gather misogynistic memes, specific keywords that refer to misogynistic content have been considered as search criterion, considering different manifestations of hatred against women, such as body shaming, stereotyping, objectification and violence. In parallel, memes with no misogynist content have been manually downloaded from the same web sources. Among all the collected memes, three domain experts have selected a dataset of 800 memes equally balanced between misogynistic and non-misogynistic ones. This dataset has been validated through a crowdsourcing platform, involving 60 subjects for the labelling process, in order to collect three evaluations for each instance. Two further binary labels have been collected from both the experts and the crowdsourcing platform, for memes evaluated as misogynistic, concerning aggressiveness and irony. Finally for each meme, the text has been manually transcribed. The dataset provided is thus composed of the 800 memes, the labels given by the experts and those obtained by the crowdsourcing validation, and the transcribed texts. This data can be used to approach the problem of automatic detection of misogynistic content on the Web relying on both textual and visual cues, facing phenomenons that are growing every day such as cybersexism and technology-facilitated violence.