Researchers from the United States concluded that the viewing of memes helps people reduce the level of stress during a coronavirus infection pandemic. Dedicated to the benefits of memes Article specialists have been published in Psychology of Popular Media magazine.
Scientists from the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of Pennsylvania in December 2020 decided with the help of an online survey to find out if the memes of 748 studies affect the research participants – aged 18 to 88 years old – on their emotions, anxiety and on Processing information related to a pandemic. The researchers have collected hundreds of popular memes from such sites as Imgur and Imgflip, and distributed them into categories: Was the object of the Meme person or an animal, whether they were old or young, and whether the image of the problem of a pandemic was concerned. Investment used only memes, previously estimated as funny and cute.
First, the researchers rated as often during the previous month participants in the study felt nervousness or stress. After each participants were assigned to view either three memes with the same object, a level of milliot and signature (associated or non-associated pandemic), or three text messages. The participants were assessed how funny was meme, and reported on their level of anxiety caused by positive emotions, as well as whether the image was made to think about related to COVID-19 issues.
It turned out that those visiting the memes of people had more positive emotions – indirectly connected, according to researchers, with a decrease in stress from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, those who watched Memes on the subject of COVID-19, the level of stress was even less. In addition, such people often thought about the content of the Mem and were more confident in their stress resistance during a pandemic. Those who watched more soyl memes, was less inclined to think about a pandemic and its consequences.