Creating Clever Internet Memes Perpetuates Offensiveness

Abstract

Communicators who generate internet memes often pair clever captions with photos. In line with prejudiced norm theory, meme creation may engender a norm of tolerance for discrimination. In this experiment, communicators tried to be clever and/or inoffensive while creating memes about normal weight targets. Subsequently, they rated offensiveness of other people’s memes about overweight targets. Relative to communicators who previously avoided offensiveness, communicators who generated clever memes were more tolerant of stereotypic (but not counterstereotypic) memes about overweight targets. Factors that potentially reduce sensitivity to offensive internet content are discussed.

Keywords:

• Communication goals
• disparagement humor
• internet memes
• overweight stigma

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Detailed information about the pilot study is available from the corresponding author. In the main study, we retained the goal conditions most relevant to our primary interests of cleverness and avoiding offense (Clever, Clever-but-nonoffensive, Nonoffensive). Using 3 rather than 5 conditions also helped ensure an adequate sample size relative to resources.

2. Preliminary analyses with BMI indicated that it was not useful as a predictor variable, but it provides demographic information about the sample.

Additional information

Funding

Research was supported by the Robert E. Flowerree Tulane Psychology Fund.