Meme Matters [in Psychology?]
Memes will never convert me: Truth or Fiction?
I want to jump right in with something that always catches my Intro Psych students off-guard: Memes!
When the meme discussion starts, students agree with Cindy and wonder about what they’ve gotten into, in my weird (i.e., not what they expect) class.
Their inner – and outer in many cases – dialogue usually goes something like this:
Surely there’s no place in a college classroom for discussion of memes, right?
Shouldn’t class time be focused on more pressing matters, like mental health awareness, and stopping the stigma?
Memes are not Psychology! Memes are just for fun! [?] … The GenZ way of expressing their angst over the impending doom that is our future! …. Memes are just little things we share online with no consequence other than a laugh, a moment of relatableness, and then “Poof” – gone.
But surely I disagree, otherwise I wouldn’t spend precious class time on memes.
So what’s the big deal? It turns out that memes actually do relate to important, and serious! – issues in Psychology like mental health awareness and stopping the stigma. Let me explain.
When we view memes through a cognitive psychology lens, the answer to the question posed on the first slide is actually “no – not true.” I mean it’s “fiction”. Dwight speaks the truth.
That cognitive psychology [also sometimes called Learning Science in such contexts as this] lens reveals memes as little cognitive powerhouses. Our brains LOVE what memes do. Memes have at least three qualities that establish their memorability, and cognitive power:
A narrative frame.
Visual imagery.
Semantics.
Meme templates are little packets of pop-culture. The narrative frame comes from the template – we know that Dwight speaks unpopular truths – and when you recognize the template at a glance, your knowledge of the template is activated and this enables you to anticipate the words on the bottom of the screen before you even start reading.
Together the narrative frame, imagery, and words (semantics) activate different parts of your brain and these activations sync up. When this happens, a memory of the little package – the square on your screen that makes you laugh and possibly share it -- is easily established.
And the memories we establish of these memes are strong ones! Example: how many of you found yourself imagining the weird white cat-like animal on a stool when you read the word “poof!” earlier?
I can state with confidence that meme memories are strong by following a principle in cognitive psychology called “encoding variability”. The terminology might sound odd, but the premise is understandable.
Memories are patterns of activation in our brains. When making memories we are giving energy over to linking together brain activation patterns – a process cognitive psychologists call “encoding.” This is done in the service of future Retrieval, or the re-activation of those same (or similar) brain patterns. A memory that has multiple parts [a narrative, visual imagery, and semantics] is one that has variable [i.e., multiple] connection points in the brain.
When aspects of existing knowledge, visuals, and words are connected together, the chances of reconnecting them together again in the future is increased, because it only takes one entry point to get the whole kit-and-caboodle up and running. A visual cue can activate the words that it appeared with, and vice versa. That is encoding variability in action. The more variable the interconnected inputs, the more likely it is that successful retrieval will happen in the future because it only takes one entry-point-activation to start the flow of energy. More possible inputs, the greater your chances.
So back to memes – they are memory powerhouses!
Does this mean that meme messages are more likely to be accepted, too (i.e., back to Cindy)? While this is actually something I am currently testing in my lab, my hypothesis is YES.
While some content we come across in our meme-scrolls is easy to reject --
-- not all content is created equally. When it comes to Psychological Science content, for example, many folks don’t have the knowledge in place to easily identify incorrect information. Further, meme-scrolling moments are moments when our guards are down. It’s been well established in Psychology that when we are not cued up to focus on messages we encounter (e.g., because we are lounging on the couch, or even when we are scrolling in class instead of taking notes!) that we do not critically evaluate what we see, rather we look, laugh, and move on, which essentially signals “acceptance” to the brain.
This takes us back to the beginning of this post. When scrolling through memes, its more common to “scan and accept the premise” than it is to “stop, scrutinize, and fact check” a meme. When memes seem legit, or relatable, or valid because the content “makes sense”, then that “content” worms it’s way into our minds. And it turns out that we are terrible at remembering sources. Over time, content can stick, and the original source – a meme-scroll moment! – is forgotten.
So memes matter a whole lot when it comes to mental health awareness, and stopping the stigma. Much content exists in social media, and much of this Psychological content is bogus, out of date, or wrongly stated.
When we know this, we can protect ourselves against the unanticipated acquisition of false knowledge.
Note: Not all Psychological content out there is bad, and many Psychologists – myself included – are working on correcting the record. To this end, I maintain an Instagram account called “Psychsoundbites” and my colleague Dr. Kanevsky — who you might already know by her screen name “Dr. Inna” — is a prolific Tik-Tok influencer on a mission to correct the record! So you can trust us.
Other content though? I encourage you to “slow the scroll,” and critically interrogate what you find. While I have much more to say about this issue [memes, Psychology, and the like] I expect this is a good place for a pause. If you enjoyed what you read here, please subscribe and come back for more!
And if you feel so moved, please also share.
And lastly, I’d love to hear from you.