Memes can help us not just in everyday life but also during challenging times. For example, during the coronavirus pandemic, Jessica Gall Myrick, a communications professor at Pennsylvania State University, along with two other researchers, surveyed more than 700 people to see whether consuming lighthearted memes eased their minds in the face of great uncertainty.
Their study, published by the American Psychological Association, concluded that it did. Respondents reported that viewing funny or cute memes helped lower their stress levels and made them feel more confident in their ability to face the global health crisis.
"People [were] using memes as a way to cope and talk about life during the pandemic, and to make social commentary," Myrick said.
"Because we're isolated, when you see a meme about covid and it reflects something about our experience, it's really powerful because you don't get to have as much interpersonal interaction with people. There's something about it that helps us relate to other people."
"If you're going through a stressful time, the last thing or most difficult thing is feeling alone in that stress, or feeling as if you’re the only one in that situation," said Rebecca Ortiz, a professor at Syracuse University who has studied the public influence of political memes.
"Memes are built upon the idea of shared cultural references ... It's not only the message that might be calming, it's the sense that this is something that's being shared among people who get it and might be struggling with the same issues," Ortiz added.
However, bad actors have also noticed our affinity for memes. Research by Dr. Stephanie Alice Baker, who is a senior lecturer in sociology at City St. George's, University of London and Dr. Michael James Walsh, an associate professor in social sciences at the University of Canberra, shows that memes form part of a highly sophisticated strategy to spread and monetize health disinformation.
"Memes aren't a recent invention. They have featured prominently in anti-vaccination messaging for centuries," the researchers write.
"When widespread smallpox immunisation began in the early 19th century, political cartoons published in print media used memes ... to evoke fear about the safety of the vaccine."
The most infamous anti-vaccination meme, however, emerged from a now discredited 1998 study that falsely linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism.
"The meme 'vaccines cause autism,' which appeared on billboards and was circulated widely in the media, provoked doubts about the safety of the vaccine. The study, since described as an 'elaborate fraud,' was published the same year as the launch of Google’s search engine allowing “vaccines cause autism” to became a global meme," the researchers explain.
Over time, the anti-vaccine sentiment became a powerful gateway to promote potentially harmful health products. Baker and Walsh discovered that memes were used to market unauthorized medical products by directing consumers to online stores.
