Internet memes related to the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential coping mechanism for anxiety

Umair Akram; Kamila Irvine; Sarah F. Allen; Jodie C. Stevenson; Jason G. Ellis; Jennifer Drabble

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00857-8

Internet memes related to the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential coping mechanism for anxiety

Umair Akram^*, Kamila Irvine, Sarah F. Allen, Jodie C. Stevenson, Jason G. Ellis, Jennifer Drabble

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology Department

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

This study examined whether significantly anxious individuals differed from non-anxious individuals in their perceptual ratings of internet memes related to the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst considering the mediating role of emotion regulation. Eighty individuals presenting clinically significant anxiety symptoms (indicating ≥ 15 on the GAD-7) and 80 non-anxious controls (indicating ≤ 4) rated the emotional valance, humour, relatability, shareability, and offensiveness of 45 Covid-19 internet memes. A measure of emotion regulation difficulties was also completed. The perception of humour, relatability, and shareability were all greater amongst anxious individuals relative to non-anxious controls. These differences were not mediated by emotion regulation deficits. Internet memes related to the current Covid-19 pandemic may tentatively serve as coping mechanism for individuals experiencing severe symptoms of anxiety.

Original language	English
Article number	22305
Number of pages	8
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	11
Issue number	1
Early online date	12 Nov 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00857-8
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2021

Keywords

Human behaviour
anxiety
Anxiety Disorders/psychology
Emotional Regulation
Pandemics
Social Media
Humans
Middle Aged
Male
Emotions
Young Adult
COVID-19/epidemiology
Adolescent
Adult
Female
Anxiety/psychology
Internet
Adaptation, Psychological

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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s41598-021-00857-8Final published version, 1.1 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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Internet memes related to the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential coping mechanism for anxiety

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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