Cognitive and motivational factors driving sharing of internet memes

As naturally occurring examples of folk culture and creativity, internet memes provide a rich testbed to examine the interrelationships among cognitive and motivational factors that influence their impact. In two studies with participants recruited over the internet, we measured a variety of appraisals of both apolitical and political memes with a focus on the role of metaphorical aptness and personal relatability as predictors of comprehensibility and humor. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze interconnections among appraisals. A major network path connects relatability to aptness, which in turn is linked to appraisals of comprehensibility, humor, and propensity to share. For political memes, the congruity of the meme with the person's political position (liberal or conservative) has a powerful but indirect impact on the propensity to share it. These findings indicate that appraisals of memes are based on cognitive and motivational processes that also underlie metaphor comprehension and appreciation of humor.