Medical memes: Humour preferences among medical students
Maria Kmita1, Jessica Jozefczak1
1Wroclaw Medical University, Poland.
Communication & Medicine
|February 28, 2025
Summary
Medical students
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Psychology
- Sociology
Background:
- Medical humor is complex and context-dependent.
- Student humor and its connection to professional identity are under-researched.
- Humor preferences may evolve with medical training.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate medical students' humor preferences.
- To explore the link between humor and medical identity formation.
- To analyze how humor preferences change across different study stages.
Main Methods:
- 216 medical students rated 50 medical memes.
- Memes varied in difficulty and target (doctors, patients, students, medical issues).
- Humor preferences were compared across different student cohorts.
Main Results:
- Doctor- and student-targeted memes decreased in popularity later in studies.
- Patient- and other medical issue-targeted memes remained stable.
- Simpler memes were funnier for early-stage students; doctor memes were least funny overall.
Conclusions:
- Medical identity significantly influences humor preferences.
- Students identify most with doctor and student memes.
- Emotional aspects of humor (targets) impact preferences more than cognitive aspects (difficulty).
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