The Impact of Meme Type and Source Credibility on Perceived Mental Health Knowledge.
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2025-06-23
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en
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Memes have become an essential part of any social media platform. More than just a form of entertainment, they have become a cultural and communicative tool. Even for less inherently humorous topics, such as health communication, memes have emerged as an important medium on social media (Chou et al., 2009; Guidry et al., 2021). In an era of informational overload, memes combine visual appeal with cultural resonance, which makes them effective in capturing attention from users (Occa et al., 2025). Originally, memes have been defined as “unit of human cultural transmission that can be reproduced and propagated [...]” (Occa et al., 2025). Later, they are adapted and reproduced by other members of the community to promote specific ideas. They are characterized by their image and text format, and with their simplicity, they leverage humour, irony or other concepts to simplify complex ideas (Dawkins, 1978). Additionally, they foster emotional connections and simplify the sharing of ideas across social networks (Thackeray et al., 2013; Chen & Wang, 2021), which both are benefits for health communication. In the field of health communication, memes can be a vital part of the communication strategy as they offer viral potential.
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