EFFECTIVENESS OF MEMES PREDICTED BY MORAL CONTENT AND AFFECTIVE POLARIZATION

Memes have become a staple in political communication. However, the relationship between individuals’ political orientation, their level of affective polarization, the moral content of memes, and meme effectiveness is underexplored. I expected that polarized partisans would rate ingroup memes as more effective than outgroup memes. In line with moral foundations theory, I expected that polarized liberals would rate individualizing foundation memes as more effective than less polarized memes and that polarized conservatives would rate binding foundation memes as more effective than less polarized conservatives. Participants (N = 467) rated moral political memes for meme effectiveness. Results indicated that more polarized conservatives, but not liberals, rated ingroup memes as more effective than outgroup memes. Polarized liberals rated purity/sanctity as more effective than less polarized liberals. Polarized conservatives rated fairness/reciprocity plus the binding foundations memes as more effective than less polarized conservatives. These results indicate that polarized partisans react to memes differently.