Memes help to fight the stress of the pandemic, make us calmer and happier

The COVID-19 pandemic occupies the minds of many, primarily scientists. They are not only developing medicines and vaccines, but also looking for ways to make life easier in quarantine. Psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, have done serious work with not quite serious things. They investigated the impact of memes on people in a pandemic and found their undoubted benefits.

Science has known for a long time that high-quality Internet memes evoke positive emotions. But now it has turned out that the good mood obtained from watching funny pictures helps to better transfer the pandemic. The restrictions associated with quarantine are easier for those who devote time to viewing memes.

Activities that most of us consider just a waste of time are not so useless. Positive emotions caused by funny images help to calm down and become happier. Is it worth saying that a happy person's body works more efficiently, and the immune system is stronger?

784 volunteers of different genders and ages participated in the study. People were shown famous memes on a variety of topics. After the demonstration, the scientists conducted a survey of the physical and psychological condition of the study participants.

It also turned out that memes about COVID-19 are liked five times more often than others. This was shown by a study conducted by scientists from the Russian Academy of Education.

In the course of the study, images on the Odnoklassniki social network were studied. The authors of the work counted and analyzed memes appearing in the users' feed every day for a week, having studied more than 4 thousand images.

In the course of the work, another interesting effect was discovered. It turned out that watching only three memes on the topic of coronavirus gives people confidence that the virus will soon be defeated. So never give up the opportunity to watch new memes — it doesn't take much time, but it brings great benefits.