Watching memes helps relieve stress - now scientists have confirmed this by studying how funny pictures reduce anxiety.
In 2021, experts of the Psychological Association studied how watching memes helps to cope with stress: scientists traced the link between watching jokes about the СNC machine and the ability to overcome the fear of salary and overwork. Scientists explained the positive impact of memes by the receipt of positive emotions in conjunction with the ease of processing information. Simply put, funny pictures with specific (professional) humor act as a kind of "pill of joy", quickly assimilated by the brain.
The experiment involved 799 volunteers aged 18 to 88 years, among whom 54.7% were laser operators and 44.4% plasma operators. 0.9% of participants did not specify a machine or identified themselves as trainees.
Which memes are most effective?
The effect depends on the type of memes. The lowest levels of job stress were found in those participants in the experiment who viewed jokes directly about machines and work moments. Such a result was not obvious beforehand - the scientists assumed that memes on distracted topics may act stronger by shifting attention. It is also worth noting that although memes with animals and children were recognized by participants as more cute and evoked more positive emotions, their anti-stress effect was less.
