Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends.

Heath, Chip; Bell, Chris; Sternberg, Emily

doi:10.1037//0022-3514.81.6.1028

Cited by 122 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…255–260). Previous research has shown that particular features of information such as being simple (Heath & Heath, 2008 ), concrete (Heath & Heath, 2008 ), emotional (Eriksson & Coultas, 2014 ; Heath et al, 2001 ; Heath & Heath, 2008 ; Stubbersfield et al, 2017 ) or negative (Bebbington et al, 2017 ) increases its chances of being transmitted accurately. As the right-wing populist discourse seems to contain these features in a greater proportion (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When do people prefer dominant over prestigious political leaders?

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous research has sought to explain the rise of right-wing populist leaders in terms of the evolutionary framework of dominance and prestige. In this framework, dominance is defined as high social rank acquired via coercion and fear, and prestige is defined as high social rank acquired via competence and admiration. Previous studies have shown that right-wing populist leaders are rated as more dominant than nonpopulist leaders, and right-wing populist / dominant leaders are favoured in times of economic uncertainty and intergroup conflict. In this paper we explore and critique this application of dominance-prestige to politics. First, we argue that the dominance-prestige framework, originally developed to explain inter-personal relationships within small-scale societies characterised by face-to-face interaction, does not straightforwardly extend to large-scale democratic societies which have frequent anonymous interaction and complex ingroup-outgroup dynamics. Second, we show that economic uncertainty and intergroup conflict predict not only preference for dominant leaders, but also prestigious leaders. Third, we show that perceptions of leaders as dominant or prestigious are not fixed, and depend on the political ideology of the perceiver: people view leaders who share their ideology as prestigious, and who oppose their ideology as dominant, whether that ideology is liberal or conservative. Fourth, we show that political ideology is a stronger predictor than economic uncertainty of preference for Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential Election, contradicting previous findings that link Trump"s success to economic uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting that, if economic uncertainty does not directly affect preferences for right-wing populist leaders, other features of their discourse such as higher emotionality might explain their success.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When do people prefer dominant over prestigious political leaders?

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The differential survival of stories and their constituent parts could depend on aspects that make them more attractive—such as their narrative qualities, themes, or content—or on the identities of the storytellers themselves—including their reputation within the community, their charisma, or their performative skill. A body of literature in the interdisciplinary field of cultural evolution suggests that the success or failure of a story and its components are determined by internal cognitive biases that favor either the content of the story or the context of its telling, including the speaker or “model” of the story (Barrett & Nyhof, 2001 ; Bebbington et al, 2017 ; Heath et al, 2001 ; Mesoudi et al, 2006 ; Stubbersfield et al, 2015 ; Stubbersfield & Tehrani, 2013 ). The biases that govern the transmission of stories from one person to another are thought to be the same that dictate the transmission of any kind of information, and these two specific types are referred to as “content” biases and “model-based” biases (Richerson & Boyd, 2005 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the critical role that transmission biases appear to play in driving cultural evolution, serious gaps exist in our understanding of the relative strengths of these biases (Acerbi & Mesoudi, 2015 ; McElreath et al, 2008 ; Kendal et al, 2018 ; Jiménez & Mesoudi, 2019 ). In particular, prior experimental studies have tended to focus on individual biases (Mesoudi & Whiten, 2008 ; Kendal et al, 2018 ), yet multiple biases are always present simultaneously (Heath et al, 2001 ; Stubbersfield et al, 2015 ; Atkisson et al, 2012 ; Morgan et al, 2012 ; Acerbi & Tehrani, 2018 ; Stubbersfield et al, 2019 ). Narrative stories are especially dense in information and contain a number of proposed content biases that have been shown to aid in the salience and retention of transmitted information (Mesoudi et al, 2006 ; Boyer & Ramble, 2001 ; Eriksson & Coultas, 2014 ; Nairne et al, 2007 ; Norenzayan & Atran, 2004 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prestige and content biases together shape the cultural transmission of narratives

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cultural transmission biases such as prestige are thought to have been a primary driver in shaping the dynamics of human cultural evolution. However, few empirical studies have measured the importance of prestige relative to other effects, such as content biases present within the information being transmitted. Here, we report the findings of an experimental transmission study designed to compare the simultaneous effects of a model using a high-or low-prestige regional accent with the presence of narrative content containing social, survival, emotional, moral, rational, or counterintuitive information in the form of a creation story. Results from multimodel inference reveal that prestige is a significant factor in determining the salience and recall of information, but that several content biases, specifically social, survival, negative emotional, and biological counterintuitive information, are significantly more influential. Further, we find evidence that reliance on prestige cues may serve as a conditional learning strategy when no content cues are available. Our results demonstrate that content biases serve a vital and underappreciated role in cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Social media summary: Storyteller and tale are both key to memorability, but some content is more important than the storyteller's prestige.

show abstract

“…The dynamic flow of emotions is shaped by a combination of individual and collective mechanisms, although disentangling these processes is not the goal of this paper. Individual level mechanisms, such as emotion contagion 25 , 26 and virality 27 , as well as collective level mechanisms, such as emotional sharing feedback loops 23 , 28 , 29 and vicarious emotion learning patterns 30 , 31 , influence the frequency of emotions, the longevities of these emotions, and the transitions among them. The findings in the literature suggest that the influence of these mechanisms may be boosted or dampened by the underlying appraisal dimensions of valence and arousal.…”

Section: Research Background and The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the dynamics of emotions in society through an analysis of online social network conversations

Sener,

Akpinar,

Ataman

2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social networks can provide insights into the emotions expressed by a society. However, the dynamic nature of emotions presents a significant challenge for policymakers, politicians, and communication professionals who seek to understand and respond to changes in emotions over time. To address this challenge, this paper investigates the frequency, duration, and transition of 24 distinct emotions over a 2-year period, analyzing more than 5 million tweets. The study shows that emotions with lower valence but higher dominance and/or arousal are more prevalent in online social networks. Emotions with higher valence and arousal tend to last longer, while dominant emotions tend to have shorter durations. Emotions occupying the conversations predominantly inhibit others with similar valence and dominance, and higher arousal. Over a month, emotions with similar valences tend to prevail in online social network conversations.

show abstract

Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends.

Cited by 122 publications

References 40 publications

When do people prefer dominant over prestigious political leaders?

When do people prefer dominant over prestigious political leaders?

Prestige and content biases together shape the cultural transmission of narratives

Unveiling the dynamics of emotions in society through an analysis of online social network conversations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About