Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework
Group members' decisions on whether or not to become actively involved in collective action are often guided by social norms regarding both action and inaction. Previous research tentatively suggests that humor may be a means to mock inaction norms and thereby increase mobilization for collecti...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-08-01
|
| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182500544X |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849303995054555136 |
|---|---|
| author | Hedy Greijdanus Willem van de Wetering Casper Roos |
| author_facet | Hedy Greijdanus Willem van de Wetering Casper Roos |
| author_sort | Hedy Greijdanus |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Group members' decisions on whether or not to become actively involved in collective action are often guided by social norms regarding both action and inaction. Previous research tentatively suggests that humor may be a means to mock inaction norms and thereby increase mobilization for collective action. The current research investigates Christian student association members' group norms regarding humanitarian collective action. While prescriptive ingroup norms advocate such prosocial behavior, descriptive ingroup norms indicate reluctance to engage in humanitarian action. Members from nation-wide chapters of Christian student association throughout The Netherlands (N = 248) saw a social media post mobilizing for a foodbank action by the association. This mobilizing call for action was accompanied either with bible verses as prescriptive norms to partake in humanitarian collective action or with humorous internet memes mocking descriptive norms of reluctance to engage in collective action. A questionnaire measured 1) their collective action intentions (to participate in the advertised action, outreach actions, and humanitarian action), 2) their affective reactions to the social media post (inspired, amused, angry), 3) activist burnout symptoms, and 4) perceived group, participative, and individual efficacy. Stronger social identification predicted feeling more inspired by the social media call for action as well as increased humanitarian action intentions. This classical discrepancy between high and low social identifiers decreased when the call to action displayed humorous memes mocking descriptive inaction norms instead of bible verses as prescriptive action norms. These findings shed light on alternative routes to mobilize high and low Christian identifiers for humanitarian collective action. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e7751e4e1ce5450db37db81c59d5aa5f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj-art-e7751e4e1ce5450db37db81c59d5aa5f2025-08-20T03:55:53ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182025-08-0125810523110.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105231Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science FrameworkHedy Greijdanus0Willem van de Wetering1Casper Roos2Corresponding author.; Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, the NetherlandsDepartment of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, the NetherlandsDepartment of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, the NetherlandsGroup members' decisions on whether or not to become actively involved in collective action are often guided by social norms regarding both action and inaction. Previous research tentatively suggests that humor may be a means to mock inaction norms and thereby increase mobilization for collective action. The current research investigates Christian student association members' group norms regarding humanitarian collective action. While prescriptive ingroup norms advocate such prosocial behavior, descriptive ingroup norms indicate reluctance to engage in humanitarian action. Members from nation-wide chapters of Christian student association throughout The Netherlands (N = 248) saw a social media post mobilizing for a foodbank action by the association. This mobilizing call for action was accompanied either with bible verses as prescriptive norms to partake in humanitarian collective action or with humorous internet memes mocking descriptive norms of reluctance to engage in collective action. A questionnaire measured 1) their collective action intentions (to participate in the advertised action, outreach actions, and humanitarian action), 2) their affective reactions to the social media post (inspired, amused, angry), 3) activist burnout symptoms, and 4) perceived group, participative, and individual efficacy. Stronger social identification predicted feeling more inspired by the social media call for action as well as increased humanitarian action intentions. This classical discrepancy between high and low social identifiers decreased when the call to action displayed humorous memes mocking descriptive inaction norms instead of bible verses as prescriptive action norms. These findings shed light on alternative routes to mobilize high and low Christian identifiers for humanitarian collective action.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182500544XCollective actionHumorSocial mediaSocial identitySocial normsMobilization |
| spellingShingle | Hedy Greijdanus Willem van de Wetering Casper Roos Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework Acta Psychologica Collective action Humor Social media Social identity Social norms Mobilization |
| title | Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework |
| title_full | Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework |
| title_fullStr | Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework |
| title_full_unstemmed | Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework |
| title_short | Humor and social norms on social media: When bible verses or memes mobilize Christians for humanitarian collective actionOpen Science Framework |
| title_sort | humor and social norms on social media when bible verses or memes mobilize christians for humanitarian collective actionopen science framework |
| topic | Collective action Humor Social media Social identity Social norms Mobilization |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182500544X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hedygreijdanus humorandsocialnormsonsocialmediawhenbibleversesormemesmobilizechristiansforhumanitariancollectiveactionopenscienceframework AT willemvandewetering humorandsocialnormsonsocialmediawhenbibleversesormemesmobilizechristiansforhumanitariancollectiveactionopenscienceframework AT casperroos humorandsocialnormsonsocialmediawhenbibleversesormemesmobilizechristiansforhumanitariancollectiveactionopenscienceframework |