In June 2024, Telegram channels distributed the news about the study of Canadian scientists: they allegedly proved that workers who are distracted by viewing memes work more efficiently. We decided to check if such posts are true.
About the Canadian study, in which 500 participants allegedly took part, told "Ax 18+"(2 million views at the time of writing of the analysis),"Media Russia not Moscow"(249,000),"Ax - hot news"(248,000),"Mousetrap"(145,000) and other large Russian-speaking Telegram channels. The news was picked up by users "VKontakte" And Reddit, entertaining Portals And some Online publications.
The concept of "meme" into scientific circulation Introduced British evolutionary geneticist Richard Dokins. In his book “The Egoist Gene” (1976), he defined the meme as a unit of transmission of cultural heritage by analogy with the genome - a unit of transmission of hereditary information. As examples of Dokins, he gave “melodies, ideas, fashionable words and expressions, methods of cooking stew or arrangements.” “In the same way as genes spread to the gene pool, moving from one body to another using spermatozoa or eggs, memes spread in the same sense, moving from one brain to another using a process, which in a broad sense can be called imitation. If the scientist heard or read about an interesting idea, he informs about it to his colleagues and students. He mentions her in his articles and lectures. If the idea is picked up, it spreads, passing from one brain to another, ”wrote the geneticist.
In the modern world, the word "meme" is used not only in the sense that Pokins laid in this concept. So, "Cambridge Dictionary of English" Gives Another definition: "Idea, image, video, etc., which is very quickly distributed on the Internet." Slightly wider Fixed In the Oxford Dictionary: “Image, video, text fragment, etc., which is very quickly transmitted from one Internet user to another, often with small changes that make it humorous.” The compilers of the main explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language have not yet devoted a separate article to the word “meme”, but its use by native speakers as a whole corresponds to English. In a sense, the meaning of this term even expanded-even individual words (for example, “beautiful”) and phrases (“musculosen”) can now become memes.
Memes (in every sense of the word) and their influence on a person are studied not only by representatives of the social and humanities. One of the most resonant research on this topic in 2021 Spent American Psychological Association (APA). Scientists were interested in how the viewing of memes affects the psychological well-being of people during the pandemic Covid-19. The experiment was attended by 799 volunteers aged 18 to 88, who showed memes with two types of signatures: neutral and referring to coronavirus. For example, a photograph of a rabbit, which was widely (as much as possible) spread its paws, accompanied either the phrase “when only air hugs are possible because of a Covid”, or the comment “I saw such a large carrot, honestly,“ honestly. ”
Before the experiment, the volunteers filled the questionnaire, in which they appreciated their level of stress, including pandemia. Then the subjects were divided into two groups and offered to see either “ordinary” memes or “covid”. Subsequently, both groups were given to read the news and again asked to answer questions about their own psychological condition. It turned out that, contrary to the assumptions of scientists, the stronger therapeutic effect on the subjects had memes on the topical theme of coronavirus, and not pictures with timeless jokes in signatures. Researchers explained such a paradox in that humor reduces the anxiety that pandemia and anti -like restrictions that have destroyed the usual lifestyle.
Similar conclusions a year earlier They came Scientists from the British University of Sheffield Hallama. Researchers selected a group of volunteers with symptoms of depression, and then offered them to see memes - some of them were accompanied by signatures on the topic of this disease, the rest were neutral. The subjects were much more liked by memes from the first group - they were appreciated as more funny, relevant, useful for moods and suitable for supporting other people. But the remaining participants in the experiment, who did not have symptoms of depression, gave preference to “neutral” pictures. Scientists explained their observations by the fact that thematic memes allow people with depression to rethink the situation and laugh at it, and also contribute to the feeling that their condition is understandable to others.
However, there is no study on the connection of memes and the working performance that Telegram channels write about, apparently, there is no one. “Verified” failed to find his references in the main bases of scientific citation and on specialized sites. In the posts in social networks and notes in the media, there is no reference to the article with the results of the study, or at least the press release of its authors. At the same time, different channels call the organization differently, which allegedly conducted an experiment: in some publications it is mentioned Canadian University, in others - Canadian University of Labor Productivity. However, such institutions do not exist. The list of discrepancies is not exhausted on this. The authors of a number of posts They saythat people “from different areas of activity” participated in the experiment, others - that the subjects became exclusively "Office workers."
“Verified” failed to reliably determine the source of the news about the Canadian study, but with a high probability it first appeared in the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet. This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that English -speaking publications on this subject are extremely few and appeared in non -accident accounts. For example, in the social network X we found only one such post - his Placed User @zlatti_71, who often shares the reports of Russian officials and state media with his subscribers. The earliest publication about the Canadian study, which managed to find “verified”, appeared on June 21 at 11:09 Moscow time in the Telegram channel Full-Time Trading (33,000 views).
Based on other studies devoted to the influence of memes on the psychological state of a person, we can make an assumption that watching funny pictures can be useful as a break between solving problems during working hours. Scientists have proved that a lunch break Raises The concentration of attention and thereby increases productivity, and also relieves stress. As Australian researchers found out, watching humorous videos Improves Attentiveness and perseverance in monotonous work. As part of the experiment, they asked volunteers to cross out all the letters “E” on two pages of the text. Then the subjects arranged a break, during which one group watched a video with Mr. Bin, and the other - a peaceful video with dolphins. After that, the participants in the experiment were offered to go through a computer game in advance so that this is impossible to do. It turned out that the group that watched the video with Mr. Bin was more persistent, while other subjects gave up after several attempts.
The importance of pauses in work Emphasize and Canadian scientists who conducted a meta -analysis of 83 studies on the relationship of breaks and efficiency of employees. At the same time, experts Markthat the most useful forms of a break are a walk, physical exercises or communication with dogs, and viewing the tape of social networks does not provide the brain with the proper rest and can even lead to emotional burnout. At the same time, watching a video with cute animals Improves performance, attentiveness and reaction speed.
Thus, although there are no traces of the Canadian experiment, which Telegram channels wrote about, at least some memes can relieve stress and improve mood. Their viewing in breaks during working hours will probably increase productivity, but the pauses between the performance of working tasks are already in themselves the same effect. There have not been any studies directly confirming the connection between viewing memes and productivity.
Image on the cover: Phil Whitehouse, Flickr
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