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Changing the World One Meme at a Time: The Effects of Climate Change
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Changing the World One Meme at a Time: The

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Bingbing Zhang & Juliet Pinto

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ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2021.1894197

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Changing the World One Meme at a Time: The Effects of Climate

Change Memes on Civic Engagement Intentions
Bingbing Zhang and Juliet Pinto
Bellisario College of Communications, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The risks that animals and humans face from climate change are Received 24 June 2020
frequently featured in climate change memes. Although memes may Accepted 15 February 2021
appear to some as silly jokes, little is known of the impact they may
KEYWORDS
have in the formation and spread of individuals’ perceived risk of Memes; humor; climate
climate change and intention to participate in climate change change; civic engagement;
campaigns. This study tests the effect of climate change memes on the risk perception
perceived risk of climate change and the intention of online
engagement regarding climate change issues. Results show that
exposure to climate change memes increases individual intentions of
online civic engagement regarding climate change. Additionally,
empathy is found to mediate this effect. However, risk perception of
climate change is not altered after exposure to climate change memes.

Internet memes can be defined as “the propagation of content such as jokes, rumor, videos, or web-
sites from one person to others via the Internet” (Shifman, 2013, p. 362). The most common type of
meme is the image macro, which is an image with superimposed text (Dancygier & Vandelanotte,
2017). Internet memes have been used in social movements (Milner, 2013; Mina, 2014) and to
address scientific and environmental issues such as climate change (Ross & Rivers, 2019). Previous
research has showcased the impact of memes on the formation of public opinion and civic engage-
ment (Mina, 2014; Ross & Rivers, 2019).
Empirical research investigating the uses of memes tends to use critical analysis to study the
characteristics of memes or to speculate on their transmission (Shifman, 2012). Components of
“successful” memes, which are widely shared and influential, involve humor, rich intertextual refer-
ences, and anomalous juxtaposition (e.g. Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). Humor has become a com-
mon characteristic of memes (Piata, 2016), and researchers have found it to impact audiences’
informational processing of social or political messages in soft news and political satire (Hmie-
lowski, Holbert, & Lee, 2011; Young, 2013, 2017). This is important for issues such as climate
change, which has become increasingly politicized as well as an issue of growing importance for
communities globally.
However, less research thus far has explored the effects of memes addressing climate change.
This study aims to fill this gap and provide an exploratory investigation of how memes addressing
climate change influence individuals’ perceived risk of climate change and consequent civic engage-
ment in online climate change campaigns. Using a 2 (memes featuring animals V.S. memes featur-
ing human beings) × 2 (low humor V.S. high humor) design, this study tests the effects of climate
change memes on perceived risk of climate change and consequent online civic engagement in cli-
mate change campaigns. In particular, we examine the role of empathy as a mediating factor in the

CONTACT Bingbing Zhang bpz5077@psu.edu

© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

relationship between exposure to climate change memes and consequent intention for online
engagement in climate change campaigns.

Internet memes
First termed by Richard Dawkins (1976), the word “meme” originally referred to a cultural unit
transmitted from person to person in the manner of genetic material. As a theoretical concept in
the digital age, memes have been examined by researchers in various ways: as content presenting
ideas, as well as variables to understand the dissemination of online cultural content. However,
the definition of a meme remains debated, as meme formats and transmission patterns can vary
widely. For example, Börzsei (2013) defines memes as visual presentations which are manifested
normally in the form of images or video. But memes can also be devoid of text and include a
mix of images. Photo-based memes are classified into reaction Photoshops (edited images by soft-
ware such as photoshop), stock character macros (images with superimposed text, which also are the
most common format of memes), and photo fads (imitated images, which are images of people imi-
tating meaningful gestures or postures in different settings) (Shifman, 2013, p. 100). In either case,
memes are remixed pieces of content created not only for sharing but also for encouraging people to
participate, recreate, or add something to them (Börzsei, 2013).
The visual component of memes has also been found to be important in terms of participation
and sharing, as image macros have become a salient category of Internet memes. The earliest form
of an online meme might be the emoticon such as the sideways smiley face created by Fahlman in
1982 in order to avoid misunderstandings by providing visual cues with humor or sarcasm (Davi-
son, 2012). One of the first modern remixed memes came from the website Bert Is Evil created by
Filipino artist and designer Dino Ignacio in 1997 (Davison, 2012). At that time, Ignacio used Bert, a
character from Sesame Street, to create and post humorous images. Memes became more popular
with the advent of software to digitally alter photos, such as Photoshop. In the early 2000s, a meme
from the shooter game Zero Wing went viral as the manipulated pictures of Zero Wing emerged
online (Börzsei, 2013).
Although the format of memes varies, the most frequent memes shared among Internet users
feature the combination of multi-layered images as background and superimposed text as fore-
ground (Laineste & Voolaid, 2017). Fundamentally, memes rely on a combination or interplay
between words and images online (Jurgenson, 2012). In fact, most research considers memes to
be based on images, usually with superimposed text placed on top of the image (Bratich, 2014).
This is considered the most common format of memes (Shifman, 2014). Hence, this study will
only look at the most common type of memes which is an image with superimposed text on top
of the image.
While a robust and growing body of research has examined the use of new media with environ-
mental messaging (e.g. Champ et al. 2013; Joosse & Brydges, 2018; Mörner & Olausson, 2017;
Schmitt, 2019; Shapiro & Park, 2018; Thorsten, 2013; Weder, 2020), far fewer have focused on
the role of memes in the communication of environmental issues (Friedlander & Riedy, 2019;
Sharag-Eldin et al., 2018), and only a few have explored memes and communication about climate
change issues. Exploring citizen created memetic content as a response to corporate oil drilling,
Davis et al., (2016) found that citizens were empowered to challenge corporate messaging, and
their memes brought both media attention and support from civil society. In another study exam-
ining how the ease of creating and sharing memes facilitates civil society engagement around
environmental issues, Ross & Rivers (2019, p. 992) noted:
[T]he fact that Internet memes are simplistic creations means that the message is delivered and interpreted in
an equally simplistic way. This, combined with the anonymity involved in their creation and the related
absence of the need to deliver facts or to provide evidence offer an opportunity to influence the viewpoint
and opinion of viewers in a manner that is potentially much more effective than through traditional media
channels.
 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 3

Humor and the digitally mediated communication of social and political issues
Along with the relative ease of creation and sharing, and simplicity of messaging, memes have also
been associated with humorous or satiric forms of communication. Memes featuring social and pol-
itical issues can be seen as a new form of satirical content that combines humor with criticism.
Internet memes can represent one kind of user-generated content that enacts social or political
commentary and satire with a humorous undertone (Ross & Rivers, 2019). Although the most com-
mon forms of political humor and satire tend to include comedy and television (Hmielowski et al.,
2011), they now extend to online settings including memes (Piata, 2016). Humor can function as a
way of criticism, and memes transmitted via social media can utilize humor and satire for public
commentary (Milner, 2013, p. 2359; Piata, 2016).
A growing body of research focuses on the role of humor with meme transmission about social
or political issues and their effect on audience perceptions and behaviors. Memes may be forms of
content with higher visibility because the embedded humor can influence the chances of going viral
(Shifman, 2014). Three attributes of memes are attached to humor (Shifman, 2013). Playfulness is
the feature that some memes are intended to be humorous in order to invite others to participate in
creating and sharing the memes. Incongruity is the feature based on the incongruity theory of
humor that comedy comes from “unexpected cognitive encounters between two incongruent
elements” (Shifman, 2014, p. 79), such as a man dressing in female clothes or a banana dancing
in the image. Superiority includes how their laughter expresses a pleasant feeling of primacy
over others or a former state of themselves (Shifman, 2014, p. 80) such as self-mocking memes
that portray previous foolish actions of individuals for fun.
Memes can represent mechanisms for creative constructions of social commentary on various
social topics, and can be disseminated across numerous mediated platforms. Dynel (2016) used
this framework to explain how humor is being used in addressing serious climate change issues
via memes. This is particularly salient with humor regarding social or political issues, specifically
the information processing of political satire and soft news (Hmielowski et al., 2011; Young,
2013, 2017). Political entertainment shows were able to ignite individuals’ processing of political
information more easily than the traditional news (Kim & Vishak, 2008). Individuals absorbed
the messages more when they were entertained, so they did not pay too much attention to the per-
suasive intention of the political comedy (Young, 2017). For example, individuals were easily per-
suaded by political comedy shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report because
individuals were more susceptible to persuasive messages when being entertained (Boukes, Boom-
gaarden, Moorman, & De Vreese, 2015).
Memes have been used as “a vehicle for mass entertainment and social bonding” (Dynel, 2016,
p. 663) commenting on social issues which are circulating, imitating, and transforming by online
users to create “a shared cultural experience” (Shifman, 2013, p. 367). The use of memes has
been found to connect users on a common topic (Miltner, 2014), thus cultivating a sense of shared
identity especially in engaging people in social issues. For example, the memetic acts of the “It Gets
Better” videos – a project focusing on bullying of gay teenagers resulting in suicide – facilitated to
some degree the formulation of the digital LGBTQ community, as viewers engaged in commentary
on YouTube video pages (Gal et al., 2016). Audience members also used LOLcats memes to com-
ment on political issues creatively and to interact with the community members (Miltner, 2014).
Mediated content has import for political engagement, public opinion, and communication
dynamics regarding social movements. Entertainment content about political issues has been
found to affect political engagement. For example, there is a positive relationship between intent
to participate in political discussion with their families and friends and viewing political entertain-
ment shows among American college students (Landreville & LaMarre, 2011). Political entertain-
ment is also shown to be able to stimulate individuals’ political interest (Bartsch & Schneider, 2014)
which would impact the societal level of political engagement in the long run. Shifman (2014) lists
three potential abilities for memes to influence public opinion: (a) memes have been used in
4 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

political campaigns such as the integration of memes into Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential cam-
paign, which demonstrates the potential of political memes to influence politics; (b) memes have the
potential to encourage individuals to participate in political actions; and (c) as user-generated-con-
tent memes have the potential to distribute conveniently, which might serve as a form of opinions
expression.
Milner (2013) found out that people who participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement
used Internet memes to comment on and articulate their perspectives about the movement.
Milner (2013) considers the uses of memes in the social protest as a form of “participatory public
engagement” in subversive ways (p. 2359). More people are engaging with news through memes,
which provide an opportunity for people to react instantly and comment on current issues and
events (Börzsei, 2013). Also, memes have the potential to impact public sentiment, and have
been used as engagement tools by political campaign strategists (Gal, Shifman, & Kampf, 2016;
Piata, 2016).

Functionality of memes in climate change

Memes are increasingly used in campaigns in order to engage others with environmental issues
(Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). For example, memes have been used by environmental campaigns
to engage others with science communication (Ross & Rivers, 2019). Thousands of memes are cir-
culated on social media to promote environmental action and encourage people to participate in
protecting the environment (Scott, 2019). The Instagram account @climemechange posts memes
referring to climate change regularly and has thousands of viewers.
The effect of humor in public engagement in climate change communication can enable or dis-
tract from message reception. Kaltenbacher and Drews (2020) found that humor may or may not
enable message reception of environmental awareness, perception, learning and behaviors through
a systematic review. Comedic frames can serve to facilitate the messaging and reception of collective
and individualistic behavior changes (DeLaure, 2011). Using satire in science communication for
the purpose of promoting public engagement with climate change science is becoming a more com-
mon practice (Bore & Reid, 2014). However, humorous appeals make the audience perceive lower
fear from climate change messaging, which also decreases their intentions to engage in behaviors
that mitigate impacts (Skurka et al., 2018). Satiric communication by late-night hosts that blends
humor/indignation also may impact younger audience members’ perceptions of climate change
risk (Skurka et al., 2019), but how the messages are crafted is important for audience engagement
(Becker & Anderson, 2019).
The research above has shown that individuals have used humorous memes referencing social
issues to participate in social issues and humorous memes can impact individuals’ civic engage-
ment. Hence, this study posits the following hypothesis.
H1: After exposed to climate change memes, individuals are more likely to engage in online climate change
campaigns.

H2a: Individuals who are exposed to more humorous memes depicting climate change are more likely to
engage in online climate change campaigns.

The risk of climate change is often depicted in climate change memes. Ross and Rivers (2019)
found that climate change memes have communicated five aspects of climate change including:
(a) the risk of climate change; (b) it’s not intelligent to believe climate change is a hoax; (c) the
risk is caused by human activities; (d) potential consequences of the risk; and (e) how to handle
the risk (action to be taken) (p. 14). Also, they found that climate change memes either present
skepticism for climate change, or convinced beliefs of climate change, which follows Hoffman’s
(2011) skeptical and convinced logics. Individuals mostly are convinced that climate change brings
huge risk to society, or they are skeptical about the potential risks presented by climate change. They
 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 5

posited that users are using memes to communicate the risk of climate change, inserting their ideol-
ogies inside memes to express their skeptical or convinced attitudes about climate change.
H2b: Individuals who are exposed to more humorous memes depicting climate change are more likely to have
a higher level of perceived risk regarding climate change.

H3: After being exposed to climate change memes, individuals are more likely to have a higher level of per-
ceived risk regarding climate change.

Memes depicting animals and humans facing climate change

Images of animals are often used in climate change campaigns because they can evoke individuals’
empathy and increase public support for environmental activism. For example, polar bears are
becoming an iconic visual representation of climate change (O’Neill & Hulme, 2009). Swim and
Bloodhart (2015) found that when individuals looked at the portraits of polar bears harmed by cli-
mate change from the empathetic perspective, they were more likely to support climate change
activism.
By showing harmful and threatening messages about how climate change damages wildlife, it is
expected that individuals will have a higher degree of perception of threat and consequently will
support climate change activism more. However, contrary to the hypothesis, fear appeals presented
in messages may backfire, leading individuals to respond negatively to the messages (O’Neill &
Nicholson-Cole, 2009). Fear appeals may not fully communicate that individuals can address vul-
nerabilities personally because climate change needs collective effort to solve Swim & Bloodhart
(2015). Alarming or fearful imagery about climate change consequences tend to distance individ-
uals or make them feel helpless and not empowered to act (O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009). Also,
individuals who have limited experiences regarding climate change may feel less vulnerable about
climate change even when they are exposed to fear appeals (Weber & Stern, 2011).
In terms of the use of imagery of humans in mediated content related to climate change, celeb-
rities and politicians have appeared in various climate change campaigns, which undermined the
importance of climate change issues and decreased the level of perceived efficacy (O’Neill et al.,
2013). Other research found that individuals did not respond to images of celebrities and politicians
advocating climate change but responded to pictures and stories of other ordinary people (Shields,
2019).
Compared to images depicting polar bears and pandas, pictures of humans can show climate
change is a human issue and that it is an urgent problem affecting humanity’s living situation.
Yet less is understood regarding the effect of using either animals or humans in the image
macro. This study proposes that individuals who are exposed to memes of animals experiencing
climate change would have higher levels of empathetic feeling than those who are exposed to
memes of humans experiencing climate change because people might be easier to be empathetic
towards animals than humans. Also, this study investigates whether empathetic feelings mediate
the relationship between exposure to different types of memes (animal memes V.S. human
memes) and consequent online civic engagement in climate change campaigns.
H4: Individuals would have a higher level of empathetic feeling when viewing memes featuring animals related
to climate change than viewing memes featuring humans related to climate change.

RQ1: Will empathetic feelings impact the relationship between exposure to different types of memes and con-
sequent civic engagement in online climate change campaigns?

Method
We conducted a survey-experiment on Amazon MTurk (N = 201). Using 2 (memes featuring ani-
mals V.S. memes featuring humans) × 2 (low humor V.S. high humor) between subjects design. We
6 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

test the effect of climate change memes on perceived risk of climate change and civic engagement in
online climate change campaigns.

Participants and procedure

A total of 203 participants in the United States completed the survey, but two participants failed the
manipulation check. At the end of the survey, one manipulation check question asked participants
whether the figures in the memes they have seen were animals, humans, or machines. Data of par-
ticipants who chose “machines” were deleted. Of the 201 participants who passed the manipulation
check, 64.2% of the participants were male and 35.8% were female. The average age of the partici-
pants was 38.23 years old (SD = 12.76). Most of the participants (74.1%) of the participants were
non-Hispanic Caucasians, followed by Hispanic/Latino (9.5%) and African American (9.5%),
Asian (5%), and Native American (2%). The average of the education level is between a 4-year col-
lege degree and master’s degree (M = 4.88, SD = 1.07). Additionally, the average of the income level
was $40,000–$60,000 (M = 4.97, SD = 2.53).
Participants received compensation (50 cents) for the completion of the survey. After giving
their digital consent, participants were asked to report their prior attitude towards climate change
including risk perception and previous civic engagement in climate change campaigns. Then, par-
ticipants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in the survey-experiment. Each con-
dition had 12 memes addressing climate change and each meme was set to be viewed for at least
15 s; participants were randomly exposed to 12 memes in each condition. After exposure to the cli-
mate change memes, individuals were asked to report their risk perception of climate change, con-
sequent engagement in online climate change campaigns, and empathetic feeling towards the
figures inside of the memes.

Stimuli
Participants were exposed to 12 memes featuring the same theme in each condition. Each meme
lasted for at least 15 s. After 15 s, participants could click to view the next meme. The memes
were collected from a climate change meme Instagram account (@climemechange) and Google
images. All memes were pretested for their humorousness (1 = Not humorous at all; 5 = Extremely
humorous). Initially, two researchers selected 24 animal memes and 24 human memes regarding
climate change and categorized it into 4 groups based on the study design. In particular, one
research distributed the stimuli images inserted in a Qualtrics survey to familiar friends and
asked them to rate the humorousness of the images. Participants were randomly assigned to
view one of the following conditions: 12 animal memes with high humor, 12 animal memes
with low humor, 12 human memes with high humor, or 12 human memes with low humor.
Then the researcher encouraged them to distribute the survey to someone else who was willing
to take the survey. Eventually 24 participants were recruited through this snow-sampling method
and 58.3% of them were males while 41.7% of them were females. Their average age was 34.71
years old (SD = 11.70). Majority of them (87.5%) were Caucasians, followed by Hispanic/Latino
(8.3%) and African American (4.2%). Their average of the education level was between a master’s
degree and doctoral degree (M = 5.25, SD = 1.11). An independent t-test showed that memes with
high humor were significantly perceived more humorous (M = 3.79; SD = 0.74) than memes with
low humor (M = 2.87; SD = 0.84), t(22) = −2.83, p = .01.
After the pre-test, memes were classified into four types of climate change memes including the
animal memes with high humor, animal memes with low humor, human memes with high humor,
and human memes with low humor. Animal memes only depicted animals while human memes
only depicted humans. An independent t-test showed that high humor memes were significantly
perceived more humorous (M = 3.32; SD = 0.97) than low humor memes (M = 3.02; SD = 1.07),
t(199) = −2.05, p = .04.
 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 7

More specifically, animal memes with high humor portray the negative impacts of climate
change on animals (e.g. polar bears, penguins, and seals) in a funny way such as an image of a
polar bear holding a chainsaw with the superimposed text “I’ve had enough global warming”. Ani-
mal memes with low humor portray animals experiencing negative consequences from climate
change in a sad way such as an image of a normal polar bear in 2009 and a skinny polar bear
2019 side by side with the superimposed text “climate change in 10 year challenge.” Human
memes with high humor portray ordinary people making jokes of the impacts of climate change
on human beings such as a girl waving hands for help and drowning in water with the superim-
posed text “Trying to get to my friend’s house in 2050 like” on top. Human memes with low
humor portray the impacts of climate change on human beings in a negative way such as a girl
shouting “How many fires do we have to start before you believe that climate change is burning
down Australia”? (see Appendix 1 for descriptions of the stimuli).

Measurement
Perceived risk
Adapted from Kahan et al. (2015), this item is used to measure individuals’ perceived risk of climate
change. Respondents were asked to rate their agreement (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree)
to the following question: “Assuming it is happening, how much risk do you think climate change
poses to human health, safety, or prosperity?” Individuals across all the conditions were asked to
answer this question before the exposure to the memes (M = 3.85; SD = 0.94) and after exposure
to the memes (M = 3.89; SD = 0.89).

Likelihood of online civic engagement in climate change campaigns

Adapted from Hoffman (2012), this item was used to measure individuals’ online civic engagement
in climate change campaigns specifically intended for engaging in climate change campaigns online.
Respondents were asked to answer how likely they are going to engage in the following activities in
the next few months (1= unlikely at all to 7 = very likely). The activities included: (a) contribute
money online to climate change campaign; (b) start or join a climate change campaign group on
a social networking site; (c) share photos, videos, or audio files online that relate to climate change;
and (d) post comments, queries, or information about climate change in an online discussion
forum, blog, social networking site, or website of any kind. These items were tested for reliability
and then were combined into an index. Individuals across all the conditions were asked to answer
this question before the exposure to the memes (α = .85; M = 4.70; SD = 1.43) and after exposure to
the memes (α = .84; M = 4.82; SD = 1.39).

Empathetic feeling
Adapted from Batson et al., (1997), this item was used to measure individuals’ empathetic feelings
toward animals or humans appearing in climate change memes. Participants were asked to rate
their agreement (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree) towards the following statements: (a)
I feel compassionate; and (b) I feel sympathetic. These two items were tested for reliability and
then combined into an index (r = .62; M = 5.10; SD = 1.33).

Results
H1 proposed that after exposure to climate change memes, individuals would have greater inten-
tions to engage in climate change campaigns online. A principal-components factor analysis
only extracted one component conducted on these items of intentions to engage in climate change
8 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

campaigns. Therefore, we aggregated the items into an index, and the reliability of the index was
high (before exposure to climate change meme: α = .84; after exposure to climate change meme:
α = .84). A series of paired sample t-tests on the civic engagement items comparison also revealed
that the mean values of all the items were not significantly different from each other. For example,
viewing climate change memes did not have a significant smaller impact on intention to share cli-
mate change photos, videos or audio online (M = 4.73; SD = 1.64) than on contributing money
online to a climate change campaign (M = 4.86; SD = 1.69), t(200) = 1.13, p = .26. Since the data
did not show the significant differences between the items in the civic engagement index. Hence,
we decide to keep it as an index. However, the actual civic engagement behaviors might have
more variance than the intentions to engage in civic activities.
A paired-samples t-test revealed that individuals’ intentions to engage in climate change
campaigns online were significantly different before and after exposure to climate change
memes, t(200) = −2.57, p = .01. After exposure to climate change memes, the intention to engage
in online climate change campaigns of individuals were significantly higher (M = 4.82; SD = 1.39)
than previous intention to engage in climate change campaigns before exposure to climate change
memes (M = 4.70; SD = 1.43). Therefore, H1 was supported (see Figure 1).
H2 proposed that individuals who are exposed to more humorous memes depicting climate
change are more likely to (a) engage in climate change campaigns and (b) have a higher level of per-
ceived risk regarding climate change. A 2 (humor level) × 2 (Meme figure) multivariate analysis of
variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine participants’ online civic engagement on climate
change campaigns and perceived risk regarding climate change. This analysis revealed that there
is no multivariate main effect for humor level, Wilks’ Λ = .99, F(2, 196) = 1.20, p = .34, partial
η 2 = .01. The univariate analysis for participants’ online civic engagement on climate change cam-
paigns revealed no main effect for humor level, F(1, 197) = 0.75, p = .39, partial η 2 = .004. Also, the
univariate analysis for participants’ perceived risk of climate change revealed no main effect for
humor level, F(1, 197) = 0.79, p = .38, partial η 2 = .004. Hence, both H2a and H2b were not supported.

Figure 1. Mean difference of online civic engagement between before and after exposure.
 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 9

H3 proposed that after exposure to climate change memes, individuals would have a higher level
of risk perception of climate change. A paired-sample t-test revealed that individuals’ perception of
risk towards climate change before exposure to climate change memes was not significantly differ-
ent from perception of risk after exposure to climate change memes across conditions, t(200)
= –.72, p = .47. Individuals only have slightly a higher level of risk perception of climate change
after exposure to climate change memes (M = 3.89; SD = 0.89) compared to before exposure (M
= 3.85; SD = 0.94). Therefore, H3 was not supported (see Figure 2).
H4 proposed that individuals would have a higher level of empathetic feeling when viewing ani-
mal memes related to climate change than viewing human memes related to climate change. An
independent sample t-test revealed that individuals’ empathetic feelings towards animal memes
and human memes related to climate change were significantly different, t(199) = −2.84, p = .005.
Individuals who were exposed to animal memes had a significantly higher level of empathetic feel-
ing (M = 5.37; SD = 1.28) compared to those who were exposed to human memes (M = 4.84; SD =
1.34). Therefore, H4 was supported (see Figure 3).
RQ1 asked whether empathetic feelings impact the relationship between exposure to different
types of climate change memes and civic engagement in online climate change campaigns. Using
the bootstrapping procedure (5000 samples) of the “PROCESS” macro analysis (Hayes, 2017),
exposure to two types of memes was put in Model 4 as an independent variable while intention
for engaging in climate change served as dependent variable and level of empathetic feelings served
as mediator. Mediation analysis through PROCESS model 4 showed that empathetic feeling fully
mediates the relationship between exposure to animal memes and online civic engagement in cli-
mate change campaigns (B = .33, SE = .12, 95% CI = .10 to .58). Therefore, empathetic feeling is a
mediator for the effect of exposure to animal memes on online civic engagement (see Figure 4).

Discussion
This study explored how memes may influence perceptions of risk and willingness to engage in civic
issues specifically concerning climate change. As the issue of climate change becomes a more

Figure 2. Mean difference of risk perception between before and after exposure.
10 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

Figure 3. Mean difference of empathetic feelings between exposure to memes with animals and humans.

pressing political and civic issue, more online campaigns are attempting to engage more people and
to raise awareness (Segerberg, 2017). Memes have been used to address political and civic issues
more often in recent years due to the development of social media (Miltner, 2014). Memes even
have even been used as propaganda tools for political parties as well as by countries to promote
their ideologies (Miltner, 2018).
The result of this study supported the statement that memes have an effect on increasing engage-
ment in climate change campaigns, but findings were nuanced. Memes addressing climate change
did not alter individuals’ risk perception of climate change. Results also indicated people have
higher levels of empathy towards animals compared to humans as main figures when depicting
the risk of climate change. Empathetic feelings serve as the mediator of the relationship between
exposure to memes and consequent civic engagement in online climate change campaigns.

Figure 4. Mediation path of RQ1.

 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 11

Importantly, the study found that memes can impact civic engagement in online climate change
campaigns positively. Recently, more civic campaigns are organized online now due to the devel-
opment of social media activism (Segerberg, 2017). As forms of civic engagement are becoming
more diverse, memes are emerging as a new form of political or civic engagement (Shifman,
2013). After exposure to memes, individual intentions for engaging in climate change campaigns
online increase. This may be related to the ease of access to express opinions about controversial
issues using humor as a persuasive tactic across digital platforms. In addition, behavioral intention
is a significant positive predictor for actual behavior change according to the framework of the reso-
nated action approach (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). However, it is always harder to change actual
behaviors than behavioral intentions (Webb & Sheeran, 2006). For instance, the priming effects
of memes may be short-lived and it might not turn into actions if there are no immediate and con-
venient opportunities presented. Luckily, online media (e.g. social media) provides such conven-
ience that individuals are able to donate online and promote their beliefs easier which makes the
effects of viewing memes more significant.
However, exposure to climate change memes do not increase risk perception towards climate
change. Memes often appear as silly and funny jokes which are designed to go viral (Shifman,
2014). The humor presented in the chosen memes might unintentionally downplay the seriousness
of climate change. This leads to the reduction of individual risk perception regarding climate
change. The main difference between memes and other visual imagery is that memes have added
superimposed text to create incongruity (Shifman, 2013). This incongruity creates humor as it
leads people to think about a specific funny part of the imagery. This cognitive processing of
memes might reduce the risk perception of climate change.
Although most memes are intrinsically made in a humorous way, this research does not find the
main effect of humor within climate change memes on risk perception and online civic engagement.
Humor is found to help with engaging people in participating in climate change communication
(Kaltenbacher & Drews, 2020). However, this null result shows that the level of humor inside
memes does not fundamentally change the effects of climate change memes. In other words,
memes with low or high levels of humor have the same effect on engaging people in thinking
about the issue of climate change. This shows the potential of memes in addressing social issues
in both humorous and serious ways.
Findings from this study support the idea that risk perceptions may be more innate and harder to
change. Risk perception of climate change is important in impacting individuals’ future actions,
such as participating in climate change activism (Kahan et al., 2015). Risk perception is also related
to experience, cultural background, and public understanding about the issue (Leiserowitz, 2006).
Although the stimuli in this study presented risks that climate change might bring to animals or
humans, exposure to these memes did not significantly change individuals’ risk perceptions. In
order to change risk perception of climate change, we might need more educational interventions
to increase public understanding of climate change.
The result of this study also provides empirical evidence that memes can impact individual feel-
ings after being exposed to memes showing the risks of climate change. Interestingly, this study
found that individuals showed more empathetic feelings towards animals than humans when view-
ing their suffering as a result of climate change. Animals such as polar bears are often used to depict
the consequences of climate change in online campaigns that attempt to ignite individuals’ sympa-
thy (O’Neill & Hulme, 2009). People may feel more empathetic towards animal memes than
towards human memes. Future climate change campaigns should consider using more animals
in future memes to motivate more people to participate in climate change activities.
Furthermore, mediation analysis results show that empathy fully mediated individuals’ intention
to participate in climate change activities after they are exposed to animal memes. Empathy might
be a big predictor for individuals’ civic engagement in online climate change campaigns. For
example, people that feel empathy towards the animals used in imagery tend to show increased sup-
port towards climate change campaigns (Swim & Bloodhart, 2015). This study shows that memes
12 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO

do not only ignite emotions such as fear, but also other emotions such as empathy. More research
about the mixed emotions that memes bring to people is needed.
Practical and theoretical implications regarding the study of the effects of exposure to memes on
civic engagement include more emphasis on empirical work, as well as how to increase effectiveness
of online climate change campaigns. Most studies focus on a symbolic meaning analysis of memes
and critical analysis of memes (Dancygier & Vandelanotte, 2017). Practically, as memes become
more popular in social media, they may also become tools used to increase civic engagement. Cli-
mate change campaigns should consider using memes, especially animal memes, to promote
activities.
Limitations of this study include the relatively short exposure time of the stimuli. Each stimulus
is designed to be exposed to the participants for at least 15 s, but individuals might spend more time
reading the memes in practice. Memes from social media platforms and Google images were used,
which could mimic reality and increase external reliability, but internal reliability might be low
because the memes are not designed exactly the same and other factors may be involved, including
cuteness and age of humans in images. Also, accumulation of exposure to memes might have a slee-
per effect; however, this study only showed the immediate effects.
Another significant limitation involved the pre-tests of the humor memes. The pre-test sample
was a snowball sample, representing a relatively small and well-educated portion of the U.S. demo-
graphic, and therefore may not be representative of the larger population. Further studies should
consider a larger and more representative sample to pre-test the humorousness of the stimuli.
Also, future studies may look at the long-term effects of climate change memes, as increasing
exposure to climate change memes might change the perception of risk or even actual civic engage-
ment behaviors. The use of identical frames as stimuli to look at the effect of a specific feature of the
memes could also be of interest. However, memes provide a rich avenue of research for those inter-
ested in socially constructed digital content and the interfaces with empathy, engagement, and
issues such as climate change that reach into social and political realities. As climate change impacts
continue to impact global communities, the digitally constructed content created and shared among
international audiences continues to be of interest for scholars in myriad fields.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Bingbing Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8674-1023

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 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION 15

Appendix I: Stimuli descriptions.

Animal memes with high 1. An image of a polar bear holding a chainsaw with the superimposed text “I’ve had enough global
humor warming”
2. An image of a polar bearing standing on top of melting ice in the middle of the ocean with the
superimposed text “If the climate were a bank, it would already have been saved”
3. An image of a polar bear and a seal talks to each other, with the chat box on top of them “some
people think global warming isn’t real” “That is the sealiest thing”
4. An image of a polar bear opening the mouth and yelling with the superimposed text “yesterday I
was sitting on a glacier … Who turned up the heat?”
5. An image of a group of penguins carrying guns with the superimposed text “remember kids if
global warming doesn’t stop, a war with penguins may happen”
6. An image of a squirrel raising hand and yelling to the sky with the superimposed text “Alvin will
be happy if humans work to fight climate change”
7. An image of different scenes of two polar bears dancing together and one polar bear dancing
alone with the superimposed text “ur home is melting, u can’t get food and u’ll be extinct in a few
years WYD?”
8. An image of a penguin telling a seagull lying in the ground with the superimposed text “Hey man
I’m telling you this is Antarctica not Australia”
9. An image of a polar bear dancing alone with the superimposed text “Humans finally start
respecting the planet. Polar bears that were about to die:”
10. An image of a whale and a dolphin talking to each other with the superimposed text “Whale
you help save the environment? Dolphinetly!”
11. An image of a group of penguins standing in a melting ice in the ocean with the superimposed
text “Climate change. Penguins anyway should learn to fly.”
12. An image of a group of penguins with the superimposed text “The party committee has
declined … Global warming is not an uplifting holiday theme.”
Animal memes with low 1. An image of a fat polar bear at 2009 and a skinny polar bear at 2019 side by side with the
humor superimposed text “climate change in 10 year challenge”
2. An image of a camel sitting on the ground with snow with the superimposed text “Saudi Arabia’s
desert … Climate is changing”
3. An image of a polar bear covering the face with the superimposed text “climate change makes
me sad”
4. An image of a cat drowning with the superimposed text “climate change is a hoax. Lying.”
5. An image of a polar bear in one piece of ice in the middle of the ocean with the superimposed
text “No such thing as climate change? Oh good.”
6. An image of a polar bear with the superimposed text “Climate change. This bear lost his home”
7. An image of a polar bear touching the melting water with the superimposed text “the warnings
about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate
crisis. It is deepening.”
8. An image of a group of goats with the superimposed text “global warming. It’s not just for polar
bears anymore”
9. An image of a black bear with a sad face with the superimposed text “I hate climate deniers so
much. I sometimes want climate change to accelerate so they see it at the extreme before they
die.”
10. An image of a seal in the sand with the superimposed text “climate change kills my coral reefs.”
11. An image of a polar bear in the water surrounding by snow with the superimposed text “I’ve
been looking for sea ice, can’t find any”
12. An image of an angry koala with the superimposed text “Stop climate change or else … ”
Human memes with high 1. An image of a boy holding his girlfriend’s hand while turning back his head to look at another girl
humor with the superimposed text on top of the boy “Humanity”, text above girlfriend who looks at the
boy “climate change” and the other girl “the destruction of earth”
2. An image of with a group of girls holding different types of earth-like balloons the superimposed
text on top of them “if you wannabe my lover you gotta get ‘an understanding that climate
change is real’ ‘a reusable water bottle & grocery bag’ ‘involved in local environmental efforts’
‘onto public transit (or into a carpool)’ ‘to the polls to vote for leaders who support climate
change action”
3. An image of a group of people drowning in the water with the superimposed text “politicians
debating global warming”
4. An image of a baby holding his fist with the superimposed text “someone tried to tell me climate
change is real, Already knew”

(Continued )
16 B. ZHANG AND J. PINTO
Appendix I. Continued
Human memes with low
humor
View publication stats
5. An image of a man driving a car with a sunglass with the superimposed text “When you see a
wild fire because of climate change, great job climate change”
6. An image of a smiling man with the superimposed text “oh, you don’t think global warming
exists? Ask the Adelie Penguins breeding pairs that declined 34% over 30 years”
7. An image of an elf smiling with the superimposed text “Hey guis! The north pole is melting! Why
not cool!!!!”
8. An image of a little girl with a smirking smile and the background is some people in front of a
burning house with the superimposed text “Hehe, climate change”
9. An image of the game of throne character Ned Starks holding a sword with the superimposed
text “Brace yourself, climate change deniers are coming”
10. An image of Leonardo DeCaprio (as Jack in Titanic) floating on the water with the superimposed
text “some years after global warming, Rose?”
11. An image of a guy shouting to a woman with the superimposed text “Is 2 a lot? Depends on the
context. Dollars? No. Change in degrees? Yes.”
12. An image of a woman drowning in the water raising her hands up with the superimposed text
“Trying to get to my friend’s house in 2050 like”
1. An image of a girl speaking with the superimposed text “how many fires do we have to start
before you believe that climate change is burning down Australia?”
2. An image of a woman speaking with “Blood will be on the hands of those who don’t ban the
climate from changing but since they won’t have hands and we don’t have eyes; we won’t be
about to actually know but it’ll be there according to me and the people who wrote this script.”
3. An image of the flooding scene and humans’ apartment building (with some people around) is
drowning with superimposed text “While we were arguing whether or not climate change was
real. Climate Changed.”
4. An image of a man speaking with the superimposed text “The entire North polarized cap will
disappear in 5 years.”
5. A side by side image of human beings walking in Antarctica in 1912 and 2014 with superimposed
text “sea ice is projected to shrink in both the Arctic & Antarctic”
6. An image of a man’s face with the superimposed text “what if I told you climate change doesn’t
just affect the polar bears”
7. A side by side image of humans in Alaska with the superimposed text “Global warming: Alaska’s
portage glacier change between 1914 and 2004”
8. An image of a boy’s face with the superimposed text “Maybe climate change deniers don’t know
the difference between climatology & meteorology because they can’t read”
9. An image of a teenager girl in the protest with the superimposed text “millions take to the streets
worldwide in global climate strike’ protests”
10. An image of a teenager boy holding a sign “we care about the future of earth more than you”
with the superimposed text “one of the signs at the climate change rally”
11. An image of an old man with the superimposed text “You said you know enough about science
to claim climate change is a hoax, the fact that you believe that the moon and mars will appear to
be the same size on August 27 determined that was a lie”
12. An image of an angry man holding a pistol with the superimposed text “am I the only one
around here who understands that global warming still exists even though it’s cold outside?”