Communicators who generate internet memes often pair clever captions with photos. In line with prejudiced norm theory, meme creation may engender a norm of tolerance for discrimination. In this experiment, communicators tried to be clever and/or inoffensive while creating memes about normal weight targets. Subsequently, they rated offensiveness of other people’s memes about overweight targets. Relative to communicators who previously avoided offensiveness, communicators who generated clever memes were more tolerant of stereotypic (but not counterstereotypic) memes about overweight targets. Factors that potentially reduce sensitivity to offensive internet content are discussed.

生成网络模因的传播者通常将巧妙的标题与照片配对。根据偏见规范理论，模因创造可能会产生对歧视的容忍规范。在这个实验中，传播者在创造关于正常体重目标的模因时试图变得聪明和/或无害。随后，他们评估了其他人关于超重目标的模因的冒犯性。相对于以前避免冒犯的传播者，产生聪明模因的传播者更能容忍关于超重目标的刻板印象（但不是反刻板印象）模因。讨论了可能降低对令人反感的互联网内容的敏感性的因素。