Политический юмор в массовой коммуникации

Социальная психология и общество. 2023. Т. 14. № 1. С. 23–37.

Gulevich O., Калашник П. В.

Objective. The analysis of the impact of humorous messages about politics, which are distributed through the channels of mass communication, on the perceptions, assessments, and behavior of people in the political sphere.

Background. Humorous messages about politics can be found in various countries and presented in different forms. Nevertheless, the researchers cannot come to unambiguous conclusions about their impact on people’s attitudes towards political reality. In addition, most of the studies were conducted in countries with a high value of the political freedom index. In contrast, this topic remains understudied in countries with low values ​​for this parameter.

Conclusions. Humorous messages about politics, which are distributed through mass communication channels, can be seen as persuasive messages. Humor increases attention to messages on political topics and complicates their understanding. This, in turn, reduces the thoroughness of information analysis, i.e., increases the likelihood of using a peripheral / heuristic strategy. The impact of humorous messages is an increase in political knowledge and internal political self-efficacy, a deterioration in attitudes towards politicians and the political system, and, as a result, an increase in readiness for political behavior. However, the strength and direction of this influence depend in part on the characteristics of the communicator (e.g., host or politician), the characteristics of the message (e.g., superficial or deep, mild, or hard humor), and the characteristics of the audience (e.g., political knowledge).

Keywords: политическое поведение, политическая эффективность, political behavior, политическое доверие, political trust, political attitudes, политический цинизм, political efficacy, persuasive communication, убеждающая коммуникация, политический юмор, политические аттитюды, political humor, political cynicism

Publication based on the results of: Psychological, social and communicative factors of political behavior (2023)