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Laughing Out Bias: Humorous Testimonials on Social Media as Positive Media Interventions to Reduce Prejudice Among Youth
The general objective of the LOB project is to advance scientific knowledge on how humorous first-person testimonial narratives disseminated through social media influence cognitive, emotional, and evaluative processes among young adults. The project aims to develop and test a theoretical model that explains how specific message characteristics, psychological mechanisms, and individual-difference variables interact to shape the processing and effects of humorous digital narratives.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
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Objective 1. Evaluate how message characteristics shape narrative processing and persuasive outcomes by examining how the narrator’s social identity, gender, humor style, and audiovisual cues influence cognitive and affective responses, as well as key persuasive indicators.
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Objective 2. Identify the persuasive and meaning-making functions of humorous testimonial narratives by analysing how irony and sarcasm guide audience interpretations and promote affective reframing of socially sensitive issues.
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Objective 3. Uncover the psychological mechanisms that mediate the effects of humorous testimonial narratives, focusing on how core cognitive and emotional processes jointly shape persuasive outcomes.
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Objective 4. Investigate how individual-difference variables moderate susceptibility to these mediating mechanisms, assessing how Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and gender influence the strength and direction of message effects.
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Objective 5. Develop and validate a cumulative, experimentally grounded model of humorous testimonial persuasion by integrating evidence from the four studies and applying methodological innovations that enhance causal inference.
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Objective 6. Generate empirical evidence to inform positive communication strategies for youth-oriented digital environments, using ecologically valid stimuli adapted to contemporary expressive formats, thereby supporting future applications in media literacy and digital well-being.
METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH
The project will be conducted through four online experiments. The research design is cumulative and sequential.
Project financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades in collaboration with the EU in the frame of the “Convocatoria de «Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento» y actuaciones para la formación de personal investigador predoctoral asociadas a dichos proyectos”. Project code: PID2025-170838NB-I00
