Tags:comedy news, engagement, humor, memory, politics and seductive details
Abstract:
As politics takes over more and more of the public discourse, what information influences citizen’s voting choices has become increasingly relevant. Comedic news shows are one such source of knowledge. This experiment endeavored to determine whether humor in these shows enhanced or inhibited memory of their factual contents. Participants remembered more when shown a segment with jokes than the same segment without them, with liberals out-learning this liberally-leaning content compared to their conservative peers.
Politicking Through Parody: How We Learn About Politics from Comedy News Shows