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I've been thinking about what the current internet memes, most notably the "advice animals" can say about the human brain/mind. I know that in the "old days", there were folk sayings and folk wisdom, but now we have memes.

There are literally thousands of memes like these, with dozens of categories, created by people from all over the world. It appears that each meme in its category is grouped around a certain "cluster of symptoms". It appears to me that the point of the meme is to highlight a behavior that has been observed and name it. (Aside from some of them being hilarious)

These clusters of symptoms, result in a behavior that is:

  • repeatable
  • recognizable, at least part of the time
  • exhibited by thousands of people around the world

Can these memes be explained by activity within specific brain regions? (ex: can socially awkward penguin be linked to overactive amygdala)? Has there been any studies on the subject?

Examples:

Socially awkward penguin - is very socially awkward, avoids interaction with other people as much as possible.

enter image description here

Paranoid parrot - is anxious and paranoid enter image description here

Foul Bachelor Frog - is filthy, unmotivated enter image description here

Scumbag brain - all kinds of quirks of memory, attention, etc enter image description here

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Are you asking why "memes" are popular? Or are you asking about the content of a particular meme? For example, are you asking about the basis of social awkwardness (ie., the penguin) or forgetfulness (i.e., the brain)? – Jeromy Anglim♦ Nov 23 '12 at 0:01
no, there is no "meme" area of the brain. is that what you're asking? – Jeff Nov 23 '12 at 0:48
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This needs to be narrowed down and focused on something like expressing our cognitive states via external symbols or something like that. As it stands, it's just kind of a "for fun" thing. – Chuck Sherrington Nov 23 '12 at 4:04
I'm interested in this question, because I see examples of a distinct pattern of behaviors, that appear to be unrelated to each other. I was interested if there's a brain region or some instinct involved. – Alex Stone Nov 24 '12 at 21:13

closed as not a real question by Jeff, Chuck Sherrington, Steven Jeuris♦ Nov 23 '12 at 9:47

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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The Game talks about how (and why) to build comfort. That's basically what these memes accomplish. Heh.

Understanding Comics explains personification. I'm fairly certain Scott McCloud provides references to research.

You're right that these talk about behavior. In addition, they're describing experiences. I can think today is Friday in my head, but you'd have no way of knowing that by observing my behavior. Can you tell by my body language that's I think it's Friday right now? There's a whole world of you that is, but can't be observed as behavior. That's the fundamental problem with behaviorism.

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