How Humorous Posts Influence Engagement With Political Posts on Social Media: The Role of Political Involvement

Abstract. Individuals frequently process political posts on social media in the context of humorous, non-political posts, which research suggests may stimulate or dampen their engagement with the political posts depending on their political involvement. To clarify that claim, I conducted a 2 × 2 experiment ( N = 286) in which individuals viewed political posts situated among either humorous or non-humorous posts, all presented as video-recorded posts on a social media newsfeed, in a condition of either low or high political involvement. Among the results, the humorous posts directly boosted general attention, the elaboration of political posts, and the acquisition of political knowledge in the low political involvement group and stimulated political participation in the high political involvement group. Further analyses revealed that, in the low involvement group, increased attention and the elaboration of the posts may have mediated humor’s effect on the acquisition of political knowledge. Meanwhile, its positive effect on participation in the high involvement group occurred independently from general attention and the elaboration of the posts. Altogether, the findings suggest that humorous social media contexts may benefit the acquisition of political knowledge and political participation.