Meaghan Mckasy
Biographic Data
| ID | 4258259 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meaghan Mckasy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meaghan |
| FAMILY NAME | Mckasy |
| SIGNATURE | MCKASY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utah Valley University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3489-612X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Political humor on TikTok: Trends, challenges, and opportunities
Understanding Knowledge Among White, Black, and Hispanic Audiences: Media Attention and Inequities in Factual and Perceived Knowledge
Examining the Use of Aggressive Satirical Humor on Perceptions of Trustworthiness in Communication About Renewable Energy
We examined the effects of gentle and harsh satire on perceived trustworthiness of a scientist in an audio clip. Using a three-condition between-subjects survey experiment ( N = 723), we found that respondents in the experimental (vs. control) conditions reported greater perceived aggression, which was negatively associated with perceived trustworthiness of the scientist. The negative effects of the audio clips with satire on perceived trustworth…
Is it funny or a trend: Examining US news humor on TikTok
Humor is foundational to American politics and online culture. However, the content and effects of political humor vary greatly depending on the type of humor and context in which it is deployed. TikTok is particularly known for its humorous content, and US news organizations have capitalized on TikTok’s popularity by creating accounts. Using digital affordances and relief theory as theoretical lenses, we qualitatively content analyze US news org…
Engaging the dismissive: An assessment of humor-based strategies to support global warming action
This study aims to understand the influence of mirth, anger, and hope, as elicited by messages with different humor types, on support for global warming action, and the potential moderating role of individual climate concern. Although mirth did not significantly vary across the different stimuli, the analysis found that climate concern moderated the influence of hope on support for global warming actions. The implications of these findings, espec…
Generating Science Buzz: An Examination of Multidimensional Engagement With Humorous Scientific Messages on Twitter and Instagram
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
Following science on social media: The effects of humor and source likability
Science communicators have been encouraged to use humor in their online engagement efforts. Yet, humor’s effectiveness for engaging people with science remains an open question. We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit varied levels of mirth in respondents, which was positively associated with perceived likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. Furthermore, mirth and perceived likabilit…
Political equivocation in a less-adversarial campaign context
Scholars often use equivocation theory to explore political evasion in adversarial contexts, such as debates or press conferences, but less is known about equivocation in less-adversarial contexts. This content analysis reviews question-answer sequences during CNN’s 2019 climate crisis town hall, a less-adversarial campaign event, to address the question “Are politicians inherently evasive?” Contrary to the norm of evasiveness, the results demons…
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter: The Roles of Mirth and Need for Humor
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
The “Discourse of Derision” in News Coverage of Education: A Mixed Methods Analysis of an Emerging Frame
Commentators have observed a “discourse of derision” in news coverage of the US education system, but the contours of this discourse are not well understood. This article pairs quantitative content analysis with qualitative framing analysis to sharpen the conceptual and empirical focus of the discourse of derision as an object of study. We theorize four components of this discourse—tone, assessments of quality, teacher voice, and criticism of tea…
Disgusting microbes: The effect of disgust on perceptions of risks related to modifying microbiomes
Research on perceived risks of scientific issues has largely overlooked the influence of disgust as a predictor. Here, we examine the impact of disgust on perceived risks of modifying microbiomes using a 2 (emotion) × 2 (focus) experiment embedded in an online survey. We find evidence of moderated mediation where individuals exposed to an article about microbiome research and therapies with explicit references to disgusting stimuli perceived grea…
Disgust, Need for Affect, and Responses to Microbiome Research
Contributing to the literature on affective processing and attitude formation, this study investigates the effects of a discrete emotion (disgust) and an emotional disposition (need for affect [NFA]) on support for regulation in the context of microbiome research. Data from a web-based experiment (N = 1,005) showed that experienced disgust mediated the effect of disgust-eliciting information on support for regulation. This mediated relationship w…
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter: The Roles of Mirth and Need for Humor
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
Generating Science Buzz: An Examination of Multidimensional Engagement With Humorous Scientific Messages on Twitter and Instagram
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
The “Discourse of Derision” in News Coverage of Education: A Mixed Methods Analysis of an Emerging Frame
Commentators have observed a “discourse of derision” in news coverage of the US education system, but the contours of this discourse are not well understood. This article pairs quantitative content analysis with qualitative framing analysis to sharpen the conceptual and empirical focus of the discourse of derision as an object of study. We theorize four components of this discourse—tone, assessments of quality, teacher voice, and criticism of tea…
Disgust, Need for Affect, and Responses to Microbiome Research
Contributing to the literature on affective processing and attitude formation, this study investigates the effects of a discrete emotion (disgust) and an emotional disposition (need for affect [NFA]) on support for regulation in the context of microbiome research. Data from a web-based experiment (N = 1,005) showed that experienced disgust mediated the effect of disgust-eliciting information on support for regulation. This mediated relationship w…
Disgusting microbes: The effect of disgust on perceptions of risks related to modifying microbiomes
Research on perceived risks of scientific issues has largely overlooked the influence of disgust as a predictor. Here, we examine the impact of disgust on perceived risks of modifying microbiomes using a 2 (emotion) × 2 (focus) experiment embedded in an online survey. We find evidence of moderated mediation where individuals exposed to an article about microbiome research and therapies with explicit references to disgusting stimuli perceived grea…
Disgust, Need for Affect, and Responses to Microbiome Research
Contributing to the literature on affective processing and attitude formation, this study investigates the effects of a discrete emotion (disgust) and an emotional disposition (need for affect [NFA]) on support for regulation in the context of microbiome research. Data from a web-based experiment (N = 1,005) showed that experienced disgust mediated the effect of disgust-eliciting information on support for regulation. This mediated relationship w…
Political equivocation in a less-adversarial campaign context
Scholars often use equivocation theory to explore political evasion in adversarial contexts, such as debates or press conferences, but less is known about equivocation in less-adversarial contexts. This content analysis reviews question-answer sequences during CNN’s 2019 climate crisis town hall, a less-adversarial campaign event, to address the question “Are politicians inherently evasive?” Contrary to the norm of evasiveness, the results demons…
Predicting Intentions to Engage With Scientific Messages on Twitter: The Roles of Mirth and Need for Humor
Although humor is a recommended strategy for scientists to connect with publics, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning its effectiveness. We conduct an experiment to test how funny science on Twitter affects engagement intentions. We find that different humor types caused viewers to experience different levels of mirth, which mediated the relationship between our experimental manipulation and engagement intentions. We also find need fo…
The “Discourse of Derision” in News Coverage of Education: A Mixed Methods Analysis of an Emerging Frame
Commentators have observed a “discourse of derision” in news coverage of the US education system, but the contours of this discourse are not well understood. This article pairs quantitative content analysis with qualitative framing analysis to sharpen the conceptual and empirical focus of the discourse of derision as an object of study. We theorize four components of this discourse—tone, assessments of quality, teacher voice, and criticism of tea…
Following science on social media: The effects of humor and source likability
Science communicators have been encouraged to use humor in their online engagement efforts. Yet, humor’s effectiveness for engaging people with science remains an open question. We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit varied levels of mirth in respondents, which was positively associated with perceived likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. Furthermore, mirth and perceived likabilit…
Generating Science Buzz: An Examination of Multidimensional Engagement With Humorous Scientific Messages on Twitter and Instagram
This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and…
Is it funny or a trend: Examining US news humor on TikTok
Humor is foundational to American politics and online culture. However, the content and effects of political humor vary greatly depending on the type of humor and context in which it is deployed. TikTok is particularly known for its humorous content, and US news organizations have capitalized on TikTok’s popularity by creating accounts. Using digital affordances and relief theory as theoretical lenses, we qualitatively content analyze US news org…
Engaging the dismissive: An assessment of humor-based strategies to support global warming action
This study aims to understand the influence of mirth, anger, and hope, as elicited by messages with different humor types, on support for global warming action, and the potential moderating role of individual climate concern. Although mirth did not significantly vary across the different stimuli, the analysis found that climate concern moderated the influence of hope on support for global warming actions. The implications of these findings, espec…
Political humor on TikTok: Trends, challenges, and opportunities
Understanding Knowledge Among White, Black, and Hispanic Audiences: Media Attention and Inequities in Factual and Perceived Knowledge
Examining the Use of Aggressive Satirical Humor on Perceptions of Trustworthiness in Communication About Renewable Energy
We examined the effects of gentle and harsh satire on perceived trustworthiness of a scientist in an audio clip. Using a three-condition between-subjects survey experiment ( N = 723), we found that respondents in the experimental (vs. control) conditions reported greater perceived aggression, which was negatively associated with perceived trustworthiness of the scientist. The negative effects of the audio clips with satire on perceived trustworth…
Psychology (11 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Humor Studies and Applications (7 works) · Media Influence and Health (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Advertising (3 works) · Communication in Education and Healthcare (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Social media (3 works)