"Uplifting, positive stimuli of any kind have the capacity to improve people’s moods," Dr. Geher told Bored Panda via email.
"The questions of (a) just how much and (b) for how long depend on several factors. For instance, some people tend to be dispositionally more prone than others are to negative moods. Such individuals are likely less likely to experience large and long-term benefits from positive, heartwarming stimuli," he explained.
"Others, who tend to score higher in traits such as emotional stability, emotional intelligence, and emotional regulation, are likely to more genuinely and deeply be positively touched by even simple uplifting stimuli such as cute or heartwarming memes that are found on the internet."
He added: "Personally, I cannot get enough of cute-kitten internet posts—which I regularly share with my daughter!" And we're in the same boat—if we come across a particularly adorable or witty animal meme, we make sure to send it to the people we care about.
Dr. Geher was also kind enough to tell us more about the negativity response bias. According to him, it's "a powerful and ubiquitous human emotional phenomenon."
"In short, we tend to pay attention more to negative than to positive stimuli and we tend to remember negatively valenced stimuli and experiences more so than is the case for more positive stimuli and experiences," the professor said.
"From an evolutionary perspective, this all makes sense as our ancestors who were emotionally vigilant (and biased toward negativity) were more likely to effectively deal with genuine threats in their environments," he told Bored Panda.
"The downside to this bias, of course, is the fact that people who should, on the surface, be authentically happy for a variety of reasons may often feel any number of negative emotions. Heartwarming, positive, uplifting stimuli may well have the capacity to offset this deeply entrenched bias—even if for brief spits of time."
Bored Panda was very curious to find out about the inspiration behind the ‘Wait… This Is Wholesome’ Facebook group. Hamza, the founder of this online community, was happy to shed some light on this.
"I made this group for people so that everyone can share their wholesome daily thoughts and incidents," Hamza told us via Facebook.
He explained that his goal was to create a place where "people can get motivation" in order to "stay positive" in their day-to-day lives. Hamza believes that people can stay optimistic by looking at the memes shared on ‘Wait… This Is Wholesome.'
This isn't the only social media group that Hamza has founded. He's also the creator of 'Female Club,' a Facebook group with 1.2 million members.
Research shows that memes can have a positive impact on our moods. Penn State University found that viewing memes on the internet can increase positive emotions and, as a result, improve our confidence.
At the time of writing, the ‘Wait… This Is Wholesome’ collective was nearly 407k members strong. The popularity of the group is a testament to the efforts of its founders and the quality of its memes.
After all, the group was established just over two years ago, back in June 2021, and it has gained a massive following this quickly. Last week alone, over 6k new members joined the community. And in just the last month, folks have shared nearly 900 memes in the feed.
Though a wholesome and witty meme might not automatically solve all of your problems in life, it can serve as a fun little distraction for a while.
Not only that, heartwarming and funny memes can give us a fresh new perspective on life and can act as reminders that not everything is all doom and gloom—there’s plenty of happiness and nuance to be found in life if only we know where to look for it… and remember to focus on all aspects of life, not just negative ones.
As we’ve covered on Bored Panda before, negativity bias plays an important role in people’s lives. Human beings, generally, tend to be hard-wired to focus more on negative rather than positive information.
Negativity bias might, for instance, take the form of obsessing over someone’s constructive feedback or criticism that we got, while (almost) completely ignoring all the compliments we might have gotten. Or it might look like us thinking about all the negative things we heard and read in the news far more than the positive fluff stories. In short, people tend to think about all the bad stuff that’s going on and focus on flaws.
However, Oxford University's Reuters Institute recently found that more and more people are switching off negative news: only 48% of people are interested in the news, globally, down from 63% in 2017.
Taking the time to slow down and notice all the good things around us can work as an antidote to all the negativity we’re exposed to in our daily lives.
Practice gratitude, keep a journal, and constantly remind yourself that there are genuine things to be thankful for, even when you’re exhausted and down. These small reminders can give you the energy and motivation to get through tough times at work, school, and home.
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Even something as simple as recognizing that you have a roof over your head and food on your table is important. However, gratitude alone won’t solve all of your issues either. If you do have genuine problems in life, it helps to be thankful for what you do have, but at the same time, you have to take decisive action to improve your situation. Whether it’s focusing on your finances, health, social life, or something else entirely.
Previously, Bored Panda spoke to writer Ariane Sherine, the author of ‘How to Live to 100’ about living a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life.
“Close, fulfilling relationships with others are one of the most important things when it comes to happiness, whether romantic or platonic. Studies show that the more close friendships and relationships you have, the longer you live,” she explained to us during an earlier interview.
