ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic changes to all spheres of life. These changes have triggered an immediate response from the media, including social media, which repeatedly posts not only up-to-date information about this most relevant issue, but also users' reactions to it, including Internet memes. Objective: The research presented in this article focused on comparing the psychological and ethnocultural sensitivities in the perception of COVID-19 memes by young people in Russia and China. Design: The selected sample contained 108 respondents (n = 108), comprised of 50 Chinese and 58 Russian university students. The study consisted of two procedures: a survey and a student's t-test on the perception of specific Internet memes. Results: The main results were that memes which evoke a positive response from the respondents and cheer them up were scored the highest. Such qualities as relevance, kindness, cheerfulness, creativity, meaningfulness, and thought-provoking ability were rated high. Each group of respondents gave a higher score to "our own" memes and a lower score to the other group's memes. It is generally typical of the Chinese to have a more positive perception of reality. We ascertained a tendency towards polarization of opinions and focus on individualization among the Russian respondents, whereas the Chinese respondents strove for orderliness and consensus. Conclusion: As a whole, COVID-19 memes in such ethnoculturally different audiences as the Russians and Chinese serve a compensatory function for young people, helping them overcome the hardships of the pandemic through the memes' relevance and creative character. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)