Playing With Politics: Online Political Parody, Affinity for Political Humor, Anxiety Reduction, and Implications for Political Efficacy

The current study examines the relationships between exposure to partisan political parody, affinity for political humor given a desire to reduce anxiety, and internal political efficacy. Analyzing data from a spring 2013 experiment (N=269), the results suggest that prior media exposure, an affinity for political humor given the desire to reduce anxiety, and a preference for humor that attacks the opposition are significant predictors of political efficacy. In addition, a three-way interaction between partisan identification, humor type, and affinity for political humor (AFPH)-anxiety relative to the dependent variable of internal political efficacy was significant. In particular, high AFPH-anxiety Republicans who viewed Democrat-directed humor were more likely to feel politically efficacious. The significance of the findings is discussed along with suggestions for potential theoretical mechanisms that can guide future academic research on the democratic impacts of politically entertaining media.