AUTHOR=Dancygier Barbara , Vandelanotte Lieven TITLE=Embodiment and simulated interaction in online stance expression JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024 YEAR=2025 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1479825 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1479825 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

The expression and exchange of stance drives much social media discourse, including internet memes. We demonstrate how, even in the absence of actual face-to-face communication, online discourse and memes rely on the dynamics of embodiment and dialogue in comparable ways, while also developing specific constructional forms for this with no direct face-to-face equivalent. We introduce the notion of simulated interaction to refer to the combinations of embodied expression, images, and the structures of (apparent) quotation and dialogue allowing online communicators to vividly represent experience and signal stance.