Perfectionistic Discrepancy, Stress, and Preference for Ugly-Cute Memes: Evidence from a Survey and a Randomized Experiment.

Ugly-cute memes, which blend visual incongruity with cuteness, have become a prominent form of nonconventional online esthetics on social media, yet little is known about who prefers them and why. The present research examined how perfectionistic discrepancy and stress-related states relate to ugly-cute meme preference across two studies. In Study 1, 356 Chinese adults completed the Discrepancy subscale of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised, together with measures of perceived stress, state anxiety, and preference for a pretested ugly-cute meme. The mediation model yielded a negative direct association between perfectionistic discrepancy and ugly-cute meme preference, as well as positive indirect associations through state anxiety and through the serial path from perceived stress to state anxiety. Study 2 used a randomized recall-based stress induction with 393 valid participants. Compared with participants in the neutral-recall control condition, those in the stress-recall condition reported higher state anxiety, rated ugly-cute images more favorably, and were more likely to choose an ugly-cute image in the forced-choice task. The estimated indirect effect of the stress manipulation on ugly-cute image preference through state anxiety was statistically significant. Overall, stress-related states appear to increase the appeal of ugly-cute content. Perfectionistic discrepancy, in turn, relates to this preference through opposing direct and indirect routes.