: the study of memes
Memetics sees ideas as a kind of virus, sometimes propagating in spite of truth and logic. Its maxim is: Beliefs that survive aren't necessarily true, rules that survive aren't necessarily fair and rituals that survive aren't necessarily necessary. Things that survive do so because they are good at surviving.—
Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 1999
memeticist
noun
plural memeticists
Some memeticists liken memes to viruses; others say they're closer to genes. [Robert] Aunger rejects both models. To him, a meme is more like a benign parasite that's incapable of reproducing without a host, the host being the human brain.
—Jay Kirk, Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2002
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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