# Memetic Theory **Entity class:** Cultural-evolution framework **Domain:** Memetics / cultural evolution / communication **Maturity:** Developed with contested scope ## Definition **Memetic theory** treats culturally transmitted information as varying, competing, and being selected through processes analogous to replication. A **meme** is a proposed unit or pattern of cultural transmission; a **memeplex** is a mutually reinforcing cluster of ideas, practices, symbols, and narratives. The framework is useful for asking about fidelity, mutation, fecundity, longevity, emotional payload, and channel effects. It becomes misleading when it erases agency, institutions, material incentives, or political context. In terrorism studies, “memetic” should therefore describe how narratives and scripts circulate, not diagnose belief as a pathogen or equate persuasion with infection. ## Relationships - **canonical route:** [[wiki/Memetics|Memetics]]. - **applied framework:** [[wiki/Memetic Contagion and Violent Extremism|Memetic Contagion and Violent Extremism]]. - **rhetorical metaphor:** [[wiki/Mind Virus|Mind Virus]]. - **defensive domain:** [[wiki/Cognitive Security|Cognitive Security]]. - **network mechanism:** [[wiki/Complex Contagion|Complex Contagion]]. ## Sources / Provenance - Richard Dawkins, *The Selfish Gene* (1976). - Daniel Dennett, *Darwin's Dangerous Idea* (1995).