The impact of knowledge on public attitudes toward scientific issues remains unclear, due in part to ill-defined differences in how research designs conceptualize knowledge. Using genetically modified foods as a framework, we explore the impacts of perceived familiarity and factual knowledge, and the moderating roles of media attention and a food-specific attitudinal variable (food consciousness), in shaping these relationships. Based on the differential effects on “negative attitudes” toward genetically modified foods, we provide further evidence that the measures of knowledge are separate concepts and argue against a one-dimensional view of scientific knowledge. We discuss implications for understanding the relationship between knowledge and science attitudes.

This study investigates the types of humor embedded in funny scientific posts on social media and their effects on engagement. We mapped the landscape of such posts on Twitter and Instagram through content analysis of their message attributes. Regression analyses were then conducted to examine how different humor types, communicative functions, and visual attributes were associated with liking, retweeting, and commenting. On Twitter, wordplay and satire were found to be positively related to posts’ engagement levels, while anthropomorphic humor was negatively associated with the presence of comments. On Instagram, humor had no relation to engagement.

Science communicators have been encouraged to use humor in their online engagement efforts. Yet, humor’s effectiveness for engaging people with science remains an open question. We report the results of an experiment designed to elicit varied levels of mirth in respondents, which was positively associated with perceived likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. Furthermore, mirth and perceived likability serially mediated the effect of the experimental manipulation on motivation and factual science knowledge served as a moderator. This indicates that, while humor might be an effective means of reaching audiences, downstream effects are likely to vary depending on individuals’ knowledge.

Brands increasingly use social media to engage with consumers as part of their marketing efforts. This study analyzes the Instagram strategies used by three global outdoor-sports brands and their respective effects on consumer-brand engagement, operationalized as the number of ‘likes’ and comments received by posts. Content analysis conducted on Instagram posts from Arc’teryx, Salomon, and Patagonia focused on messages’ textual, visual, and technical attributes. The results indicate that task- and interaction-oriented posts received more ‘likes’ than self-oriented ones. Brand messages that were shorter, included photos and/or ‘cute’ visuals, or mentioned other Instagram users were found to motivate consumer engagement on Instagram. These findings will facilitate social media marketers’ development of effective Instagram branding strategies.

Chatbots are increasingly used to correct health misinformation. However, few studies have investigated whether and how certain design features could enhance their effectiveness. We developed four chatbots and conducted an experiment that examined whether chatbots with interactive and empathetic conversational cues could outperform a basic chatbot at correcting unvaccinated participants’ COVID-19 vaccination misperceptions and increasing their vaccination intentions. Perceived chatbot interactivity was associated with lower levels of misperception, which in turn were linked to greater vaccination intention. Perceived chatbot empathy did not reduce misperception, yet was directly and positively associated with vaccination intention. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Building on existing theoretical frameworks for the study of incivility, interactivity, and negativity bias, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on the impact of incivility in online comments. Specifically, it tests incivility’s impact on news engagement intentions; investigates political and personality predispositions’ roles as perceptual filters; and extends this scholarship to the context of multiple scientific news topics. It found that, when dealing with news about two of the more politically divisive technologies—fracking and synthetic biology—ideology moderated the effects of incivility, with uncivil comments encouraging engagement among conservatives but not among liberals. However, in the less politically divisive context of nanotechnology, self-monitoring played a significant role in moderating incivility’s effects: with high self-monitors being more motivated, and low self-monitors less motivated, to share nanotech news after exposure to uncivil comments. These results imply that individual predispositions and topic-specific factors both underlie the impact of incivility on news engagement intentions.