Studies in Science of Science ›› 2025, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (4): 763-774.

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The role of public cognition and emotion in behavioral engagement in science communication—A comparative analysis between scientists and citizen scientists

  

  • Received:2024-03-04 Revised:2024-11-22 Online:2025-04-15 Published:2025-04-15

科学传播中公众认知和情感在行为参与的作用———科学家与公民科学家比较分析

张玮锋1,贺一2   

  1. 1. 北京师范大学新闻传播学院
    2. 重庆师范大学新闻与传媒学院
  • 通讯作者: 张玮锋

Abstract: The rise of social media has brought science communication into the context of multi-agent creation, especially making it more convenient for scientists and citizen scientists to use social media for science communication, and enabling the public to participate in science and interact with each other on an equal basis. However, it is not clear whether the two subjects will lead to different modes of public participation, which is particularly lacking in the current science communication background that emphasizes dialogue participation. Previous studies on social media public participation were more inclined to analyze surface participation indicators such as likes, comments and sharing, and less in-depth into public cognitive and emotional participation. Based on the theory of cognitive engagement and the theory of emotional intelligence, this study conducted an in-depth analysis of public comments on popular science videos of scientists and citizen scientists, in order to reveal the differences in the effects of cognitive engagement and emotional response on behavior of the public when watching the two types of videos. At the level of research design, python was used to collect 150 popular science videos from well-known scientists and citizen scientists on the Bilibili platform, and 644,011 comment samples were collected. A supervised machine learning text classification model was constructed based on the cognitive participation theory to conduct cognitive classification of public comments. Then, the emotional dictionary was used to calculate the emotional intensity of the public, and social media participation was defined as low cost and high cost. Then, multiple linear regression was used to analyze the influence of cognition and emotion on behavior. The results showed that the public who watched the videos of both scientists and citizen scientists tended to engage in in-depth thinking and discussion, but the high public perception of watching the videos of scientists was more conducive to improving behavioral engagement, while the public deviation from cognition of watching the videos of citizen scientists had a greater positive impact on low-cost behavior. The "shock" emotion has been proved to be the key emotion to promote public behavior participation in the scientist videos. On the contrary, the emotional response in the citizen scientist videos has a more diverse impact on behavioral participation. Different emotions play a unique role in the impact of behavioral participation, reflecting the importance of mixed expression of emotions to stimulate a variety of behavioral participation. In terms of responding to theories, cognitive engagement theory presents a different logic in online science communication. Scientists are authoritative, objective and formal representatives, and the high public cognition of watching science popularization videos of scientists has more positive effects on behavior, indicating that cognitive participation theory has more conventional theoretical persuasion in formal knowledge learning. The "Citizen Scientist" video shows that learning in informal Settings challenges the applicability of traditional cognitive engagement theories in formal learning Settings. In terms of emotional influence, the emotional experience formed by public interaction will have different effects on the behavior of viewers watching the videos of scientists and citizen scientists, which indicates that the fluidity of video modes and emotional intelligence affect the diversity of behaviors. Based on research findings, recommendations are made for online science communication activities of scientists and citizen scientists to promote public participation in science. In the strategy of the scientist video, it is necessary to reflect and encourage interactive communication, introduce dialectical knowledge to arouse high cognitive participation of the public, and arouse surprise emotion through novel scientific knowledge to promote public participation in science. In the strategy of citizen scientist video, it is necessary to take into account both reflectivity and entertainment to improve behavioral participation. At the emotional arousal level, the key is to adopt content stratification strategy and appropriate emotional regulation. This means mixing different emotional expressions in a video to trigger diversified audience responses and enhance participation.

摘要: 社交媒体兴起使科学传播进入多主体创作的情境,特别是使得科学家与公民科学家更便捷地使用社交媒体进行科学传播,公众能够平等参与科学并进行互动,而两个主体之间是否会引起不同的公众参与模式尚不明确。本研究基于认知参与理论与情绪智力理论,对科学家与公民科学家科普视频的公众评论进行了深入分析,以揭示公众在观看两类视频时的认知参与度、情感反应对行为影响的差异。研究结果表明,观看科学家与公民科学家视频的公众均倾向于进行深层次的思考和讨论,但观看科学家视频的公众高认知更有助于提高行为参与,而观看公民科学家视频的公众偏离认知给低成本行为带来了更大的正向影响。“惊”情绪被证明是科学家视频中促进公众行为参与的关键情绪,反观公民科学家视频中的情感反应对行为参与的影响更为多样,不同情绪对行为参与的影响扮演着独特的角色。基于研究发现,分别对科学家与公民科学家在线科学传播活动提出建议以促进公众参与科学。