Satire is often used in science communication, but it is unclear how it influences perceptions of message credibility and reliance on the information. We examine how two satire types (gentle, harsh) influence perceived message credibility and information reliance, which we define as using the information in discussions or for attitudinal and behavioral changes. Using a partial mediation model, we found no effects of gentle satire, but harsh satire negatively influenced message credibility, which was positively linked to information reliance. Contrary to previous research, we found that the satire type matters. Practical implications include being cautious when using harsh satire.

This study aims to understand the influence of mirth, anger, and hope, as elicited by messages with different humor types, on support for global warming action, and the potential moderating role of individual climate concern. Although mirth did not significantly vary across the different stimuli, the analysis found that climate concern moderated the influence of hope on support for global warming actions. The implications of these findings, especially for respondents who were least supportive of actions to combat global warming, are discussed.

Humor is widespread in communication and its use in the context of science is no exception. Although science jokes are pervasive on social media, we are only beginning to understand the mechanisms through which humor affects people’s attitudes, opinions, and perceptions of scientific topics. Here, we add to our understanding of how funny science content influences attitude formation and behavioral intentions; these results can help communicators make strategic decisions related to humor’s use in real-world practice. Extending recent work in science communication, this study aims to understand the conditional nature of the mechanism by which funny images about three different scientific topics, combined with verbal humor, affects people’s social media engagement intentions by eliciting mirth. Our results offer evidence that choices about which humor types to employ matter when it comes to communicating scientific topics. For two of the three topics, artificial intelligence and microbiomes, exposure to different humor types resulted in different levels of mirth and humor’s effect on engagement intentions was moderated by respondents’ need for humor. However, humor did not have the same effect on global warming engagement intentions. Our findings have implications for the practice of, training, and scholarship in science communication.

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.

Waste resulting from consumers’ confusion about foods’ date labels is a multi-billion-dollar problem in the United States. The present study examines the mechanisms underlying such labels’ influence on people’s willingness to consume, and whether exposure to additional information regarding sensory assessment of food products or storage practices could help to reduce food waste. We conducted a mixed-design experiment in which the between-subjects variable comprised five commonly used food date labels (i.e., “Best if Used By”, “Use By”, “Sell By”, “Enjoy By”, and a date without any explanatory phrase), and the within-subjects variable consisted of three information conditions (i.e., basic information, sensory information, and food-storage information). Our data indicate that date labels affected consumers’ willingness to eat yogurt through two mediators, quality concerns and safety concerns. The direct effects on willingness to consume of variation in date-label wording were non-significant after controlling for the two mediators. Additionally, when the participants were told that the yogurt had a normal color and odor, or that it had been stored in accordance with best practices, their intention to eat it rose significantly. These findings enhance our understanding of how food date labels affect consumer-level food waste, and provide insights that can aid the development of educational campaigns to reduce it.

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.

Visual narratives are promising tools for science and health communication, especially for broad audiences in times of public health crisis, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we used the Lifeology illustrated “flashcard” course platform to construct visual narratives about COVID-19, and then assessed their impact on behavioral intentions. We conducted a survey experiment among 1,775 health app users. Participants viewed illustrated (sequential art) courses about: 1) sleep, 2) what COVID-19 is and how to protect oneself, 3) mechanisms of how the virus works in the body and risk factors for severe disease. Each participant viewed one of these courses and then answered questions about their understanding of the course, how much they learned, and their perceptions and behavioral intentions toward COVID-19. Participants generally evaluated “flashcard” courses as easy to understand. Viewing a COVID-19 “flashcard” course was also associated with improved self-efficacy and behavioral intentions toward COVID-19 disease prevention as compared to viewing a “flashcard” course about sleep science. Our findings support the use of visual narratives to improve health literacy and provide individuals with the capacity to act on health information that they may know of but find difficult to process or apply to their daily lives.