Following science on social media: The effects of humor and source likability

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.

Automated summary

Science communicators are encouraged to use humor in online engagement efforts. The experiment showed that varied levels of humor were positively associated with the likability of the communicator and motivation to follow more science on social media. However, the downstream effects of humor on motivation were found to depend on individuals' factual science knowledge.