Abstract:

Serious comics are a special form of infotainment, which use the unique language of conventional comics to present scientific information in an entertaining way. Prior research has shown the value of serious comics. Thereby, a former study indicated that comic figures have a decisional role for scientific understanding: Readers had a better scientific understanding if they favoured a comic figure with a close connection to the scientific content compared to a comic figure with a weak connection. In this context, the readers’ story-related subjective affinities (e.g., liking for dogs when the story was about a dog) influenced the choice of the favourite comic figure but had no additional direct influence on scientific understanding.

The study presented here investigated how the situation changes when all comic figures are equally close connected with the scientific content and the story-related subjective affinities. For such balanced comic figures the story-related subjective affinities should not matter for the choice of the favourite comic figure because all comic figures are equally close associated with the story-related subjective affinities. Additionally, the favour for a specific comic figure should not influence scientific understanding because all comic figures are equally close connected with the scientific content.

Based on these considerations the following research questions were addressed: First, which aspects of a balanced comic figure (overall liking, interest, sympathy, and identification) make it the favourite one? Second, how do the different aspects of balanced comic figures and the story-related subjective affinities influence the appeal of the corresponding serious comic, motivation, and scientific understanding? Third, how does the appeal of a single serious comic influence the future reading and attitudes towards serious comics in general?

The described study addressed these questions by the help of an online survey with 75 adult participants. The survey comprised a serious comic about ocean acidification. The included comic figures were designed in a matter that all figures had an equally close (balanced) connection with the scientific content and the story-related subjective affinities.

The analyses of variance of the ratings of the comic figures showed that the favourite comic figure was rated better in all aspects (overall liking, interest, sympathy, and identification). The stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that partly the story-related subjective affinities and partly the different aspects of the comic figures were predictors of the appeal of the serious comic and motivation. The only predictor of scientific understanding was the subjective affinity interest in biology and ecology. Predictors of future reading and attitudes towards serious comics in general were the overall liking of the comic, the liking of the textual parts, and involvement.

Overall, the results demonstrated that also story-related subjective affinities can directly influence scientific understanding if all comic figures are equally close (balanced) connected with the scientific content. This is a clear difference to prior findings on unbalanced comic figures and thus, strengthen the interpretation that the closeness between the scientific content and the comic figures is a crucial variable. Further, the results on the general attitudes towards serious comics illustrated their benefit for joyful learning.

Keywords:

Serious comics, subjective affinities, comic figures, infotainment, life-long learning, informal learning.