Abstract:

Infotainment is a long-term trend in science communication and very useful for attracting people without prior interest in science. A special form of infotainment are serious comics, i.e., comics that use the unique language of comics to present scientific information in an entertaining way. For the presentation of scientific information to non-experts (no matter if in form of serious comics or otherwise) the complexity of scientific issues has to be simplified. Such scientific simplifications bear the danger of the so-called illusion of knowing (i.e., people are over-confident and over-estimate their acquired knowledge) and similar effects like the easiness effect. According to the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect, people with low expertise are particularly prone to overestimate their own knowledge.

The described study investigated if and how knowledge questions on the scientific content presented in a serious comic influence self-confidence and other metacognitive ratings related to the illusion of knowing and similar effects. To address this research aim, metacognitive ratings before (pre-ratings) versus after (post-ratings) the presentation of knowledge questions on the scientific content of a serious comic were compared. Additionally, it was analysed if and how poor and good learners differ in their metacognitive ratings.

Overall, the 66 adult participants of the sample reported a positive view of serious comics. The analyses of the metacognitive ratings showed that knowledge questions influenced the estimation of the own knowledge (lower post), the subjective difficulty of the content (higher post), and the self-confidence (lower post) of the participants. Further, the participants reported after the presentation of knowledge questions a higher need for more information before making an appropriate judgement about the scientific content. The comparison of poor versus good learners showed that both groups of learners estimated their own knowledge on an equal level (even though that was actually not the case), but good learners reported a significant higher self-confidence. There were no significant interactions between the learner groups and the influence of knowledge questions. However, there were two non-significant tendencies: poor learners were more influenced by knowledge questions in relation to their estimation of the own knowledge and the need for more information.

Overall, the results indicate that the presentation of knowledge questions influences metacognition. From a theoretical point of view, the findings suggest that it is advantageously to measure metacognitive processes before and after the presentation of a potential knowledge test for a better understanding of the psychological processes behind the illusion of knowing and similar effects. From a practical point of view, the findings have important insights for science popularization and the use of infotainment. When presenting serious comics or other forms of infotainment with simplified scientific content, the pure presentation of knowledge questions afterwards (even without giving feedback about the correctness) can influence metacognitive judgements and diminish the illusion of knowing, and partly also the easiness effect and the Dunning-Kruger effect. Besides, the study supports the educational potential of serious comics.

Keywords:

Infotainment, metacognition, illusion of knowing, easiness effect, Dunning-Kruger effect.