While artistic representations of scientific subjects, phenomena, and data have gained traction on social media, their effects on audience engagement remain understudied. Using an experiment with Instagram users in the United States ( N = 655), this study found that exposure to artistic representations of COVID-19 information on Instagram significantly increased individuals’ interest and positive emotions compared with exposure to informationally equivalent data graphs. Positive emotions also mediated the relationship of art exposure on one’s liking and sharing of Instagram posts. We discuss the potential roles of visual art and social media in shaping public engagement with science.

中文翻译：

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当科学在 Instagram 上遇见艺术：检验视觉艺术对情感、兴趣和社交媒体参与度的影响

虽然科学主题、现象和数据的艺术表现在社交媒体上受到关注，但它们对观众参与度的影响仍未得到充分研究。这项研究通过对美国 Instagram 用户 (N = 655) 进行的实验发现，与接触信息等效的数据图相比，接触 Instagram 上以艺术形式呈现的 COVID-19 信息可以显着提高个人的兴趣和积极情绪。积极情绪也调节了艺术曝光与个人对 Instagram 帖子的喜欢和分享之间的关系。我们讨论视觉艺术和社交媒体在塑造公众参与科学方面的潜在作用。