Comparing the effectiveness of animated videos and talking-head videos in science communication.

OBJECTIVES: Online videos are becoming increasingly popular for obtaining nutrition-related information. Learning theories suggest that videos may differ in their effectiveness of conveying knowledge depending on the correspondence between audio and visual content. We thus tested whether two popular video formats, i.e. talking-head and animated videos, differed regarding knowledge transfer effectiveness and their ability to stimulate content sharing. DESIGN: 2 video format x 3 topic between-subjects experiment. METHODS: A total of 358 participants who were representative for the German population regarding age, gender and level of education were randomly assigned to viewing one video format about one of three nutrition-related topics. Afterwards, they rated the video, indicated willingness to share the information with others and answered a set of quiz questions about all three topics to assess knowledge. RESULTS: Videos did not differ in their evaluation (F[1, 352] = 0.16, p = .898), knowledge transfer (F[2, 352] = 0.10, p = .749) or content sharing (F[1, 352] = 0.12, p = .727). However, participants received a better knowledge score for the video topic they watched a video about than for the other two topics (F[4, 704] = 50.00, p < .001, partial η2 = .22). CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, both formats can be considered equally effective for use in science communication.