Research on Participants and Potential Participants in Science Cafes and Science and Art Events from the Viewpoint of their Interest in S&T

Abstract

The more interested people are in science and technology, the more likely they are to participate in science cafes. Moreover, there has been pointed out a possibility that science and art events could attract a public that is potentially interested or disinterested in science and technology. In this study, we investigated participants in science cafes and science and art events and potential participants who are willing to participate in those events from the viewpoint of interest in science and technology. Our results showed that 1) participants in science and art events consisted of more of a public that is potentially interested or disinterested in science and technology than science cafes, 2) the rate of potential participants are similar between science cafes and science and art events, 3) there is a significant difference in the rate of interested public between participants and potential participants in science cafes. These results suggest that both science and art events and science cafes could attract a public that is potentially interested or disinterested in science and technology at the stage of willing to participate in these events, but there are some barriers for the public potentially interested or disinterested in science and technology to participate in science cafes.