The Effect of Danmaku on Online Learning Engagement and Learning Outcomes: From the Perspective of Goal Contagion

Abstract: In online learning environments, danmaku (bullet-screen comments) have been increasingly adopted as an interactive teaching tool. However, the underlying mechanisms through which danmaku influences learning outcomes remain underexplored. Drawing on goal contagion theory, this study aimed to investigate effect of the danmaku on online learning engagement and its mechanism of action. Specifically, three progressive experiments were designed to examine whether danmaku containing learning goals, compared with non-learning goal danmaku, would induce higher goal activation, enhance emotional engagement and improve learning outcomes, and whether goal inference would serve as a mediator between danmaku type and learning outcomes. Additionally, the study aimed to rule out attentional distraction as an alternative explanation by using eye-tracking technology.
Three experiments were conducted sequentially. Experiment 1 adopted a between-subjects design, randomly assigning participants to either a learning goal danmaku condition or a non-learning goal danmaku condition. The dependent variable was goal activation level, measured immediately after exposure to the danmaku. Experiment 2 extended the investigation by including measures of emotional engagement and learning outcomes. Participants completed a post-test based on the video content to assess learning outcomes. The mediating role of goal inference—the extent to which viewers inferred the comment sender’s learning intention—was tested using a bootstrapping approach. Experiment 3 incorporated eye-tracking technology to record participants’ dwell time on two predefined areas of interest: the danmaku area and the content area. This allowed the study to directly test whether any observed effects could be attributed to differential allocation of visual attention rather than to goal contagion processes.
The results showed a consistent pattern across the three experiments. In Experiment 1, learning goal danmaku led to significantly higher levels of goal activation compared with non-learning goal danmaku. In Experiment 2, participants in the learning goal danmaku condition reported greater emotional engagement and achieved better learning outcomes on both retention and comprehension measures. Furthermore, goal inference fully mediated the relationship between danmaku type and learning outcomes, indicating that the positive effect of learning goal danmaku operated through the automatic inference of learning intentions. In Experiment 3, eye-tracking data revealed no significant difference between the two groups in dwell time on either the danmaku area or the content area. This finding suggests that the superior performance of the learning goal danmaku condition was not due to increased attention to the comments themselves or to reduced attention to the learning content. Rather, the effect persisted even after attentional distraction was ruled out as a confounding factor.
Taken together, these findings uncover a non-conscious processing pathway through which learning goal danmaku facilitates online learning performance. From the perspective of goal contagion theory, exposure to goal-relevant danmaku automatically activates learning goals in the observer, which in turn enhances emotional engagement and improves learning outcomes, without relying on deliberate attentional shifts. This study provides both theoretical and empirical support for optimizing danmaku functions in online education platforms.