The Generation Logic and Guiding Strategies of Medical-Related Online Public Opinion from the Perspective of Social Combustion Theory: An Analysis Based on fsQCA

Abstract

As one of the most sensitive and easily triggered types of public opinion concerning people's livelihoods, medical-related online public opinion still has an unclear high-intensity generation mechanism. Existing studies find it difficult to reveal the complex causal paths of multiple concurrent factors, which restricts the precision of public opinion risk governance. This study adopts the Social Combustion Theory as its analytical framework, selects 28 typical medical-related online public opinion cases that occurred in 2025, and employs the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the necessary conditions and multiple paths for the high-intensity generation of such public opinion from three dimensions: combustible materials, combustion accelerants, and ignition temperature. The research finds that media intervention intensity is the only necessary condition for the high-intensity generation of medical-related online public opinion. Furthermore, there are four core generation paths: the contradiction accumulation-dominated path, the all-factor superposition path, the institutional criticism-dominated path, and the special subject path. These findings provide a theoretical basis for differentiated guidance of medical-related public opinion.