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

Medical-related online public opinion is one of the most sensitive and easily provoked types of public opinion about people's lives and livelihoods, and its high-intensity generation mechanism has not been well understood yet. The exact reasons for all the people's anxiety are not yet known, so the management of public opinion risk is not very precise. Based on the Social Combustion Theory, this paper will select 28 representative cases of medical-related online public opinion in 2025 and use the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method to investigate the necessary conditions and multiple paths for the high-intensity generation of such public opinion according to the three dimensions of combustible materials, combustion accelerants and ignition temperature. Research has shown that the only necessary condition for strong generation of medical-related online public opinion is the intensity of media intervention. There are also four main modes of generation: the contradiction accumulation-dominant path, the all-factor superposition path, the institutional criticism-dominant path, and the special subject path. Therefore, different guidance will be provided for the medical public opinion mentioned above.