University at Buffalo, SUNY

Studies attitudes, persuasion, and motivated reasoning in how people respond to pro-environmental and health messages and adopt sustainable energy technologies.

Measures and tests social influence processes in health and organizational contexts, including campaign effects on attitudes, organ donation education, and bibliometrics of academia.

Studies nonverbal communication, especially facial expressions, emotion, and deception detection in real-world settings, using the Facial Action Coding System.

Develops transportation theory to explain how narratives and fiction shape real-world attitudes and behavior, applying it to health, prosocial outcomes, and women in STEM.

Examines how social media, mobile phones, and other digital platforms shape civic engagement, deliberative openness, political persuasion, and political participation.

Studies why audiences enjoy and appreciate entertainment, the role of morality and moral emotions, and how eudaimonic, self-transcendent media experiences foster well-being.

Studies strategic storytelling and the structures of effective narrative, drawing on textual scholarship and American literature, with attention to storytelling in an age of AI.

Studies computer-mediated communication and social media use, examining effects on relationships, social capital, network awareness, selfie behavior, and online grieving.

Designs and evaluates entertainment-education and storytelling interventions for health promotion and social change with underserved communities around the world.

Studies how risk perception shapes communication behavior and decisions on climate change, PFAS pollution, vaccination, and recycling, using surveys and survey experiments.

Studies how morally laden entertainment media affect children's social attitudes and examines moral appeals in extremist propaganda and mass shooter statements via content analysis.

Studies how everyday social interactions, social support, relationship construals, and social media use influence well-being and health, drawing on social psychology.

Studies misinformation, conspiracy theories, extremism, and public perceptions of science using surveys, experiments, and computational and network-based content analysis.

Studies stigma management, social support in chronic illness, and sexual communication between partners, linking communication theory to health behavior outcomes.

Applies game theory, social network analysis, and mathematical modeling to strategic dynamics in conflict resolution, bargaining, and negotiation.

Studies political discourse on social media and public trust in AI, using computational and experimental methods to analyze how platforms and AI shape the information ecology.

Uses qualitative methods to study difficult dialogues in health and interpersonal contexts, especially end-of-life communication, aging, and medication safety in local communities.

Studies persuasive health and risk messages and social support, especially how conflicting advice and recommendations affect attitudes, decisions, and behavior.