My current research falls into two main areas, both under the larger umbrella of unintended communication effects.
(1) Communicating Scientific Uncertainty
- “Impact of different types of uncertainty on public willingness to participate in precision medicine research” to be presented at SBM 2020 (conference cancelled–hopefully I can present it elsewhere soon!)
- Study in progress: communicating scientific uncertainty in the media — a mixed-methods investigation
- “Public Understanding of Precision Medicine Research: A Qualitative Analysis of Lay Perceptions” presented at the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare in San Diego, October 2019
- Scientific uncertainty chapter published in Routledge volume
- Presented at Huntsman Cancer Institute: gaps in genomic communication research
- Summer 2017 fellow at the National Cancer Institute
(2) Mitigating Psychological Reactance in Health Contexts
Reactance to Persuasive Health Appeals
I’m currently examining reactance in the context of COVID-19 communication. Past projects include:
- Narratives and resistance meta-analysis published in Human Communication Research (Feb 2020)
- New article in Communication Research (August 2019): reactance review
- New article in Risk Analysis (July 2019): framing, reactance, and dose
- Presented at ICA 2018: meta-analysis of studies of narrative effects on resistance
- Presented at DCHC 2017: loss/gain framing and reactance (we nabbed “top paper”!)
- Meta-analysis of narratives and resistance (part 1) wins Eason prize in Chicago
Reactance to Highly Tailored Health Information
Planned research will look at whether reactance can arise from hypertailored health communication (e.g., in precision medicine). Related projects include: