Ashley Mckenzie
Dr. McKenzie’s research explores the relationship between attitudes and beliefs, such as stigma, gender role ideologies, victim blaming, and rape myths, and a variety of sexual health issues.
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people
Camille Saucier
Dr. Saucier’s research broadly focuses on media psychology, message processing, and media effects. Her work emphasizes developing person-centered communications that promote openness to accurate information and build resilience against harmful online content and social engineering. To achieve these goals, she applies concepts involving self-affirmation, motivated reasoning, and parasocial relationships to enhance message receptivity.
Cj Calabrese
Dr. Calabrese is the Director of the Health Communication and Digital Innovation Research Group.
Emma Cox
Emma is a PhD student at Cornell University focusing on media effects, persuasion, and health communication.
Erika Oh
Dr. Oh specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) dialogue systems, commonly referred to as AI chatbots.
Erin Ash
Dr. Ash’s research focuses on the role of media in public perceptions of social issues, as well as examining attitudes towards health-related behaviors and policies, particularly related to reproductive health.
Haoning Xue
Dr. Xue leverages computational and experimental approaches to understand how people seek, process, and evaluate information in the emerging technology-mediated environments.
Jayveeritz Bautista
Dr. Bautista’s research focuses on investigating the health effects of exposure to toxic air pollutants.
Jingwen Zhang
Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on understanding, designing, and testing emerging persuasive technologies in shaping public attitudes and behaviors.
Kamila Eshalieva
Kamila’s research interests focus on addressing gender-based violence.
Kylie Friday
Kylie is primarily interested in examining strategies to address medical mistrust.
Muhammad Rasul
Dr. Rasul’s research lies at the intersection of digital and new media, political communication, mis/disinformation, and media effects.
Xudong Yu
Dr. Yu’s research delves into the influence of new technologies on democracies, employing both experimental and computational approaches.
portfolio
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publications
A narrative persuasion approach to promoting COVID-19-related policy support
Published in Journal of Health Communication, 2025
Communication scholars warn against focusing on individual behaviors when discussing health issues, arguing that doing so can reduce affect and policy support. Although COVID-19 outcomes are linked to structural barriers to treatment, policy interventions appear to improve outcomes for vulnerable groups. Thus, strategic messages must promote public understanding of social determinants and policy support related to COVID-19. Using concepts from attribution theory and narrative persuasion, we employed an experiment (N = 435) testing the effects of personal responsibility (high, moderate, and low) on affective engagement and COVID-19 policy support. Namely, the manuscript examines (a) affective responses to characters displaying varying levels of personal responsibility for COVID-19 prevention, (b) the impact of these affective responses on policy support, and (c) the moderating role of audience political ideology on these effects. Analyses revealed that a highly responsible protagonist elicited empathy and perceived similarity, increasing policy support. While participants’ political ideology moderated protagonist responsibility on perceived similarity, a more responsible protagonist evoked empathy independently of political leaning. Theoretical and practical implications are offered.
Recommended citation: Cox, E., Calabrese, C., Ash, E., Anthony, K. E., & Hill, J. B. (2025). A narrative persuasion approach to promoting COVID-19-related policy support. Journal of Health Communication, 30(1–3), 102–111.
Leveraging motivations to curb misinformation: Self-affirmation reduces the appeal of political conspiracy theories
Published in Journal of Media Psychology, 2025
In an era where digital misinformation poses significant challenges to societal well-being, this study explores a novel approach to preserving information integrity by addressing the motivational underpinnings of conspiracy theory engagement. As conspiracy theories proliferate online, traditional fact-checking and debunking strategies often prove ineffective due to the self-reinforcing nature of conspiracy theories. This research investigates whether a priori self-affirmation interventions can reduce individuals’ propensity to engage with conspiracy theories by preemptively fulfilling the ego-protective function these theories often serve. Using a randomized experiment (N = 451), this study finds that participants who completed a self-affirmation task were less likely to read politicized conspiracy theories, and those who chose to read a conspiracy theory reported greater feelings of affirmation than those who did not. Thus, bolstering individuals’ self-integrity may offer an opportunity to mitigate the appeal of politicized conspiracy theories.
Recommended citation: Saucier, C. J., Calabrese, C., & Walter, N. (2025). Leveraging motivations to curb misinformation: Self-affirmation reduces the appeal of political conspiracy theories. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 37(5), 316–322. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000481
Stigmatization of mpox and the MSM community on Twitter: A computational approach to exploring the negative emotions expressed through stigmatizing language
Published in Telematics and Informatics, 2025
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by mpox, which may impact experiences of stigma and reinforce harmful stereotypes. Based on the theoretical propositions of the model of stigma communication (MSC), we investigate the stigmatizing language and emotions expressed on Twitter (N = 1,285,691) through emotion classification and semantic network analyses. Results indicate that fear was the most common stigma-related emotion present (39%), followed by anger (8%) and disgust (3%). While posts expressing fear focused on the disease itself, posts expressing anger and disgust primarily targeted the gay community. Findings reveal the significance of understanding how negative emotions expressed online can amplify stigma against minoritized communities.
Recommended citation: Calabrese, C., Kumble, S., & Yu, X. (2025). Stigmatization of mpox and the MSM community on Twitter: A computational approach to exploring the negative emotions expressed through stigmatizing language. Telematics and Informatics, 102326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2025.102326
Targeting anger for COVID-19 prevention: The motivating role of anger on media use and vaccination intention
Published in PLOS One, 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in public anger due to its disruptive and harmful nature. However, anger remains an understudied concept despite its potential to persuade the public and spark action. The current study investigates the role of anger in driving COVID-19 vaccination intentions. In Study 1, through a rolling-cross sectional survey of U.S. adults during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic (N = 6,141), it was found that anger towards COVID-19 was associated with increased use of social and traditional media news, which was then related to improved vaccination intentions. In Study 2, utilizing computational analysis of a Twitter (now X) dataset using an AI classifier, 15 targets of anger were identified from real-world anger expressions in social media discourse about COVID-19. Building on these insights, Study 3 involved a representative survey of U.S. adults during the post-emergency declaration stage of COVID-19 (N = 1,005). This survey aimed to replicate the findings of Study 1 while incorporating the anger targets identified in Study 2. The results revealed that different targets of anger were associated with vaccination intentions through the consumption of traditional news media. Although social media was a prominent channel for news about vaccination at the beginning of the pandemic, our findings suggest that traditional media news use may be an important link in understanding the relationship between anger and vaccination intentions. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications are discussed.
Recommended citation: Oh, Y. J., Rasul, M. E., Lim, J. I., Calabrese, C., McKinley, E., Stevens, H., Turner, M. M., Lapinski, M. K., & Peng, T. Q. (2025). Targeting anger for COVID-19 prevention: The motivating role of anger on media use and vaccination intention. PLOS One, 20(12), e0338183.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338183
Leveraging artificial intelligence chatbots to employ bypassing and correction strategies for addressing misinformation about contraceptive use
Published in Science Communication, 2026
We examined whether bypassing and combined (correction with bypassing) strategies delivered through artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots can address contraceptive misinformation. In Study 1, we found through observational reddit data that bypassing, correction, and combined strategies were present in online discussions and were more engaging than other responses. In Study 2, an experiment employing AI chatbots found that the combined strategy improved recommendation intentions compared with the control conditions, while also reducing beliefs in misinformation. The combined strategy AI chatbot was viewed as warmer and more competent than the correction, invoking less reactance and increasing recommendation intentions. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
Recommended citation: Calabrese, C., Xue, H., Zhang, X., & Oh, Y. J. (2026). Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Chatbots to Employ Bypassing and Correction Strategies for Addressing Misinformation About Contraceptive Use. Science Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470261418533
When distrust shapes news choice: Perceptions of mis-and disinformation and news consumption across traditional and social media outlets
Published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2026
While trust in the news media has eroded globally, this shift is particularly noticeable in the United States. This lack of trust has been attributed to perceptions that the news media is either unintentionally (misinformation) or intentionally (disinformation) spreading false information. This study examined the relationship between perceptions of misinformation (PMI) and disinformation (PDI) and traditional and social media news use. A survey of US adults (N = 1005) revealed that both PMI and PDI were negatively associated with television and newspaper news use. Furthermore, PMI was positively associated with YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram news use, whereas PDI was positively associated with YouTube and TikTok news use. Our findings highlight the roles PMI and PDI play in the selection of specific outlets for news consumption and offer implications in understanding how individuals engage in news selection, which could expose them to mis- and disinformation.
Recommended citation: Rasul, M. E., Oh, Y. J., Moonsun, J., Cho, H. J., & Calabrese, C. (2026). When Distrust Shapes News Choice: Perceptions of Mis- and Disinformation and News Consumption Across Traditional and Social Media Outlets. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 29(3), 151-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/21522715261424695
talks
Talk 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
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Conference Proceeding talk 3 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
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teaching
Teaching experience 1
Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014
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Teaching experience 2
Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015
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