ABSTRACT Participants (N = 312) in romantic relationships completed an online survey to determine common integrated phone activities, motivations for integrating phones into time together, and whether phone integration is associated with relationship satisfaction. The most frequent activities included showing social media posts, photos, and videos; showing texts; and involving the partner in video

ABSTRACT A large body of norms-based research has demonstrated that descriptive norm appeals in health messages can shape message viewers’ normative beliefs, which then impact persuasive outcomes. This study, however, suggests that, at least for some health topics (here, a mask-wearing campaign), descriptive norm appeals do not change message recipients’ normative beliefs. Instead, one’s own normative

ABSTRACT Teaching practices have been affected by pandemic shifts from face-to-face to online modalities. Instructors (N = 125) reported predictors and outcomes of online teaching self-efficacy (TSE). Results indicated that professional development predicted TSE but only training completed before COVID-19. In comparing teaching modalities, TSE predicted closeness with students, which predicted breadth

ABSTRACT This study examined the power of young adults’ resilience to help deter emotional labor with parents and examined emotional labor as a mediator predicting decreased relational satisfaction. Young adults (N = 257) completed an online questionnaire. Results demonstrated an inverse relationship between their resilience and emotional labor with parents, and showed that emotional labor may function

ABSTRACT Contradictory and complex health messages are prevalent in the media and can lead to uncertainty in decision-making. We explore if the theoretical distinction between message contradiction and complexity is manifested in laypersons’ perceptions. U.S. adults (N = 584) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: contradictory messages, complex messages, or no-message control. Participants

ABSTRACT This study explored the perceptual components of the third-person effects of fake news during the 2017 presidential election in South Korea. Specifically, we examined self-other disparities in perceptions of the effects of fake news using data from an online panel survey. The results indicated that the participants considered the influence of fake news to be greater on others than on themselves

ABSTRACT This study extends psychological reactance theory by examining denial of a public health threat and resistance toward media sharing as two novel types of freedom restoration. Participants (N = 220) were randomly assigned to watch a video advocating COVID-19 guidelines and completed an online survey assessing corresponding perceptions and behavioral intentions. Results of structural equation

ABSTRACT As emerging adults transition to college, they must adapt to new circumstances, both academic and personal. For partners involved in a romantic relationship prior to attending college, this transition has important relational implications, including potential fluctuations in relational uncertainty and interdependence. Guided by relational turbulence theory (RTT), we conducted the present study

ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence (AI) companiosns (e.g., social machine agents, social robots) are becoming increasingly available. Considering that AI companions can be beneficial for individuals seeking companionships or relationships, the social and relational aspects of an AI companion are important to investigate. To understand people’s perceptions of an AI companion, this study examines the roles

ABSTRACT Empirical research has shown that high-quality arguments according to criteria from argumentation theory lead to higher claim acceptance than low-quality arguments. However, this relationship was not observed in some cultural settings. This leads to the question whether criteria for high-quality arguments are culturally variable or universal. Therefore, adding to existing research on sensitivity

ABSTRACT The current study explored diverse forms of social technology and their corresponding links to distress and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. A multinational sample of 302 adults in the United States, Mexico, and Japan self-reported on their use of various forms of social technology, psychological distress, and happiness. Results revealed cultural differences in the amount of social

ABSTRACT This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and related work-from-home (WFH) mandates impacted the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) channels in the workplace and how the use of CMC channels influenced the perceived quality of supervisory relationships. A survey was administered during spring 2020 to a sample of U.S. employees required to work remotely due to COVID-19. The findings

ABSTRACT Communication between family members facilitated sensemaking and coping with uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic for many, however, accessing this form of coping can be challenging for marginalized family members who maintain relational distance with family. This study sought to understand how family communication changed during the COVID-19 pandemic for marginalized family members and

ABSTRACT This study investigates how advertising-based sustainability messaging is influenced by message-source congruity, narrative engagement, and identification. Using two experimental designs, the results show that sustainability messaging improves evaluations of sources that are congruent with sustainability messaging, when compared to sources that are not. Featuring groups of people – rather

ABSTRACT This study focuses on how American audiences perceived news coverage during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. Through a survey-experiment of news consumers (N = 767) over a three-day period in mid-March 2020, this study shows that citizens had positive attitudes toward their own Covid-19 news sources, but were critical about the news sources others were using to

ABSTRACT Pregnancy-related death, the death of a woman during or within one year after pregnancy, is between three and four times more likely to occur in Black women than White women. To better understand communication about this public health crisis, we examined features of news coverage on maternal mortality in 155 newspaper articles. Very few articles included a clear definition of the problem,

ABSTRACT In response to the many calls for the advancement of cross-cultural communication research, we compared U.S. and French grandchildren’s received grandparental affection and perceptions of their grandparents as ideal (i.e., grandparent attributes and behaviors that grandchildren believe characterize a desirable grandparent). A total of 456 young adult grandchildren from the U.S. (n = 171) and

ABSTRACT Capitalizing on team members’ knowledge resources is one of the key determinants of the success of a work team, and team leaders play an important role in cultivating team members’ motivation to share their knowledge with each other. This study examined the effects of a leader’s communicative framing of team goals on individuals’ knowledge-sharing intention in a team setting. An experimental

ABSTRACT Employing benign violation theory as a lens, this study (N = 148) explored full-time employees’ perceptions of supervisors’ likelihood to use sarcasm and engagement in self-disparaging and vulgar language based humor and verbal aggression (VA) in the workplace. In part, findings revealed that employees’ perceptions of supervisors’ VA positively related to perceptions of supervisors’ likelihood

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated the differences in perceived competence, credibility, and social presence within socially supportive interactions (emotional or instrumental) using human, AI, and social robot actors. We further differentiated our findings by actor and type of support and found that participants thought the human and social robot differed in terms of competence but did not rate

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant changes in how people communicate with, and participate in, organizations. This study used structurational divergence to explore the extent to which, during the time of COVID-19, organizational members experienced communication tensions between superiors and subordinates. This study of 956 participants’ experiences suggests that, during a time

ABSTRACT Research shows that gay men are highly susceptible to media effects on body image. A considerable amount of attention has been dedicated to the traditional media content that might have a negative effect on the way gay men perceive their bodies. However, far less attention has been given to the potentially harmful body-related content gay men are exposed to on the Internet. The present study

ABSTRACT This study identified three factors to predict the use of the artificial intelligence communication devices known as voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri: technological factors (usefulness and perceived ease of use), social influence factors (personal and societal norms), and risk factors (privacy concerns and perceived security). Considering these factors as significant

ABSTRACT Timely vaccination against COVID-19 can prevent many people from getting infected. However, given the disease novelty and fast vaccine development, some people are hesitant to vaccinate. Online social networks like Twitter produce huge amounts of public health information and may impact peoples’ vaccination decisions. Hence, it is important to understand the conversation around the COVID-19

ABSTRACT Despite more than six decades of research, foundational arguments about mechanisms proposed in inoculation theory to bring about persuasion resistance have gone untested. We conducted an experiment to examine a classic idea about the optimal strength of counterarguments and refutations in inoculation messages as well as a contemporary notion regarding forewarning. The results were inconsistent

ABSTRACT This paper combines theories of identification and image repair to explain why an organization in crisis should avoid designing messages that engage in “spin.” An experiment is reported (N = 262 nationwide U.S. Qualtrics Panel) in which a company spokesperson replies to questions from a journalist in a news interview. Results indicate that people (a) identify more with the spokesperson, and

ABSTRACT HIV continues to be serious issue in the U.S., especially for men who have sex with men (MSM). Pre–exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective means of preventing HIV, but its adoption has been slower than expected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which MSM’s perceptions of their healthcare providers’ level of communication skill predicted PrEP status. An online

ABSTRACT There is an increasing need for instructors to develop meaningful relationships with college students in the classroom to better support student mental health and well-being. Developing instructor-student rapport offers one way to fulfill student relational needs and promote positive student outcomes in the classroom. However, there is a pronounced gap in what we know about specific strategy

ABSTRACT Media use appears to adversely affect sleep quality. Yet, findings remain inconsistent based on medium, duration, and manner of use. Given the recent, widespread rise in consumption of video-on-demand services and social media platforms, problematic use of these media has become of interest to media and sleep researchers. Although research has looked at the correlation between problematic

ABSTRACT Research into organizational crisis response effectiveness has tended to focus on Western case studies and U.S. samples. There are reasons to believe that audience response to image repair strategy is guided at least in part by broad cultural assumptions, though no research to date has explored cross-cultural comparison. This exploratory study compares U.S. and Middle Eastern audiences to

ABSTRACT This study seeks to advance how intergroup dynamics can help us better understand the relations between humans and robots. Intergroup contact theory states that negative feelings toward an outgroup can be reduced through controlled intergroup contact. This study tests this theory by having study participants interact with either a human (member of the ingroup) or large humanoid robot (member

ABSTRACT The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games held in South Korea drew much political attention due to its potential to resolve the ongoing political and military tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. Given the divisive South Korean public discourse on warming ties with the North, this study uses framing theory to compare the frames employed by two partisan South Korean newspapers to cover

ABSTRACT Social Networking Sites (SNS) user behavior has been discussed in association with SNS user personality characteristics, such as narcissism. However, gender and cultural influences on the relationship between selfie posting on SNS and narcissism remain unclear. Thus, the present study included gender and culture to investigate the relationship between narcissism and selfie posting using 232

ABSTRACT Scholars have long suggested that an individual’s communicative adaptability may function as an indicator of their overall communication competence. In pursuit of this idea in a new context – the classroom – this study incorporates communication accommodation theory (CAT) to investigate how students’ perceptions of instructor nonaccommodation influence their subsequent evaluations of the instructor

ABSTRACT Truth-default Theory proposes that the frequency of lying is not normally distributed across the population and that most lies are told by a few prolific liars. A survey with a probability sample examined the frequency of lying among of adults in South Korea. Consistent with theoretical predictions and well-documented prior findings from the United States and Western Europe, South Koreans

ABSTRACT Investigations into parents’ role as health referents in the management of sport-related concussion (SRC) are on the rise. This study contributes to these efforts by exploring the efficacy of concussion intervention materials to promote conversational intentions because of parents’ orientations toward football and SRC management. Data collected from 600 parents of middle and high school football

ABSTRACT Research has repeatedly shown the influences of family communication patterns on both individual well-being and family functioning. However, although attachment theory also emphasizes the significance of family interactions, very few studies have looked at the associations between family communication patterns and individuals’ attachment orientations. Relying on cross-sectional data collected

ABSTRACT Research has shown that user comments influence peoples’ perceptions, with recent evidence suggesting that comment presentation order (e.g., whether comments are presented prior to/after the commented item) may alter the strength of comments’ effects. Considering the implications of this finding for content producers, the informed design of experiments, and the interpretation of prior studies

ABSTRACT Following the global outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), different countries took different approaches to informing their citizens about the pandemic and planned local public health initiatives. We use online participant panels in 4 affected countries – the US, Spain, Italy, and New Zealand – to explore the extent to which prejudice to Asian ethnic groups differed in these countries

ABSTRACT Campaigns rely on the repetition of similar messages over time. However, message fatigue can lead people to ignore or resist messages, such as ones aimed at preventing tobacco usage. We implemented a longitudinal design to examine the impact of message fatigue on message processing outcomes in the context of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes); we also tested whether functional matching weakens

ABSTRACT According to system justification theory, system-threatening messages decrease the legitimacy of the status quo. Thus, individuals who endorse system justice beliefs will employ a variety of system justification behaviors when encountering such messages. In this study, we hypothesized that such behaviors include resisting dialogue with an interlocuter who propounds a system-threatening message

ABSTRACT This study examines how two major news outlets framed COVID-19 in the months leading up to COVID-19 being declared a pandemic. A combination of computational and manual coding found that the dominant media frames were outbreak, economic consequences, and social consequences. A secondary component of the analysis examined the sources quoted in early media coverage and found that citizens, interest

ABSTRACT Relational framing theory (RFT) explains how individuals process relational messages during interaction through two content-laden dimensions—dominance-submission and affiliation-disaffiliation—and a content-free intensifier: involvement. RFT research has generally utilized measures of relevance more conducive to the content-laden variables than to the content-free variable. This study advanced

ABSTRACT Advertising often depicts traditional gender stereotypes. However, the LGBTQ community represents a market that does not conform to these stereotypes. This study used a content analysis to analyze 360 magazine advertisements targeting various audiences (male, female, LGBTQ) to examine differences in product type promotion and gender depictions. In terms of product types, appearance-based products

ABSTRACT Emerging adults are increasingly “unfriending” their parents on Social Networking Sites (SNS). A survey among 300 emerging adults who recently moved out of the parental home investigated whether family communication patterns were related to shielding of SNS content from parents and whether perceived undesirability of privacy invasion mediated this relation. Structural equation modeling analyses

ABSTRACT Research on resistance to persuasion has examined a number of relevant variables such as one’s bolstering of one’s own argument and, for example, generating counterarguments in order to resist a persuasive message. Is resistance to persuasion a function of a widespread practice of bolstering and/or counterarguing? Or, is resistance to persuasion more meaningfully examined from an individual

ABSTRACT Sexual assault is a troubling issue across universities in the United States. Bystanders who witness sexual assault can play a powerful role in preventing or reducing sexual assault; however, they often do not intervene when they still have the chance. The current study uses an experimental design to study the effect of prosocial bystander modeling on college students’ intention to intervene

ABSTRACT This study examined associations among stress, resilience, and relational maintenance behaviors (RMB) in the development of grandchild-grandparent relationships for grandparents in varying near-parental roles. Grandparents (n = 389) in greater near-parental roles reported higher stress and less relationship satisfaction; however, resilience moderated some of these relationships. Grandparents

ABSTRACT Self-affirmation has shown promise in promoting prohealth attitudes following exposure to threatening health messages by reducing defensive processing of such messages. We examine the impact of self-affirmation prior to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels on implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking in a sample of African American smokers (N = 151). Participants held negative explicit

ABSTRACT The researchers explored factors associated with depressive symptoms and adherence to CDC guidelines in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to developing an original measure of social-distancing fatigue (SDF), two hypothesized models, grounded in a social skills deficit framework, were tested using Model 4 of the Hayes’ PROCESS 3.0. Results indicated that participants’ level of

ABSTRACT The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic is a salient cause for distress among college students. Studies have indicated that parental support, as well as self-disclosure on social media, can alleviate the negative impacts of stressful life disruptions on students’ perceived stress levels. Using survey data collected from a sample of 215 college students from a university in the Southwestern United

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationship between misunderstanding and relational satisfaction, whether friends and romantic partners have different experiences, and the role of channel. Participants (N = 400) described misunderstandings and responded to scaled items. Relational satisfaction is associated with less frequent misunderstanding and open communication. Misunderstandings between romantic

ABSTRACT The recent and rapid growth of user engagement on online and social media platforms has attracted increasing attention from communication scholars. Troublingly, little is known about the relationship between “dark” personalities and online communication behavior. There is a distinct need for communication scholars to investigate the impact of anti-social personality traits on computer- mediated

ABSTRACT Deviance regulation theory proposes that when a behavior is seen as common, a loss-frame message should be more effective; conversely, when a behavior is seen as uncommon, a gain-frame message should be more effective. The current study tests deviance regulation theory in the context of organ donation promotion. Non-donors (N = 386) were randomly assigned to view messages in a 2 (norm: high

ABSTRACT This manuscript seeks to discover when a more conscious self-presentation in everyday social interactions results in positive feelings and connection to others. Communicate bond belong (CBB) theory frames hypotheses regarding how self-presentation consciousness and relationship status effect social energy expenditure, and how these concepts relate to in-the-moment well-being. Participants

ABSTRACT Protests represent strategic communication choices by activists to express particular grievances and they can take a variety of forms. Yet there has been very little research on whether the form of protest matters to the public. In this study we focus on various forms of protests against police brutality and systemic injustice that have been considered or enacted by Colin Kaepernick and other

ABSTRACT Relational Turbulence Theory proposes that when romantic partners interrupt everyday routines in response to transitions, affective arousal will be heightened in the form of more intense emotions. The goal of this study was to test this theoretical logic in a married sample of 165 spouses during the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (April, 2020). Participants completed an online survey

ABSTRACT Social network site users report being concerned about Fake news, but little is understood about what motivates them to denounce it when they knowingly encounter it. An online experiment showed that the presence of a political ingroup social identity threat in fake news content indirectly affected participants’ willingness to publicly denounce a fake news article by decreasing presumed media

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student-to-student confirmation messages and engagement in a course. Results of a survey questionnaire (N =280) indicate that students who receive messages of individual attention, acknowledgment, and assistance demonstrate significantly higher levels of oral in class behaviors, thinking about course content, and out of class

ABSTRACT The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationships between teachers’ confirmation of students and student-to-student confirmation. Survey results (N = 332) indicate that the interactive teaching-style dimension of teacher confirmation is associated with all three dimensions of student-to-student confirmation. The responding to student questions dimension of teacher confirmation