In early June, faculty and graduate students from Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences will travel to Cape Town, South Africa, to present their research at the 76th annual International Communication Association conference.
The ICA conference will take place June 2-9, 2026, in a hybrid format, with sessions offered both virtually and in person. The in-person portion will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and The Westin Cape Town.
ComArtSci-affiliated presenters and authors are italicized.
Friday, June 5 | Saturday, June 6 | Sunday, June 7 | Monday June 8
Friday, June 5
High-Density: When Communication Makes the Difference: From Signals to Relational
9:00 a.m.
How We Accommodate to AI: Linguistic Style Accommodation and Its Effects in Human-AI Chatbot Conversations
Authors: Rui Zhu; Yoo Jung Oh; Xinyu Zhang; Sarah Forsyth; David M. Markowitz; Brandon Van Der Heide
InfoSys: Human-AI interaction
9:00 a.m.
Loving AI, Losing Humans? Expanding Social Information Processing and the Hyperpersonal Model to Human-AI Romantic Relationships
Authors: Jiahui Liu; David M. Markowitz; Rabindra (Robby) Ratan; Dayeoun Jang
AI in Journalism: Transforming Engagement, Verification, and Reporting Practices
10:30 a.m.
AI-Authored New Narrows Partisan Differences in News Verification Strategies
Authors: Taewoo Kang; Esther Thorson; Chuqing Dong; Kjerstin Thorson
Children and Adolescents: Mental Health, Neurodiversity and Interpersonal Communication
10:30 a.m.
Extending the Double Empathy Problem: Communication Barriers Between Autistic Adolescents and Mental Health Screening Tools
Author: Jessica Freedman
Feminist Methods, Auto-Ethnography, and Knowledge From the Margins
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Reliable Biases: Reflecting on Generative AI-Aided Analysis in Feminist Media Studies
Authors: Amanda Cote; Andrew Wilson
HIGH-DENSITY: Diverse Youth, Diverse Media: Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Race
10:30 a.m.
"Implicitly Explicit": What is the "Right" Level of Representation for Children's Educational Media?
Authors: Fashina Alade; Anneliese Samples; Claudia Sofia Aparício
InfoSys: Persuasion and Consumer Behavior
10:30 a.m.
Guilt Appeal or Shame Appeal? The Persuasive Effects of Emotional Appeals on HPV Vaccination Intention among Men in China
Author: Yuetong Du
10:30 a.m.
Modeling Persuasion Knowledge Activation through LLM-Based Simulation
Authors: Eunjin (Anna) Kim; Esther Thorson; Kyomin Hwang; Hyeonjin Kim; Nojun Kwak
10:30 a.m.
Reactance and Resistance: How Message Tone Shapes Psychological Reactance to Anti-Counterfeiting Communication Messages
Authors: Moldir Moldagaliyeva; Subhalakshmi Bezbaruah; Heijin Lee; Yerkebulan Almanov; Zheran Liu; Naadiyahtu Iddrisu; Anastasia Kononova; Patricia Huddleston; Juan Mundel; Saleem Alhabash
Theoretical Advancements in Interpersonal Communication Research: Explicating Concepts and Revisiting Theories
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Personal vs. Interpersonal Knowledge. Uncertainty Reduction Revisited
Authors: Andrew Bredland; Brandon Van Der Heide; Sandi W. Smith
Perceptions of Mental Health and Treatment
12:00 p.m.
Narrative Entertainment as a Supplemental Tool in Therapy: Identifying Therapy-Relevant Content
Author: Catherine A. Marple
Obesity Prevention, GLP-1 medications, and Social Media Discourse
12:00 p.m.
Message Design Matters: Assessing Persuasive Strategies in Obesity Prevention Campaigns
Authors: Monique Turner; Hee Jung Cho; Moonsun Jeon
Top Student Papers in Mass Communication
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Coding Sensation-Seeking in Narrative Entertainment
Authors: Yan Wang; Ron Tamborini
Organizational Communication Research Escalator
12:00 p.m.
As a Woman, I Will Not Forgive an Organization That Lacks Credibility: Gendered Privacy Concerns and Credibility Perceptions After Privacy Violations
Authors: Qiuting Duan; Qi Zheng
HMC Research Escalator
12:00 p.m.
Research Escalator Extended Abstract: Extending Reactance Theory to AI vs. Human Persuasion
Authors: Qianyi Jin; Yuetong Du; Ran Liu
Instructional and Developmental Communication Research Escalator
1:30 p.m.
Passthrough vs. Virtual Reality: Which One Is Better For Learning?
Perceived Learning with a Virtual Instructor via Body Agency, Spatial Presence, Humanization, and Social Presence
Authors: Dayeoun Jang; Qiyang Lin; Caelan Moglovkin; Alex Lover; Langston Key; Rabindra (Robby) Ratan
Interpersonal Communication Poster Session
1:30 p.m.
When AI Generates Emotion Support Message: Gender Attribution and the Effectiveness of Emotional Support in AI-Mediated Communication
Author: Rui Zhu
From Representation to Action: Communicating Sustainability
3:00 – 4:15 p.m.
How Dynamic Norms and Financial Benefits Shape Sustainable Behavior
Authors: Nancy Rhodes; Miyeon Kim
Top Papers in Communication Science and Biology
3:00 p.m.
The Moment of Capture: How the First Seconds of a Speaker's Nonverbal and Verbal Performance Shapes Audience Judgments
Authors: Ralf Schmaelzle; Yuetong Du; Sue Lim; Gary Bente
HIGH-DENSITY: Engagement With Health Chatbots: Predictors of Adoption and Effects
4:30 p.m.
Effects of AI Relational Communication on Enhancing Relationship Perceptions and Persuasive Outcomes in a Health Promotion Context
Authors: Yoo Jung Oh; Diane Dagyong Kim; Jingwen Zhang
Saturday, June 6
Rethinking Academic Publishing: Challenges and Innovations in the Age of AI, Equity, and Open Access
9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
The Peer Review Crisis: Reimagining Incentives and Accountability
Author: David Ewoldsen
InfoSys: Cognitive and Emotional Processing
9:00 a.m.
Analyzing impression formation at the language level: Do cognitive and affective dimensions of language use change over time?
Authors: Duy Pham; David M. Markowitz
From Responsibility to Advocacy: Public Relations, DEI, and the Struggle for Legitimacy
Transparency and Trust Regarding AI-Generated Journalism
10:30 a.m.
Who Do You Trust More in Using AI: Journalists or News Organizations?
Authors: Linda R. White; Saleem Alhabash
Platform Labor: Strike, Visibility, Community, Care Work and Precarity
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Generating AI Imaginaries: The SAG-AFTRA Game Strike and the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Game Performance
Authors: Amanda Cote; Daniel Nielsen; Brandon C. Harris
Community and Constructive Journalism as Ethical Endeavors
12:00 p.m.
Addressing Media Harm & Community Relationships through an Ethic of Love
Authors: Danielle K. Brown; Perry Parks; Jessica Pettengill; Jung-Hsiang (Eric) Hsieh; Jasmine Snow; Jarrad Henderson
HIGH-DENSITY: Disagreeing, Rude, and Judging Machines: Frictions in HMC
12:00 p.m.
That’s Not What I Wanted to Hear: How Viewpoint Disconfirmation Triggers Defensive Processing in Human-AI Interaction
Authors: Xinyu Zhang; Yoo Jung Oh
InfoSys: Research Escalator
12:00 p.m.
Which Comes First? Understanding the Role of Sequential Placement in Human vs. AI Supportive Interaction with Expectancy Violation Theory
Authors: Yuetong Du; Qianyi Jin
HIGH-DENSITY: Psychological Pathways to Climate Engagement and Climate-Friendly Behavior
12:00 p.m.
Discussion, Benefit Beliefs, and Self-Efficacy Beliefs are Associated with Environmental Scientists’ Pursuit of Societally Useful Research
Authors: John C. Besley; Anne Toumey; Kari O'Connell; Martha R. Downs
12:00 p.m.
Perceived Behavioral Control is a Correlational Mediator of Climate Change Frames, But Is Not Causal
Authors: Esther Thorson; Renita B. Coleman
HIGH-DENSITY: Between Love and Fear: Emotional Dynamics in Gameplay
1:30 p.m.
Cognitive and Physical Demands Differentially Impact Enjoyment of a “Flat” or VR Puzzle Game
Authors: Nicholas D. Bowman; Jung-Hsiang (Eric) Hsieh; Frank Yang; Jih-Hsuan (Tammy) Lin
HIGH-DENSITY: Neural and Physiological Mechanisms of Media Processing
1:30 p.m.
Haptic Feedback as a Modality of Message Processing: A Scoping Review
Authors: Alex Lover; Yan Wang; Jacob T. Fisher
Environmental Communication Posters
1:30 p.m.
Visibilizing Environmental Communication at the Margins: A Bibliometric Analysis of Latin American Scholarship
Authors: Julia Belden; Bruno Takahashi; Iasmim Amiden dos Santos
MIAU-steerable AI: Trust, Adoption, Dependency, and Behavioral Regulation in Generative Tech Ecosystems
3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
Trust and Adoption in AI-Driven Misinformation Intervention: Comparing AI Intervention Strategies Across Psychological Dispositions
Authors: Tsai-Wei Ling; Wei Peng; Jingbo Meng; Jiahui Liu
HIGH-DENSITY: Being in Conflict With Machines: Adaptation, Repair, and Relational Change
3:00 p.m.
Users’ Prompting Strategies and ChatGPT’s Contextual Adaptation Shape Conversational Information-Seeking Experiences
Authors: Haoning Xue; Yoo Jung Oh; Xinyi Zhou; Xinyu Zhang; Berit Oxley
HIGH-DENSITY: Computational and High-Throughput Approaches
3:00 p.m.
Mental Health and Media Selection: A Drift Diffusion Modeling Study
Authors: Valerie Klein; Jason X. Gong; Allison Eden; Richard Huskey
Sunday, June 7
HIGH-DENSITY: Persuasion, Trust, and Social Interaction
9:00 a.m.
A VR-Based Decoupling Paradigm for Studying the Impact of Nonverbal Behaviors During Public Speaking
Authors: Ben A. Bartling; Ralf Schmaelzle; Sue Lim; Gary Bente
Whose Public Relations? African Perspectives, Decolonial Futures, and Global Dialogue
9:00 a.m.
(HYBRID) HIGH-DENSITY: Power, Activism, and Overcoming Inequalities in Global Communication Fields
10:30 a.m.
#ConferenceSoWEIRD: Power, Inequality, and Postcolonial Perspectives at ICA Annual Conferences, 2005 to 2024
Authors: Marisa A. Smith; Travis Dixon; Déjà Rollins; Trina Wright-Dixon
Local News in Australia, China, and the United States
10:30 a.m.
Revisiting “Jobs to be Done”: Functional, Emotional, and Social Factors of Paying for Local and National News in a Major U.S. Metro Area
Authors: Weiyue Chen; Esther Thorson; Stephanie Edgerly
Monday, June 8
MEOW-tivating Clarity: Deep Thinking, Decision Acceptance & Machine Heuristics
10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
“You Don’t Sound Like Yourself Anymore, AI”: How Expectedness and Machine Heuristics Shape Psychological Responses to AI Companion’s Style Changes
Authors: Jiahui Liu; Tianshu Du; Rabindra (Robby) Ratan
InfoSys: Perception, Trust, and Bias of Artificial Intelligence
10:30 a.m.
To Err is Human: Reviewing and Explicating the Uncanny Valley of the Mind
Authors: David G. Beyea; Rabindra Ratan; Maxwell Foxman; Jorge Peña; Alex P. Leith; Oskar Milik; Jiahui Liu; Chaeyun Lim; Brian Klebig
HIGH-DENSITY: Play, Pressure, and Risk in Adolescent Gaming
12:00 p.m.
Otome Games: A Snapshot of U.S. Adolescents Who Play These Dating Simulation Games and Future Research Directions
Authors: Xuan Kang; Celeste Campos-Castillo
Political Communication Strategies
1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Mapping Effects with Uneven Practices on Social Media: How Unreliable Information Sources Adopt Clickbait to Gain Visibility?
Authors: Xuzhen Yang; Yilang Peng; Subhayan Mukerjee; Tian Yang
HIGH-DENSITY: Communicating Scientists, Science Journalists, and Public Responses to Science Communication
1:30 p.m.
IDENTITY AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: TESTIMONIOS OF IMMIGRANT SCIENTISTS IN THE U.S.
Authors: Evelyn Valdez-Ward; Iasmim Amiden dos Santos; Bruno Takahashi; Alexandra Benitez Gonzalez
Addressing Methodological Challenges in LLM-enhanced Computational Communication
3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
Social Desirability Response Bias in Large Language Models: Evidence and Mechanisms
Authors: Sanguk Lee; Kaiqi Yang; Taiquan Peng; Ruth J. Heo; Hui Liu
HIGH-DENSITY: Negotiating Meaning and Communicative Legitimacy
10:30 a.m.
From Friend to Tool to Something Between: Perceptions of Customized AI Chat Partners Over Three-Week Relationships
Authors: Levi Lebovitz; Isabella Pistaferri; Arshya Gaur; Daania Tahir; Dayeoun Jang; Jiahui Liu; Rabindra (Robby) Ratan; Jeremy N. Bailenson
Computational Methods Research Escalator
10:30 a.m.
Research Escalator: Gang Members' Use of TikTok to Frame Legitimacy and Trust in Haiti's Fragile State Context
Author: Yvens Rumbold
HIGH-DENSITY: The Emotional Machine: Cues, Affordances, and Consequences
12:00 p.m.
How Emotion in AI Becomes Information Empowerment: Distinct Emotional Cue Pathways to Trust in Mental Health Chatbots
Authors: Hanyoung Kim; Jeong-Yeob Han; Yoo Jung Oh; Kyung Won Cho; Yujin Kim
Top Student Papers in Public Relations
12:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Mapping Emotion in Public Relations: A Systematic Review Across Three Major Journals
Authors: Qi Zheng; Bixuan Ren
InfoSys: Virtual Environments and Avatars
12:00 p.m.
Leaning Forward to the Beat, or Laying Back to the Screen? Validating the Interactivity-as-Demand Measurement Model for Distinct XR Entertainment Use Cases
Authors: Nicholas D. Bowman; Jung-Hsiang (Eric) Hsieh; Jih-Hsuan (Tammy) Lin; Tilo Hartmann
12:00 p.m.
Asymmetric Virtual Reality Interaction: Theory Testing on Social Information Processing Theory and Media Richness Theory
Authors: Jih-Hsuan (Tammy) Lin; Jung-Hsiang (Eric) Hsieh; Huai-yu Chen; Yu-Hao Lee
The Potency of the Story: Advancing Our Understanding of Media Narratives
1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
The Effect of a Serialized Story’s Conclusion: What Audiences Find Appealing and Meaningful
Authors: Ron Tamborini; Joshua Baldwin; Yan Wang; Sujay Prabhu
HIGH-DENSITY: Growing Up With AI: Children’s and Adolescents’ Understanding, Trust, and Risk
3:00 p.m.
A Brief AI Literacy Scale for Adolescents: Validation and Associations with Demographics and AI Concerns
Authors: Celeste Campos-Castillo; Yoo Jung Oh; Julian Fortuna; Samuel Hiner
AI and Health Misinformation
3:00 p.m.
Unpacking the Credibility of Artificial Intelligence in Fact-Checking and Misinformation Correction
Authors: Joana Videira; Jingbo Meng; Wei Peng; Bingjie Liu
Interpersonal Communication Top Papers Panel
3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
Talking Differently to Human versus Artificial Intelligence Advice Givers? Linguistic Profiles of the Underlying Interaction Scripts
Authors: Wang Liao; Haojian Li; Lisa J. Hwang; Bo Feng; Yoo Jung Oh
The Role of Machine Heuristic in HMC
4:30 - 5:45 p.m.
Machines = Efficiency: Testing the Implicit Assumptions of the Machine Heuristic Revealed Efficiency as Its Core Belief
Authors: Taenyun Kim; David Ewoldsen; Wei Peng; Nancy Rhodes