Research and Creative Work
From creative capstone projects to award-winning advertising campaigns - our creative work has a reputation for outshining the rest. In our research, we study the effects of advertising on the mind and dive deep into the underlying cognitive processing associated with using, and interacting with, the media.
Featured Work
Juan Mundel and Patricia Huddleston publish new research on the connection between advertising and the horticulture industry
Juan Mundel, associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, and Patricia Huddleston, professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations have published new research in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture titled “Personalized Horticultural Advertising in Social Media: Investigating Consumer Evaluations and Purchase Intent for Plants.”
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Marisa Smith publishes new research on media, disinformation, and race perception
Exploring cultural memory, race, and representation through the California Raisins at CHARM 2025
Faculty-led telehealth project receives 2025 Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary Studies
Dar Meshi and researchers use brain activity to predict visits to urban areas
Labs
The Media and Advertising Psychology Lab (MAP Lab) studies and measures the effects of advertising and the media on individuals and the world. Studies in the MAP Lab rely on physical outputs - like eye-tracking, heart rate and perspiration - to unravel the underlying cognitive and affective processing associated with using mediated communication.
Learn from the Best
Faculty
John Besley
Ellis N. Brandt Professor of Public RelationsDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsDr. Besley is a science communication and risk communication scholar who studies public views about science and scientists' views about communication in the context of helping science communicators be more evidence-based and strategic.
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Faculty
Saleem Alhabash
ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsSaleem Alhabash is an Associate Professor of Public Relations and Social Media at the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, studying the persuasive effects of social media.