Media Psychology Projects

  • Self-control and media: Recovery, coping, & mood-management
  • Sequential moral choice in video games
  • Spoiler alert! How spoilers affect enjoyment in television and film
  • Selective exposure to political information and entertainment
  • Very young children’s ability to learn foundational STEM skills and content from media, with a focus on how media characters influence learning
  • Depictions of race and gender on television shows that claim to teach STEM to preschool-aged children
  • Effects of regular exposure to a STEM show featuring a diverse, counter-stereotypical cast on children's attitudes towards STEM learning and beliefs about STEM occupations
  • Effects of models' age in alcohol advertising
  • Effects of emotional transfer on ad processing
  • Relation of excessive social media use to decision making
  • Developing an intervention to influence the amount of social media use
  • The use of serious games in mental health interventions
  • Mechanisms underlying the Proteus effect across a wide range of media
  • Race and media – the impact of media viewing of various genres on racial attitudes
  • Reciprocity and extrinsic motivation as mediators of the impact of media depictions on racist attitudes
  • Developing models of comprehension of audio-visual texts
  • Reflective imaginative involvement with narrative worlds
  • The antecedents and consequences of fandom
  • Effects of narrative and character identification in social change games on emotional experience and prosocial behaviors
  • Effects of cognitive and physical challenge in exergames on enjoyment
  • Communication of norms through fictional narratives
  • Fear appeal messages: How much fear is too much?
  • Reactance processes: Face threat and threat to freedom
  • Dynamics of norms and attitudes over time  
  • The portrayal and influence of moral content in media
  • The effect of behavioral synchrony in virtual environments on outgroup trust
  • Applying attribution theory to explain the appeal of imperfect heroes within an affective disposition theory framework
  • Effects of ego depletion on the enjoyment and recovery potential of tendentious and non-tendentious humor
  • Construal level’s ability to moderate the effect of moral intuitions on reactions to moral dilemma
  • Risky portrayals in entertainment media – how risky character behavior (e.g., alcohol, sex, violence) impact the cognitions and behaviors of adolescents and emerging adults
  • Binge watching – how people use media and the influence of media use on health
  • The role of attitude and norm accessibility, and of moral emotions such as shame and guilt, in encouraging smoking cessation
  • Visual attention to, evaluation of, and privacy concerns about sponsored health-related mobile apps
  • Psychological antecedents of risky behaviors
  • Listening to popular music while playing a driving simulation game and its effects on driving performance