Nancy Rhodes Ph.D.
Bio
Dr. Nancy Rhodes is a media psychologist and health communication scholar whose research interests are broadly focused on persuasion and social influence. Her work has focused on how people process persuasive messages and on how the real and imagined presence of others affects message processing. She is currently researching social norms, specifically the influence of social norms on health and risk behaviors such as cigarette smoking, drinking, and risky driving. Her ongoing work is examining the cognitive processes through which norms affect message processing. This work is focused on how normative influences contribute to substance use, and on how norms might contribute to resistance toward health-related messages. Dr. Rhodes was trained as a Social Psychologist at Texas A&M, earning her Ph.D. in 1991. She worked in pharmaceutical marketing research and other applied contexts for a number of years before returning to academia full time. She held faculty positions at IUPUI and Ohio State University prior to joining the College of Communication Arts and Sciences in 2016. Her work has appeared in journals such as Communication Research, Communication Monographs and Media Psychology, as well as in specialty health and safety journals. She is currently an associate editor of the journal Psychology of Popular Media.
