Yidi Zhang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research is grounded in computer-mediated communication (CMC), examining how digital and AI-mediated environments shape identity, persuasion, and social influence across interpersonal, intergroup, and organizational contexts. Specifically, she is interested in the social influence of communication technologies and how mediated communication shapes people’s interactions. Her research agenda focuses on three interconnected areas: (1) the reciprocal effects of self-presentation and self-identification online; (2) the self-effects of communicating in mediated contexts; and (3) the utility of AI as an intervention agent in online discussions. Her current projects address vicarious interpersonal interactions, the interplay between anonymity and identification online, and scalable strategies, such as counter-speech, to combat online hate. Her work has been published in journals including New Media & Society, Media Psychology, and Communication Research Reports. She has also presented her research at the annual conferences of the International Communication Association (ICA) and the National Communication Association (NCA), where her work received a Top Student Paper Award in 2026.

Yifei Wang is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests center on political communication, communication technology, and social identity. Using quantitative and computational methods, his work examines how social identity and communication technology can shape individuals' digital engagement, sociopolitical attitudes, and understanding of emerging technologies. His recent work examines how digital exposure to wealth influences individuals' attitudes toward economic inequality. His research has appeared in outlets such as Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Information, Communication & Society, Computational Communication Research, and Social Science Computer Review.

Alan Crawley is a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been studying Nonverbal Communication for the past 13 years, giving online classes for international students and universities from over thirteen Spanish-speaking countries. He is interested in every field, application, phenomenon, and interaction in which nonverbal behaviors impact in some way human interactions.

 

Jiaying liu received her Ph.D. from the Annenberg school for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on health communication, persuasion and social influence, message effects, computational and psychophysiological methods. Her recent research projects include conducting longitudinal analysis on nationally representative survey data to identify factors that predispose youth to cigarette and e-cigarette use; implementing online and eye-tracking experiments to identify persuasive message features and inform campaign formative evaluation; combining crowdsourcing and machine-based textual analysis to annotate large media text corpora; and employing neuroimaging methods to examine the underlying mechanisms of successful and counterproductive communication. Dr. Liu is actively involved in highly collaborative, interdisciplinary work. Her research has been published in leading communication, public health and psychology journals including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Communication Methods and Measures, Health Communication, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Psychological Bulletin. She currently serves as a senior editor for Health Communication. Dr. Liu directs the Communication, Health, and Emerging Media Laboratory (CHARM Lab), and currently serves as the principal investigator on K01 and R21 awards, and a co-investigator on two R01 awards from the National Institutes of Health. She teaches courses in health communication, persuasion and social influence, message effects, and computational textual analysis methods.

The Communication, Health, and Emerging Media (CHARM) Laboratory

The CHARM lab examines the cognitive, emotional, and social mechanisms underlying communication processes that shape people’s behaviors and health decision-making against the backdrop of the current new media landscape. Employing self-report survey measures, online and eye-tracking lab experiments, computerized textual analysis, and neuroimaging methods, researchers in the lab focus on theory-based persuasive health message design, social media analytics to unveil and track user-generated health discussions, and identifying environmental and individual level factors contributing to health behavior outcomes. CHARM lab looks to identify ways in which communication could be optimally leveraged to promote desirable health behavior changes, especially among vulnerable, marginalized, and underserved groups.

Selected Publications: 

Liu, J., Wang, Y., & Gay, J. (2025). Promising campaign themes to promote active pro-environmental behaviors among U.S. coastal residents. Environmental Communication, 1-25. DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2024.2441948

Liu, J., Shi, Z., Fabbricatore, J. L., McMains, J. T., Worsdale, A., Jones, E. C., Wang, Y., & Sweet, L. H. (2024). Vaping and smoking cue reactivity in young adult non-smoking electronic cigarette users: A functional neuroimaging study. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, ntae257. DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntae257

Liu, J., Shi, R., & Hornik, R. (2024). Modification mechanisms of descriptive norm perceptions toward vaping: The role of behavior prevalence and group size in an online setting. Health Communication, 1–13. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2024.2344883

Yang, S., Cotter, L. M., Lu, L., Kriss, L.A., Minich, M., Liu, J., Silver, L., Cascio, C.N. (2024). Countering online marketing and user endorsements with enhanced cannabis warning labels: An online experiment among at-risk youth and young adults. Preventive Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2024.107877

So, J., & Liu, J. (2023). The role of audience favorability in processing (un)familiar messages: A heuristic-systematic model perspective. Human Communication Research, 49(4):383-395. DOI: 10.1093/hcr/hqad024

Siegel, L., Liu, J., Gibson, L., & Hornik, R. (2022). Not all norm information is the same: Effects of normative content in the media on young people’s perceptions of e-cigarette and tobacco use norms. Communication Research, 00936502211073290. DOI: 10.1177/00936502211073290

Hornik, R., Binns, S., Emery, S., Epstein, V. M., Jeong, M., Kim, K., Kim, Y., Kranzler, E. C., Jesch, E., Lee, S. J., Levin, A. V., Liu, J., O’Donnell, M. B., Siegel, L., Tran, H., Williams, S., Yang, Q., & Gibson, L. A. (2022). The effects of tobacco coverage in the public communication environment on young people’s decisions to smoke combustible cigarettes. Journal of Communication, jqab052. DOI:10.1093/joc/jqab052

Lee, S. J., & Liu, J. (2021). Leveraging dynamic norm messages to promote counter-normative behaviors: The moderating role of current and future injunctive norms, attitude and self-efficacy. Health Communication, 38(6), 1071–1079. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1991638

Liu, J., Phua, J., Krugman, D., Xu, L., Nowak, G., & Popova, L. (2020). Do young adults attend to health warnings in the first IQOS advertisement in the U.S.? An eye-tracking approach. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 23(5), 815-822. DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa243

Murashka, V., Liu, J., & Peng, Y. (2020). Fitspiration on Instagram: Identifying topic clusters in user comments to posts with objectification features. Health Communication, 36(12), 1537–1548. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1773702

Liu, J., O’Donnell, M., & Falk, E. (2020). Deliberation and valence as dissociable components of counterarguing among smokers: Evidence from neuroimaging and quantitative linguistic analysis. Health Communication. 36(6), 752-763. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1712521

Liu, J., Lochbuehler, K., Yang, Q., Gibson, L. A., & Hornik, R. C. (2020). Breadth of media scanning leads to vaping among youth and young adults: Evidence of direct and indirect pathways from a national longitudinal survey. Journal of Health Communication, 25(2), 91–104. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2019.1709925

Liu, J., Siegel, L., Gibson, L. A., Kim, Y., Binns, S., Emery, S., Hornik, R. C. (2019). Toward an aggregate, implicit and dynamic model of norm formation: Capturing large-scale media representations of dynamic descriptive norms through automated and crowdsourced content analysis. Journal of Communication, 69(6), 563–588. DOI: 10.1093/joc/jqz033

Sangalang, A., Volinsky, A.C., Liu, J., Yang, Q., Lee, S., Gibson, L.A., & Hornik, R.C. (2019). Identifying potential campaign themes to prevent youth initiation of e-cigarettes. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 56(5), S65–S75. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.07.039

Liu, J., & Shi, R. (2018). How do online comments affect perceived descriptive norms of e-cigarette use? The role of quasi-statistical sense, valence perceptions, and exposure dosage. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. DOI:10.1093/jcmc/zmy021

Liu, J., Zhao, S., Chen, X., Falk, E., & Albarracín, D. (2017). The influence of peer behavior as a function of social cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation. Psychological Bulletin, 143(10):1082–1115. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000113

Liu, J., & Hornik, R. (2016). Measuring exposure opportunities: Using exogenous measures in assessing effects of media exposure on smoking outcomes. Communication Methods and Measures, 10(2–3), 115–134. DOI: 10.1080/19312458.2016.1150442