Erick's research broadly draws on communication and social psychological theory to examine questions at the intersections of mass communication, computer-mediated communication, media effects, and social psychology, with particular emphasis on inter- and intragroup relations, social identity, self-categorization, and social influence. He approaches these questions through a multi-method social science perspective using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and computational approaches.
Erick Garcia (He/Him/Él) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
His primary line of research focuses on online hate (i.e., hate speech, cyberhate, digital hate), spanning topics such as explicit and implicit hate messages, dog whistles, hate-driven memes, prejudice, stereotypes, systemic discrimination, and other forms of identity-based hostility communicated through digital media (e.g., racism, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, misogyny, and sexism).
Within online hate, his research examines three primary lines of inquiry: (1) theoretically driven approaches to understanding how intergroup solidarity may motivate bystander intervention (e.g., counter-speech) across group boundaries (with particular attention to the social identity approach in explaining how shared or recategorized identities may foster intra-minorirty solidarity across groups targeted by online hate); (2) the social, psychological, and mediated processes that contribute to the continued propagation and perpetuation of online hate; and (3) the structural, historical, and contextual conditions that shape how hate is produced (by haters), experienced (by targets), and addressed in digitally mediated environments.
Beyond his primary research program, he also maintains a personal scholarly interest in theoretically examining how digitally mediated environments shape broader social and psychological processes (viz. social/personal identity, cognition, agency, and the formation of the self). Drawing from meta-theoretical perspectives on structuration, time-space distanciation, and liminality, he is particularly interested in how individuals exercise agency to negotiate identities and navigate shifting boundaries between social structures across increasingly blurred online and offline contexts.
His scholarship has been recognized nationally, including a Top Paper Award from the Group Communication Division (2025) at the National Communication Association (NCA), and has been published in internationally recognized journals such as the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction.
M.A. (2023), California State University, Long Beach, Psychological Research
B.A. (2020), University of California, Irvine, Psychology