Qiyao Peng is a Ph.D. student at UCSB whose research bridges persuasion, health communication, and computational social science. She uses experimental and computational methods to examine how emotional appeals, multimodal features, and online interactions shape audience perceptions and health behaviors.
Qiyao Peng is a Ph.D. student in Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on persuasion, health communication, and computational social science, with an emphasis on how message design and digital media environments influence (health) behaviors and health-related decision-making. Drawing on communication theories, she examines how emotional appeals, multimodal message features, and online social interactions shape audience perceptions, psychological reactance, and behavioral intentions.
Her methodological expertise spans experimental design, large-scale social media analysis, natural language processing, and computer vision. She has applied these approaches to study topics including anti-vaping public service announcements, cancer prevention messaging, etc.
Qiyao's work integrates theoretical rigor with practical implications, aiming to inform the development of more effective health messages and campaigns.
B.A. (2017), The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, International Communication Studies
M.A. (2019), University of Southern California, Communication Management