I am a PhD student in Communication and Media at the Institute of Communications Research , University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign .
My research is grounded in communication science and media psychology and examines how digital platforms shape attention, affect, and persuasion. I study mediated influence across advertising, health, and algorithmic environments, integrating experimental, biometric, and qualitative approaches to understand how platform affordances recalibrate social cognition rather than simply increasing engagement.
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Research Program
Note. My research has a theoretical core in communication science and media psychology, with applications across advertising and health communication, and methodological grounding in experimental, biometric, and qualitative approaches.
My work advances theory in media psychology and communication science by examining how digital interface design and platform affordances shape attention, affective processing, and persuasion over time. Across studies, I show how seemingly minor design features—such as interaction constraints and visibility cues—recalibrate social cognition, parasocial processes, and judgment rather than functioning as simple engagement triggers.
A central research program examines how people make sense of mediated agents, including influencers and AI-generated personas. I study mind perception, embodiment, and authenticity, and how these perceptions shape parasocial interaction, trust, and persuasion outcomes. This work integrates experiments, platform telemetry, biometrics, and qualitative analysis to understand mediated relationships in contemporary digital environments.
A second research stream focuses on persuasion in high-stakes contexts, including health communication, political advertising, and misinformation correction. Drawing on theories of elaboration, persuasion knowledge, and message fatigue, this work investigates how message format, modality, and platform context shape attention, emotional response, recall, and belief updating.
Methodologically, I integrate experimental design with fine-grained behavioral, biometric, and qualitative measures. I develop custom interactive stimuli (e.g., simulated social media feeds and streaming interfaces) and pair them with eye tracking, facial expression analysis, and behavioral telemetry to capture moment-to-moment media effects beyond self-report.