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The wellness industry tells us as consumers that it is our moral imperative to strive for “health”, and simultaneously aims to sell us products to try to achieve this reality that is always out of reach. Biohacking presents us with the question of, if we could take control of our bodyminds to reach these goals, would we? Biohacking is generally defined as the science, and sometimes art, of optimizing our bodies and minds through the use of technology. These technological interventions range from diet and lifestyle changes, to supplements, wearable self-tracking devices, sauna bathing and cryotherapy, to more “extreme” examples of injecting microchips, gene editing, or the use of blood transfusions in the aims of decreasing one’s biological age. These technologies utilized by biohackers require critical engagement, and discernment around the future of “health” they are creating Within my dissertation, Selling “Health”, Selling Immortality, I center my analysis on online biohacking communities to identify how illness and wellness narratives are constructed, and then utilized to market biohacking products. I have selected four high-profile biohackers located within the United States: Dave Asprey, David Sinclair, Ellen Jorgensen, and Josie Zayner, along with their companies from 2012-2024 as the scope of my project. Analysis of media and research articles published about these selected biohackers was performed; and then compared to a branding analysis of their social media accounts, websites, podcasts, and documentaries. Throughout the dissertation, I return to the question of how “health,” illness, and disability are discussed and represented within online biohacking communities; and what role ableism, healthism, fatphobia, class, white supremacy, and hyper-masculinity play in the branding of mainstream biohackers in the United States. From my data analysis of these four biohackers, I engaged with biohacking experiments on my own bodymind for a year, and documented thi

Positive mediated intergroup contact improves intergroup relations. Based on this idea, I argue that exposure to outgroup media characters engaging in various activities affects outgroup perceptions via activity-specific mechanisms. I investigated whether watching a video featuring a cultural outgroup character engaging in a musical or language learning activity evokes music-specific (empathy) or language-specific (perceived knowledge) mediators. Furthermore, I propose that more (vs. less) culturally competent viewers experience these activity-specific mechanisms more intensely. Hence, I investigated whether the connection between the activities and their corresponding mediators is moderated by viewers’ level of intercultural competence in domains related to each activity. I conducted a pretest-posttest experiment and employed a multiple-message design approach to improve the generalizability of research findings. Results indicated that intergroup activities matter in terms of understanding the process of mediated contact effects (e.g., empathy mediates the effect of mediated musical activities on outgroup perceptions). However, intercultural competence did not moderate the activity-specific mechanisms. I discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Wildlife access to anthropogenic food sources like trash, bird seed, and fruit from trees can induce conflicts between humans and wildlife ranging from habituation and nuisance behavior to rare but serious attacks. I used an online survey (n = 349) to test an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model and identified predictors of behavioral intention to remove anthropogenic food sources. The comprehensive model includes the original TPB variables of perceived behavioral control (PBC), social norms, and attitudes, and adds collective efficacy, response efficacy, group orientation, and risk perception. In addition to direct effects, I tested attitude as a potential mediator of the risk perception-intention and response efficacy-intention relationship and the moderating effects of PBC on both the attitude-intention and social norm-intention relationships and group orientation on the social norm-intention and collective efficacy-intention relationships. To better understand meaningful attributes of message dissemination, the current study identified participant perception of important sources and channels. I found that attitude, perceived behavioral control, response efficacy, collective efficacy, and group orientation are positive predictors of behavioral intention to remove anthropogenic food sources. Additionally, I found a partial mediation effect of attitude on the response efficacy-intention relationship. I did not find support for the proposed interaction effects or the indirect effect of attitude on the risk perception-intention relationship. State wildlife agencies were a higher rated source for information about wildlife on average, with agency websites and printed materials rated as higher channels on average by participants.

This dissertation contributes to the study of communication design and data visualization by analyzing a set of ancient pictorial manuscripts. It is also aligned with the literature of pictorial statistics, most notably Isotype according to the Vienna Method. The research constitutes a comparative analysis of two methods for presenting quantities created four-hundred years apart: the Codices of The School of Huejotzingo, and the pictorial statistical charts first known as the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics and later as the International System of Typographic Education (Isotype). These two methods of presenting quantities through the use of pictures share strong structural similarities. A historical approach alongside three primary theoretical perspectives: the principles of the Vienna Method, the Picture Superiority Effect, and Gestalt Theory of Visual Cognition guide this research. This work provides an overview of how societies developed methods for counting, followed by some of the events that contributed to the development of graphical displays of data. Several of the first publications that introduced pictorial statistics as alternative methods to charts and graphs in the twentieth century are discussed. The main focus is on the popularization of pictorial statistics spearheaded by Otto Neurath, which gained international attention in the 1930s. This dissertation also introduces the Codices of The School of Huejotzingo. To date, given the literature examined for this research, these pictorial manuscripts have not been discussed as evidence of early examples of data visualization within the original fields of archeology and anthropology, nor in the literature of visual communication design or data visualization. Whereas Vienna Method charts report statistical data, the Codices of Huejotzingo report accounting activities and tax payments, both approaches share very similar characteristics in their use of pictures to represent quantities. In the literature

Research on overparenting (a.k.a. helicopter parenting) shows that it is associated with many negative qualities of the parent and the child, among which is mental distress. Guided by attachment theory, self-determination theory, bidirectional effects in parenting and child characteristics, and interpersonal theories of mental health, the present studies examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between overparenting and the mental health of both emerging adults and their parents as well as associated mechanisms. Study 1 was a six-month longitudinal study and collected data from American parents and emerging adult children. Results showed that overparenting prospectively predicted emerging adults’ attachment avoidance in romantic relationships. Moreover, emerging adults’ mental distress prospectively predicted overparenting, but not vice versa. For parents, neither prospective nor cross-sectional associations were observed between parental mental distress and overparenting. Study 2 was a cross-sectional study and collected data from 196 Chinese emerging adults. Results showed that overparenting was positively associated with child mental distress, and this effect was mediated by unfulfilled psychological needs. Altogether, the findings from the present studies suggest overparenting as a response to child mental distress during emerging adulthood, and the effect from overparenting on child mental distress might be more temporary than enduring, if any. Parental mental distress was not associated with overparenting.

The present study examined whether the exposure to likeable characters and educational content would affect the attitudes and behaviors of children after playing an educational children's game. The parasocial interaction (PSI) experienced by children was measured between children playing an educational game with interactive characters and those children who watched videos with the same character. This study also investigated the presence of mediated scaffolding provided by the interactive character in the educational game. A three group between subjects experimental design was employed. Subjects were randomly assigned to play an educational game, watch a video, or color on a tablet for 10 minutes. They were asked a series of questions about their experience on the tablet and the interaction with the character and then offered an educational prize or non-educational prize at the end. This study found that children in both the educational game and video condition reported experiencing a PSI with the character Alpha-Pig. Additionally, it was found that when kindergarteners were exposed to the educational game and the educational video, they chose an educational reward more often than the control group. This study also found that with this particular age group and the use of tablets, there were many findings that were impacted by a ceiling effect: children in all groups scored high on the educational worksheet and showed high levels of motivation for current and future learning. These findings support past PSI research, showing that children are experiencing a PSI while interacting with a likeable character in an educational game. Additionally, this study adds to the understanding of scaffolding, extending its effects from only personal interactions to mediated interactions. Ultimately, this study helps parents and teachers to understand the importance of likeable characters in educational games for children.

This dissertation focuses on media coverage and public opinion about United States foreign policy during a time of national crisis. It seeks to better understand the nature of news content by exploring the concept of press independence through the lens of two theories of news media: indexing and echoing. Focusing on the current U.S. military engagement with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the present study tracks media coverage between June 2014 and June 2015 across six distinct print and online news outlets. This content analysis reveals that the press offered limited criticism of policies, particularly early in the intervention. Print and online news media covered U.S. policy in similar fashion, each relying more on nongovernmental sources than on Washington elites. Combat and non-combat policies were more likely to appear together in the same story in print news than in online news and print offered more justifications for policy positions than did online news. This dissertation examined how news media affects public opinion by experimentally manipulating news coverage of U.S. policy toward ISIL. Based on a national sample, the current work utilized a 2 (high/low in-group threat)X 2 (high/low in-group strength) experiment to explore the mediating role of group emotions on support for foreign policies. Guided by intergroup emotions theory, this study found that group anger mediated the relationships between in-group threat and a host of combat and non-combat policies, while group anxiety did not. On the other hand, in-group threat and in-group strength interacted to predict group anxiety, resulting in two moderated-mediation models, which predicted support for negotiating with ISIL and modern racism toward Muslims. This experiment demonstrates that these group emotions operate in divergent ways, and that group emotions on the whole function differently than individual emotions when predicting political attitudes.

That Barack Obama's race was a factor, for both blacks and whites, in the 2008 general election is well-documented. As the majority in this country, the white electorate's response to the nation's first successful African-American presidential contender is of particular interest because it revealed the persistent effects of racism. Scholars have suggested contemporary forms of racism (e.g., Ditonto et al., 2013) explained the reluctance of white citizens to cast their ballots for an African American. This dissertation approaches the topic from a different angle, arguing deep-seated beliefs about which individual characteristics define a legitimate president, race in this project, affected voting decisions, especially among whites. Such beliefs, or "status expectations" (Ridgeway&Berger, 1986), are evident every day in social interactions and are also reflected in the mass media, especially in the vivid medium of television, which was proposed to reinforce status beliefs about presidential legitimacy among white viewers. African Americans, in contrast, were hypothesized be inured to status beliefs represented in television campaign coverage because of a protective, ingroup orientation called "linked fate," (Dawson, 2004), the belief that life chances of the individual are inextricably intertwined with life chances of the black race as a whole. Therefore, while mass media would affect whites' assessments of presidential legitimacy, linked fate would lead African Americans to reject the status beliefs about presidential legitimacy embedded in televised content because this medium has historically derogated their "ingroup". Findings, however, did not support this proposed insulating effect of linked fate, which was operationalized as perceived black racial group favoritism. In fact, moderating relationships, even when statistically significant, typically added little explanatory value to or confounded interpretation of the presidential legitimacy models. Thus, baseline

The present study investigated whether exposing children to a television advertisement for a sugar-laden cereal that depicts physical activities influences their perceptions of the promoted food as healthy and appealing differently than exposure to an advertisement for the same product without the depiction of physical activities. Differences in the impact each advertisement had on children's attitudes toward and intentions to exercise were also examined. In addition to testing the straightforward effect of advertising exposure, this study explored the potential for age differences to lead to differing interpretations of advertising messages. A 2 (advertising condition) X 2 (age group) experimental design was employed. Participants were randomly assigned to view an advertisement for Frosted Flakes cereal that either did or did not depict physical activities. They were then offered three snack options, including Frosted Flakes, and asked a series of questions pertaining to their perceptions of the advertised cereal, the depicted physical activities, and more general forms of exercise. Exposure to advertising promoting an unhealthy food alongside portrayals of physical activity had an immediate strengthening effect on children's perceptions of the food's healthfulness. Likewise, younger children held more positive attitudes toward the promoted food when they viewed an advertisement associating it with physical activities. However, children's attitudes toward and intentions to engage in any form of exercise did not differ as a result of the advertisement they had viewed, regardless of the child's age. These findings help to explain prior research showing that children's exposure to food advertising is related to nutritional misperceptions. They are consistent with a growing body of research revealing that children respond favorably to food advertisements that associate a product with healthfulness. These findings contrast with food companies' assertions that promoting

This study examines the effect of motivation on political selective exposure and selective perception using an online experiment. Studies have found that though people have a preference for like-minded political information over counter-attitudinal information, they do not avoid counter-attitudinal political information altogether (Garrett, 2009; Garrett, Carnahan, & Lynch, 2011; Stroud, 2008). This study examines under what conditions people are likely to expose themselves to more like-minded information than counter-attitudinal information and under what conditions people are likely to seek out more counter-attitudinal information than like-minded information. Based on the theory of motivated reasoning and Hart et al. (2009)'s model, I proposed a model that explained selective exposure and selective perception based on motivation. Defense motivation, the motivation to hold attitude-consistent cognitions with one's original attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, was predicted to increase selective exposure and selective perception. Accuracy motivation, the motivation to arrive at the correct conclusion, was predicted to reduce selective exposure and selective perception. Finally, information utility motivation, the motivation to choose information that has the highest utility, was predicted to reduce selective exposure when counter-attitudinal information was equally useful as attitude-consistent information, but increase selective exposure when attitude-consistent information was more useful than counter-attitudinal information. In both cases, it was predicted that the selective perception pattern would not be changed. The study also tested the additive effect of the three motivations and examined which motivation can override other motivations in determining selective exposure and selective perception. Results showed that accuracy motivation was effective in reducing selective exposure for both strong partisans and those who were not strong partisans. Accuracy motivat

In this study, equity theory and relationship maintenance were employed as the framework through which couples' perceptions of and use of diet- and exercise- related social influence strategies were examined. Additionally, this research investigated whether people's perceptions of social influence were associated with their health maintenance behaviors and relationship quality, as well as whether their perceived diet- and exercise-related support from the partner moderated these associations. Finally, individuals' motivation to use influence strategies to encourage their partners to be healthier was also be evaluated. This study included a sample of 192 cohabiting or married couples. The results of the Actor Partner Interdependence Models indicated that actors' perceived relationship maintenance and control mutuality were positively associated with their perceptions of positive influence strategies from the partner. Additionally, actors' perceived positive influence strategies from their partners were associated with greater health maintenance and relationship satisfaction, with the inverse being true for actors' perceived negative influence strategies from their partners. Individuals' reports of using social influence strategies varied depending on their various motivations for using social influence strategies (i.e., perceived partner ability and willingness to change, reasons for using social influence, and reasons for not using social influence). Finally, individuals reported engaging in more health maintenance behaviors when they also perceived more positive social influence and more diet- and exercise-related support from their partners. These results suggest that relationship functioning is related to individuals' perceptions of influence strategies from the partner, which are also associated with individuals' health maintenance behaviors and relationship quality. Consequently, romantic relationships appear to be an important context in which to examine diet

Child maltreatment is extremely prevalent and leads to a host of negative effects, both immediately and long term. Instances of maltreatment are often accompanied by deception, both by the perpetrator, as well as by the victim in order to avoid stigma and protect family. Thus, this study investigated social learning of deception through instances of maltreatment. 413 young adults completed an online survey assessing current attitudes toward deception, childhood maltreatment including child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, witnessing interparental violence, psychological abuse, neglect and parental addiction, social support, and participant addiction. Results indicated that neglect and psychological abuse during childhood, and current addiction were associated with a positive attitude toward deception. Severity of CSA and severity of neglect each interacted with role (agent or target) in the deceptive scenario to determine attitude toward deception. Severity of CPA interacted with perceived social support to determine attitude toward deception. Furthermore, victim's awareness of deception by perpetrators of CSA was associated with a more negative attitude toward deception. These findings support both attachment theory and social learning explanations for adulthood attitude toward deception. Attachment theory explains why neglected and psychologically abused individuals find their own deception more acceptable and other's deception less acceptable than their non-neglected counterparts, and why the opposite pattern is true for victims of CSA; and social learning theory's emphasis on attention and reinforcement to motivate behavior are supported by these findings.

This dissertation advances the affordance utilization model (AUM), which addresses the use of communication modes affordances in personal relationships. Drawing from social penetration theory and research regarding two communication mode affordances--asynchronicity and reduced cues--the AUM predicts that these affordances are positively associated with certain conversational outcomes (specifically, conversational effectiveness and appropriateness, and self-disclosure breadth and depth) but that these associations vary as a function of relationship development. As relationships become more developed, the AUM predicts that communication mode affordances exert less impact on conversational effectiveness, conversational appropriateness, and self-disclosure in conversations in relationships. As a result, the associations between communication mode affordance use and these conversational outcomes are attenuated by relationship development. Regarding self-disclosure depth, the AUM predicts that the association between communication mode affordance use and self-disclosure depth is greatest at moderate levels of relationship development. The AUM also predicts that both use and perceived importance of affordances as a proportion of communication in relationships will decrease as those relationships become more developed. Two studies were conducted to test the AUM. The first surveyed participants regarding their most recent conversation in either a friendship (N = 147) or romantic relationships (N = 166). The second study was a diary study in which participants (N = 64) filled out a short survey after every conversation with their partner for four days. The results of the two studies provide mixed support for the AUM. Although importance of affordances was not associated with relationship development, use of affordances was generally negatively associated with relationship development, as predicted. In general, conversational appropriateness was positively associated with the

Embedding health messages within an entertainment television program can be an effective tool for influencing viewer health beliefs and attitudes. An important factor moderating the impact of entertainment programming on viewers' health perceptions is the level of connection, or involvement, viewers have with characters.The main goal of this study was to examine how five distinct forms of character involvement -- identification, wishful identification, parasocial interaction, liking, and perceived similarity -- may operate together to explain changes in viewer binge drinking perceptions. A secondary goal of this study was to examine how the interrelationships between character involvement and engagement in the narrative help explain the impact of exposure to an entertainment program on viewer binge drinking perceptions.A pretest/posttest design was employed to examine changes in viewer binge drinking perceptions following exposure to a dramatic television programming dealing with excessive drinking behavior. In addition, perceived similarity with a character was manipulated prior to viewing to assess causal relationships between character involvement dimensions.Contrary to predictions, the majority of tests showed that identification with a binge drinking character did not play a significant mediating role in the relationship between other character involvement dimensions and viewer binge drinking perceptions. Furthermore, in mediated models that included multiple forms of character involvement, perceived character similarity emerged as the only dimension that explained unique variance in viewer binge drinking perceptions. In particular, higher levels of perceived similarity with a character engaged in binge drinking behavior was associated with less socially responsible binge drinking beliefs and attitudes. Results also showed that the relationship between narrative engagement and viewer binge drinking perceptions did not partially flow through character identifica

Medical residency is characterized by sleep deprivation, stress, and heavy workload. The impact of these pressures on physician-patient communication has not been fully explored. The aim of the current study was to investigate how contextual demands, stress, and burnout impact empathy and provision of patient-centered communication among internal medicine residents in two hospitals. The long-call shift was studied, as it is known to be particularly taxing and is a primary feature of medical residency. Assessments were obtained both prior to and at the conclusion of residents' shifts. Cognitive complexity was examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between stress and burnout, and burnout and empathy. Results revealed that there was a significant decline in physician empathy from the beginning to the end of the long-call shift and that this decline in empathy predicted less patient-centered communication from physicians. Stress, burnout, and decline in empathy were all positively associated, indicating that resident physicians who were more stressed and burned out were at increased risk for declines in empathy over the course of their shift. Cognitive complexity was not found to be a significant mediator of any associations between study variables, though it was associated with several key variables in unexpected ways. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and addressing barriers to patient-centered communication, as a number of these barriers may be routinely present in the demanding environment of medical residency.

The present study aimed at advancing our understanding of the effects that racially stereotypical media discourse has on White voters' responses to African American candidates in mixed-race elections. In particular, a causal model was proposed where the racial stereotypicality of news messages was predicted to interact with the race of political candidates and White news consumers' racial identification in affecting perceptions of candidates' leadership prototypicality. In turn, the prototypicality ratings were hypothesized to positively predict expectations of policy performance, candidate affect, and electoral support. In particular, it was predicted that White individuals exposed to racially stereotypical crime news would view African American candidates in unrelated stories as less leader-prototypical than White candidates and this effect was expected be stronger than among Whites exposed to non-stereotypical crime news or no crime news at all. This relationship was also predicted to increase as a function of White participants' racial ingroup identification.The findings from two experimental investigations offered limited support for the mediated model. The independent variables had weak and qualified effects on the prototypicality ratings. In addition, most of these effects worked in favor of, rather than to the disadvantage of the African American candidate. However, as hypothesized, prototypicality was a consistent predictor of electoral support, candidate affect, and, less so, policy performance expectations. Overall, these findings suggest that race matters in mass mediated political processes, both as a contextual factor and as a characteristic of electoral contenders.