Zexin Ma
Biographic Data
| ID | 3771523 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zexin Ma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zexin |
| FAMILY NAME | Ma |
| SIGNATURE | MA Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Oakland University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6203-2740 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Understanding and Mitigating Substance Use in Social Settings with Virtual Reality
Background: Substance use often takes place in social settings. Virtual reality (VR) can simulate social settings such as being offered substances and being around others who use substances at a party. Objectives: This study reviews the emerging literature on using VR to examine substance use in social contexts and explore intervention strategies to reduce such behavior. Results: The findings indicate that most research focuses on alcohol consump…
Defensive Reactions to Pictorial Warning Labels Featuring Narrative Versus Non-Narrative Content
This study examined pictorial warning labels (PWLs) about alcohol-related cancer risks, comparing the effects of narrative and non-narrative content on different types of defensive reactions, as well as investigating the relationships between defensive reactions and behavioral outcomes through an experiment (N = 649). Findings showed that narrative (vs. non-narrative) PWLs evoked lower levels of reactance and avoidance (both retrospective and ant…
Beyond the post
Words that trigger
Psychological reactance theory is an important theoretical framework that explains resistance to persuasive messages. However, research has shown inconsistencies regarding the effects of reactance on persuasion, the operational treatment of reactance, and the manipulation of threatening language. This meta-analysis (k = 35, combined N = 10,658) consolidates findings from research on psychological reactance in health communication regarding the as…
The Role of Narratives in Countering Health Misinformation
Given the prevalence of health misinformation, it is essential to develop interventions to correct misinformation and reduce its negative influence. Emerging research has investigated the use of narratives as both prebunking and debunking strategies, but the findings are mixed regarding their effectiveness. This systematic scoping review aimed to examine the role of narratives in countering health misinformation, drawing on evidence from 19 studi…
Binge Drinking Status as a Moderator in Narrative Versus Non-Narrative Pictorial Warning Labels
This study examined the potential role of binge drinking status in moderating the persuasive effects of narrative versus non-narrative pictorial warning labels (PWLs). In an online longitudinal experiment involving moderate and heavy drinkers, we found that the interaction between binge drinking status and PWL type was significant for intentions to reduce and stop drinking upon immediate PWL exposure (N = 649) and at two-week follow-up (N = 598).…
The persuasive effects of narratives
This systematic review of reviews aimed to determine whether and the extent to which narratives were persuasive. Our analysis of 30 systematic reviews revealed an overall persuasive advantage of narratives with a few nuances. First, the evidence was mixed when narratives were compared to statistics. In contrast, narratives showed greater persuasiveness when compared to other types of control. Second, patient narratives aided medical decision-maki…
“Are we saying every time you drink, you’ll get cancer?” Lessons learned from a focus group study of communicating difficult-to-swallow health-risk information
This essay explores lessons learned when conducting focus group interviews with participants exposed to novel health-risk messages. Focus group participants exposed to new health-risk information might be defensive, affecting the quality of the data collected. Hence, accounting for potential participant defensiveness is of great importance for researchers who are developing and testing these health-risk messages. In this essay, I identify two for…
How Information Repertoire Affects Vaccine Hesitancy
As information consumption plays a critical role in addressing vaccine hesitancy in the hybrid media environment, it becomes crucial to understand how individuals' use of a combination of channels and sources affects their vaccine hesitancy. Based on information repertoire approaches emphasizing the multiplicity of channels and sources, we investigated different patterns of information repertoire related to the COVID-19 pandemic and how these pat…
“You are Telling the Story Yourself”
Pictorial warning labels (PWLs) featuring narrative content are promising strategies for communicating health risks and motivating behavior change. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify what intrinsic features a PWL must have to be constructed as a narrative and (2) uncover in what ways narrative PWLs are perceived as being (in)effective. Seven online focus groups were conducted via Zoom with moderate and heavy drinkers (n = 30). Part…
Overcoming Health Information Inequities
Although Valley fever represents a growing public health challenge for Central and Southern Californian residents, awareness remains severely limited. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) ran a cross-platform campaign to mitigate this awareness gap and impact prevention behavior. This study evaluates exposure to the CDPH campaign, followed by an examination of the information consumption patterns associated with key health outcomes. …
“I Can See a Story from the Warning”
This study examined the role of perceived narrativity in pictorial warning labels (PWLs) in countering warning reactance and increasing warning effectiveness and support in the context of communicating the cancer risk of alcohol. Findings from a randomized experiment (N = 1,188) showed that PWLs with imagery of lived experience were perceived higher in narrativity than those with imagery of graphic health effects. Adding a one-sentence narrative …
Impact of Emotional Awareness on Responses to Vaccine-Related Narrative Misinformation
Emotionally evocative narratives are a common strategy to spread vaccine-related misinformation on social media. This study tested the use of two emotional awareness strategies – affect labeling and reflections of feelings – to mitigate the impact of misinformation. The online experiment (N = 143) found that emotional awareness (vs. control) led to greater felt emotions and concerns about HPV vaccine safety among female participants. Felt emotion…
Analyzing narrative contagion through digital storytelling in social media conversations
Despite the growing popularity of digital narratives, research on digital storytelling and its spread through social media interactions remains limited. Inspired by the social contagion theory, we introduce the concept of narrative contagion —where a story shared by a person or organization prompts others to share their stories—and investigate its process and outcome in online cancer communities. Utilizing a large dataset of 849 Facebook posts, 4…
Designing Cancer Warning Labels for Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol is a known carcinogen. However, public awareness of cancer risk associated with alcohol use is low. A promising approach to raising awareness is to include cancer warning labels on alcohol-containing products, but there is limited knowledge of the design and effect of such warnings. The present study investigated the impact of visual elements on the effectiveness of cancer warning labels. In a randomized online experiment, alcohol consume…
Is My Story Better Than His Story? Understanding the Effects and Mechanisms of Narrative Point of View in the Opioid Context
Sharing the stories of people whose lives are impacted by Opioid Use Disorders (OUDs) can be a promising strategy to reduce stigma and increase support for beneficial public policies. Since a story can be told from a first-person or third-person point of view (POV), this study sought to (1) determine the relative persuasive effects of narrative POV and (2) identify the underlying psychological mechanisms, including character identification and ps…
Stories that engage the audience
Present, empathetic, and persuaded
Immersive narratives-narratives viewed in immersive mediated environments-are a promising tool for increasing empathy and persuasion due to their presumed capacity to place viewers inside a story world. Empirical studies, however, have produced mixed findings. This meta-analysis synthesized findings on the effects of narratives viewed in high (vs. low) immersive environments on empathy and persuasion (k = 25). It also examined the impact of narra…
Public Health Messaging during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that effective public health messaging is an indispensable component of a robust pandemic response system. In this article, we review decades of research from the interdisciplinary field of communication science and provide evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 public health messaging. We take a principled approach by systematically examining the communication process, focusing on decisions about what…
Predicting Intentions to Vaccinate against Covid-19 and Seasonal Flu
Understanding the social-psychological determinants of the public's perceptions and intentions related to vaccination is key to promoting vaccination. The current study examines how individual differences in consideration of future and immediate consequences (CFC-F and CFC-I) impact risk perceptions of, and intentions to vaccinate against, COVID-19 and seasonal flu. A survey of 395 adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk during April and May of 2020 sho…
The Role of Narrative Pictorial Warning Labels in Communicating Alcohol-Related Cancer Risks
This study examined the role of pictorial warning labels (PWLs) featuring narrative content in communicating alcohol-related cancer risks. In an online experiment, 169 adult alcohol consumers were randomly assigned to view two narrative PWLs, two non-narrative PWLs, or control. Results showed that exposure to narrative PWLs significantly increased participants' worry about, feelings of risk of, and perceived severity of harm of getting alcohol-re…
Impact of Self-Affirmation on Responses to Health Warning Messages
Self-affirmation theory has inspired numerous studies that have tried to understand the effects of self-affirmation on defensive processing of threatening health messages and subsequent behavior. Despite the overall positive effects of self-affirmation, psychological processes through which self-affirmation exerts such impact remain unclear. We examined Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) as a potential moderator of the effects of self-aff…
Primacy effect of emotions in social stories
How are we going to treat Chinese people during the pandemic? Media cultivation of intergroup threat and blame
This study integrates cultivation and intergroup threat theories to examine media cultivation effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that U.S. media have consistently portrayed China as a threat and target of blame. The cultivation of media has thus resulted in perceived threat of and blame on Chinese people for the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a cross-sectional survey in two samples (MTurk: N = 375; college: N = 566) showed that the amo…
Feasibility of a Computer Role-Playing Game to Promote Empathy in Nursing Students
Empathy is considered a cornerstone of high-quality health care and a required element of nursing education. Although computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a promising tool to promote clinical empathy, little is known about how and why it is effective at improving empathy. The goal of the current study is to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a CRPG on nursing students' empathy with a focus on immersiveness and perspective. Result…
Analyzing narrative contagion through digital storytelling in social media conversations
Despite the growing popularity of digital narratives, research on digital storytelling and its spread through social media interactions remains limited. Inspired by the social contagion theory, we introduce the concept of narrative contagion —where a story shared by a person or organization prompts others to share their stories—and investigate its process and outcome in online cancer communities. Utilizing a large dataset of 849 Facebook posts, 4…
Effects of self-affirmation on responses toward graphic cigarette warning labels
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of self-affirmation on African American smokers' intentions to quit smoking sooner and desire to stop smoking altogether in response to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels. It also tested the mediating role of perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy in explaining the impact of self-affirmation. Design/methodology/approach African American smokers ( N = 158) were recruited to part…
Feasibility of a Computer Role-Playing Game to Promote Empathy in Nursing Students
Empathy is considered a cornerstone of high-quality health care and a required element of nursing education. Although computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are a promising tool to promote clinical empathy, little is known about how and why it is effective at improving empathy. The goal of the current study is to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a CRPG on nursing students' empathy with a focus on immersiveness and perspective. Result…
Self-Affirmation Does Not Change Smokers’ Explicit or Implicit Attitudes Toward Smoking Following Exposure to Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels
Self-affirmation has shown promise in promoting prohealth attitudes following exposure to threatening health messages by reducing defensive processing of such messages. We examine the impact of self-affirmation prior to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels on implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking in a sample of African American smokers (N = 151). Participants held negative explicit and implicit attitudes toward smoking. We found no d…
Public Health Messaging during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that effective public health messaging is an indispensable component of a robust pandemic response system. In this article, we review decades of research from the interdisciplinary field of communication science and provide evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 public health messaging. We take a principled approach by systematically examining the communication process, focusing on decisions about what…
Predicting Intentions to Vaccinate against Covid-19 and Seasonal Flu
Understanding the social-psychological determinants of the public's perceptions and intentions related to vaccination is key to promoting vaccination. The current study examines how individual differences in consideration of future and immediate consequences (CFC-F and CFC-I) impact risk perceptions of, and intentions to vaccinate against, COVID-19 and seasonal flu. A survey of 395 adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk during April and May of 2020 sho…
The Role of Narrative Pictorial Warning Labels in Communicating Alcohol-Related Cancer Risks
This study examined the role of pictorial warning labels (PWLs) featuring narrative content in communicating alcohol-related cancer risks. In an online experiment, 169 adult alcohol consumers were randomly assigned to view two narrative PWLs, two non-narrative PWLs, or control. Results showed that exposure to narrative PWLs significantly increased participants' worry about, feelings of risk of, and perceived severity of harm of getting alcohol-re…
Impact of Self-Affirmation on Responses to Health Warning Messages
Self-affirmation theory has inspired numerous studies that have tried to understand the effects of self-affirmation on defensive processing of threatening health messages and subsequent behavior. Despite the overall positive effects of self-affirmation, psychological processes through which self-affirmation exerts such impact remain unclear. We examined Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) as a potential moderator of the effects of self-aff…
Primacy effect of emotions in social stories
How are we going to treat Chinese people during the pandemic? Media cultivation of intergroup threat and blame
This study integrates cultivation and intergroup threat theories to examine media cultivation effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that U.S. media have consistently portrayed China as a threat and target of blame. The cultivation of media has thus resulted in perceived threat of and blame on Chinese people for the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a cross-sectional survey in two samples (MTurk: N = 375; college: N = 566) showed that the amo…
Designing Cancer Warning Labels for Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol is a known carcinogen. However, public awareness of cancer risk associated with alcohol use is low. A promising approach to raising awareness is to include cancer warning labels on alcohol-containing products, but there is limited knowledge of the design and effect of such warnings. The present study investigated the impact of visual elements on the effectiveness of cancer warning labels. In a randomized online experiment, alcohol consume…
Is My Story Better Than His Story? Understanding the Effects and Mechanisms of Narrative Point of View in the Opioid Context
Sharing the stories of people whose lives are impacted by Opioid Use Disorders (OUDs) can be a promising strategy to reduce stigma and increase support for beneficial public policies. Since a story can be told from a first-person or third-person point of view (POV), this study sought to (1) determine the relative persuasive effects of narrative POV and (2) identify the underlying psychological mechanisms, including character identification and ps…
Stories that engage the audience
Present, empathetic, and persuaded
Immersive narratives-narratives viewed in immersive mediated environments-are a promising tool for increasing empathy and persuasion due to their presumed capacity to place viewers inside a story world. Empirical studies, however, have produced mixed findings. This meta-analysis synthesized findings on the effects of narratives viewed in high (vs. low) immersive environments on empathy and persuasion (k = 25). It also examined the impact of narra…
“Are we saying every time you drink, you’ll get cancer?” Lessons learned from a focus group study of communicating difficult-to-swallow health-risk information
This essay explores lessons learned when conducting focus group interviews with participants exposed to novel health-risk messages. Focus group participants exposed to new health-risk information might be defensive, affecting the quality of the data collected. Hence, accounting for potential participant defensiveness is of great importance for researchers who are developing and testing these health-risk messages. In this essay, I identify two for…
How Information Repertoire Affects Vaccine Hesitancy
As information consumption plays a critical role in addressing vaccine hesitancy in the hybrid media environment, it becomes crucial to understand how individuals' use of a combination of channels and sources affects their vaccine hesitancy. Based on information repertoire approaches emphasizing the multiplicity of channels and sources, we investigated different patterns of information repertoire related to the COVID-19 pandemic and how these pat…
“You are Telling the Story Yourself”
Pictorial warning labels (PWLs) featuring narrative content are promising strategies for communicating health risks and motivating behavior change. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify what intrinsic features a PWL must have to be constructed as a narrative and (2) uncover in what ways narrative PWLs are perceived as being (in)effective. Seven online focus groups were conducted via Zoom with moderate and heavy drinkers (n = 30). Part…
Overcoming Health Information Inequities
Although Valley fever represents a growing public health challenge for Central and Southern Californian residents, awareness remains severely limited. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) ran a cross-platform campaign to mitigate this awareness gap and impact prevention behavior. This study evaluates exposure to the CDPH campaign, followed by an examination of the information consumption patterns associated with key health outcomes. …
“I Can See a Story from the Warning”
This study examined the role of perceived narrativity in pictorial warning labels (PWLs) in countering warning reactance and increasing warning effectiveness and support in the context of communicating the cancer risk of alcohol. Findings from a randomized experiment (N = 1,188) showed that PWLs with imagery of lived experience were perceived higher in narrativity than those with imagery of graphic health effects. Adding a one-sentence narrative …
Impact of Emotional Awareness on Responses to Vaccine-Related Narrative Misinformation
Emotionally evocative narratives are a common strategy to spread vaccine-related misinformation on social media. This study tested the use of two emotional awareness strategies – affect labeling and reflections of feelings – to mitigate the impact of misinformation. The online experiment (N = 143) found that emotional awareness (vs. control) led to greater felt emotions and concerns about HPV vaccine safety among female participants. Felt emotion…
Analyzing narrative contagion through digital storytelling in social media conversations
Despite the growing popularity of digital narratives, research on digital storytelling and its spread through social media interactions remains limited. Inspired by the social contagion theory, we introduce the concept of narrative contagion —where a story shared by a person or organization prompts others to share their stories—and investigate its process and outcome in online cancer communities. Utilizing a large dataset of 849 Facebook posts, 4…
Words that trigger
Psychological reactance theory is an important theoretical framework that explains resistance to persuasive messages. However, research has shown inconsistencies regarding the effects of reactance on persuasion, the operational treatment of reactance, and the manipulation of threatening language. This meta-analysis (k = 35, combined N = 10,658) consolidates findings from research on psychological reactance in health communication regarding the as…
The Role of Narratives in Countering Health Misinformation
Given the prevalence of health misinformation, it is essential to develop interventions to correct misinformation and reduce its negative influence. Emerging research has investigated the use of narratives as both prebunking and debunking strategies, but the findings are mixed regarding their effectiveness. This systematic scoping review aimed to examine the role of narratives in countering health misinformation, drawing on evidence from 19 studi…
Binge Drinking Status as a Moderator in Narrative Versus Non-Narrative Pictorial Warning Labels
This study examined the potential role of binge drinking status in moderating the persuasive effects of narrative versus non-narrative pictorial warning labels (PWLs). In an online longitudinal experiment involving moderate and heavy drinkers, we found that the interaction between binge drinking status and PWL type was significant for intentions to reduce and stop drinking upon immediate PWL exposure (N = 649) and at two-week follow-up (N = 598).…
The persuasive effects of narratives
This systematic review of reviews aimed to determine whether and the extent to which narratives were persuasive. Our analysis of 30 systematic reviews revealed an overall persuasive advantage of narratives with a few nuances. First, the evidence was mixed when narratives were compared to statistics. In contrast, narratives showed greater persuasiveness when compared to other types of control. Second, patient narratives aided medical decision-maki…
Understanding and Mitigating Substance Use in Social Settings with Virtual Reality
Background: Substance use often takes place in social settings. Virtual reality (VR) can simulate social settings such as being offered substances and being around others who use substances at a party. Objectives: This study reviews the emerging literature on using VR to examine substance use in social contexts and explore intervention strategies to reduce such behavior. Results: The findings indicate that most research focuses on alcohol consump…
Psychology (22 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Media Influence and Health (15 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Narrative (11 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (8 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Health communication (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Media Studies and Communication (6 works)