C Peacock
Biographic Data
| ID | 54429 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C Peacock |
| GIVEN NAMES | C |
| FAMILY NAME | Peacock |
| SIGNATURE | PEACOCK C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alabama |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1807-0301 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 54 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Relational Load of Political Dissimilarity in Romantic Relationships
Drawing on the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL), this study offers a novel integration of political and relational communication by examining how political differences operate within romantic relationships to shape relational strain. Survey data from more than 800 individuals in committed romantic relationships assessed perceived political similarity, the importance of (a) exchanging political opinions, (b) having similar political…
Enabling play streets in Leeds’ priority neighbourhoods: Questions of social, spatial and environmental justice
Monitoring and correcting: Why women read and men comment online
Using a probability sample of online news commenters and comment readers from the United States, we investigate gender differences in online commenting. We focus on two distinct behaviors in these spaces: commenting and reading and the motivations behind these practices. Our results indicate that men are more likely to leave online comments, while women are more likely to read online comments and not comment. Men are more likely than women to rep…
Detectable differences or functional equivalents? Assessing the reliability and validity of two measures of online network diversity
Political communication researchers commonly use one of two strategies to measure online network diversity: a “subjective” approach tapping participants’ impressions of the diversity in their networks, or a “structural” approach that asks about the socioeconomic position of individuals within their networks. While these measures are largely treated as functional equivalents in research about information technology and politics, we demonstrate tha…
Love and politics: The influence of politically (dis)similar romantic relationships on political participation and relationship satisfaction
People are more likely to seek out romantic partners who are politically similar to themselves. Nonetheless, romantic partners who disagree politically do exist. This study examines the influence of political (dis)similarity in romantic relationships on both political participation and relationship satisfaction. We found that (1) people in politically similar romantic relationships are more satisfied in their relationships and more politically pa…
Networks and Selective Avoidance: How Social Media Networks Influence Unfriending and Other Avoidance Behaviors
From time to time, some social media users avoid content posted by specific people in their networks. Most research on such selective avoidance has focused on individual motivations and other psychological factors rather than on social network characteristics, and there is a need for a systematic analysis of the relationships between individuals’ social media networks and selective avoidance. This study fills that gap in the literature, drawing o…
Using Moral Foundations to Assess Stereotypes: Americans' Perceptions of Immigrants and Refugees
This study considers the role of moral foundations in the formation and perpetuation of Americans’ stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. The results of two content analyses and an inductive thematic analysis of open-ended data show that American respondents hold different stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. Refugees were described using language relates to the care/harm moral foundation, while immigrants were described in terms of loyalty/b…
Diversity, Disagreement, and Expression across Liberal, Conservative, and Mixed Groups
The notion that a healthy democracy requires a public who discusses politics is based on the assumption that discussions expose people to perspective that differ from their own. That people generally prefer to avoid political disagreements, however, suggests that people may withhold their opinions during such encounters. This work couples survey responses and a content analysis of sixty political discussions from a nationally representative sampl…
Choosing a Candidate: Traits, Issues, and Electability
This research investigates the roles of issues, traits, and electability in the 2020 U.S. presidential nominating contest. These analyses utilize survey data gathered at political rallies in Iowa leading up to the caucuses and state and national news coverage. First, we identified the traits and issues respondents used to describe their support for a particular Democratic candidate over others. Next, we determined how issues, traits, and electabi…
The Effects of Mobile Push Notifications on News Consumption and Learning
A number of mobile news apps deploy push notifications that appear on users’ locked screens and alert users to breaking news. Push notifications are theoretically important because they transcend the traditional divide between purposeful and incidental news exposure. We analyze whether push notifications affect people’s reported use of a news app and what people learn about the news. In this paper, we report on the results of a 2 (install the CNN…
The Effects of News Site Design on Engagement and Learning
Several news websites have adopted a homepage design that emphasizes the reduction of visual clutter and the limiting of prominence cues. We examine how site design affects news engagement and what people learn from the news. Across three experiments conducted in the U.S., we provide evidence that a more contemporary, visual-based, grid-like design enhances page views and learning from the articles compared to a more classic, text-based, hierarch…
Hyperpartisan News Use: Relationships with Partisanship and Cognitive and Affective Involvement
This paper revisits the issue of partisan selectivity in the era of prevalent false, misleading, and biased information. We surveyed a representative sample of adults living in the United States to investigate the relationships among hyperpartisan news use, partisanship, and cognitive and affective involvement. First, we find that strong partisanship—from both Democrats and Republicans—relates to exposure to both left- and right-leaning hyperpart…
The effect of news labels on perceived credibility
Two online experiments examined whether news labels attract reader attention and affect news story credibility. Both studies showed that labels garner little attention from newsreaders and do not influence perceptions of news story credibility. However, Study 2 demonstrated that a label that explained the type of news story produced better recall of labels and more accurate recommendations of what the label should be. Findings suggest that if lab…
A Third Wave of Selective Exposure Research? The Challenges Posed by Hyperpartisan News on Social Media
Hyperpartisan news on social media presents new challenges for selective exposure theory. These challenges are substantial enough to usher in a new era—a third wave—of selective exposure research. In this essay, we trace the history of the first two waves of research in order to better understand the current situation. We then assess the implications of recent developments for selective exposure research
The Gender Gap in Online News Comment Sections
Women are less likely than men to discuss or engage in politics. This study extends research on the gender gap in politics to an online context by exploring whether women are less likely to engage in political discussion online, whether this follows socialization theories of a private versus public sphere distinction, and whether perceptions of incivility help to explain these gender differences. Through a survey of commenters and comment readers…
The deliberative influence of comment section structure
Online news comment sections are a ubiquitous presence across media outlets. Although research has assessed both the content and effects of these comment spaces, little is known about how the structure of comment spaces influences news users’ online commentary. As democratic theorists argue, the structure of a communicative space can influence its deliberative quality. We conducted two separate experiments to determine how news comment section st…
Engaging Young People: Deliberative Preferences in Discussions About News and Politics
The Internet affords users a unique and low-cost way to engage with news, politics, and one another. Although young people are the most likely age cohort to go online, it is questionable whether young people take advantage of the Internet as a deliberative space. We examine the way college students perceive the online world as a venue for political discussion by analyzing responses from six focus groups conducted with college students across the …
The Cross-Pressured Citizen in the 2012 Presidential Campaign: Formative Factors and Media Choice Behavior
The cross-pressured citizen-a person who affiliates with one political party but plans to vote for the nominee of another-embodies the complicated nature of political decision making. Enduring considerable scrutiny since the pioneering campaign studies of the 1940s and 1950s, the role of the cross-pressured partisan in a presidential election campaign is still not fully understood by scholars. First, this study explores who the cross-pressured pa…
The deliberative influence of comment section structure
Online news comment sections are a ubiquitous presence across media outlets. Although research has assessed both the content and effects of these comment spaces, little is known about how the structure of comment spaces influences news users’ online commentary. As democratic theorists argue, the structure of a communicative space can influence its deliberative quality. We conducted two separate experiments to determine how news comment section st…
The Gender Gap in Online News Comment Sections
Women are less likely than men to discuss or engage in politics. This study extends research on the gender gap in politics to an online context by exploring whether women are less likely to engage in political discussion online, whether this follows socialization theories of a private versus public sphere distinction, and whether perceptions of incivility help to explain these gender differences. Through a survey of commenters and comment readers…
The effect of news labels on perceived credibility
Two online experiments examined whether news labels attract reader attention and affect news story credibility. Both studies showed that labels garner little attention from newsreaders and do not influence perceptions of news story credibility. However, Study 2 demonstrated that a label that explained the type of news story produced better recall of labels and more accurate recommendations of what the label should be. Findings suggest that if lab…
Networks and Selective Avoidance: How Social Media Networks Influence Unfriending and Other Avoidance Behaviors
From time to time, some social media users avoid content posted by specific people in their networks. Most research on such selective avoidance has focused on individual motivations and other psychological factors rather than on social network characteristics, and there is a need for a systematic analysis of the relationships between individuals’ social media networks and selective avoidance. This study fills that gap in the literature, drawing o…
Using Moral Foundations to Assess Stereotypes: Americans' Perceptions of Immigrants and Refugees
This study considers the role of moral foundations in the formation and perpetuation of Americans’ stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. The results of two content analyses and an inductive thematic analysis of open-ended data show that American respondents hold different stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. Refugees were described using language relates to the care/harm moral foundation, while immigrants were described in terms of loyalty/b…
Hyperpartisan News Use: Relationships with Partisanship and Cognitive and Affective Involvement
This paper revisits the issue of partisan selectivity in the era of prevalent false, misleading, and biased information. We surveyed a representative sample of adults living in the United States to investigate the relationships among hyperpartisan news use, partisanship, and cognitive and affective involvement. First, we find that strong partisanship—from both Democrats and Republicans—relates to exposure to both left- and right-leaning hyperpart…
The Effects of News Site Design on Engagement and Learning
Several news websites have adopted a homepage design that emphasizes the reduction of visual clutter and the limiting of prominence cues. We examine how site design affects news engagement and what people learn from the news. Across three experiments conducted in the U.S., we provide evidence that a more contemporary, visual-based, grid-like design enhances page views and learning from the articles compared to a more classic, text-based, hierarch…
The Cross-Pressured Citizen in the 2012 Presidential Campaign: Formative Factors and Media Choice Behavior
The cross-pressured citizen-a person who affiliates with one political party but plans to vote for the nominee of another-embodies the complicated nature of political decision making. Enduring considerable scrutiny since the pioneering campaign studies of the 1940s and 1950s, the role of the cross-pressured partisan in a presidential election campaign is still not fully understood by scholars. First, this study explores who the cross-pressured pa…
Engaging Young People: Deliberative Preferences in Discussions About News and Politics
The Internet affords users a unique and low-cost way to engage with news, politics, and one another. Although young people are the most likely age cohort to go online, it is questionable whether young people take advantage of the Internet as a deliberative space. We examine the way college students perceive the online world as a venue for political discussion by analyzing responses from six focus groups conducted with college students across the …
The deliberative influence of comment section structure
Online news comment sections are a ubiquitous presence across media outlets. Although research has assessed both the content and effects of these comment spaces, little is known about how the structure of comment spaces influences news users’ online commentary. As democratic theorists argue, the structure of a communicative space can influence its deliberative quality. We conducted two separate experiments to determine how news comment section st…
A Third Wave of Selective Exposure Research? The Challenges Posed by Hyperpartisan News on Social Media
Hyperpartisan news on social media presents new challenges for selective exposure theory. These challenges are substantial enough to usher in a new era—a third wave—of selective exposure research. In this essay, we trace the history of the first two waves of research in order to better understand the current situation. We then assess the implications of recent developments for selective exposure research
The Gender Gap in Online News Comment Sections
Women are less likely than men to discuss or engage in politics. This study extends research on the gender gap in politics to an online context by exploring whether women are less likely to engage in political discussion online, whether this follows socialization theories of a private versus public sphere distinction, and whether perceptions of incivility help to explain these gender differences. Through a survey of commenters and comment readers…
The Effects of Mobile Push Notifications on News Consumption and Learning
A number of mobile news apps deploy push notifications that appear on users’ locked screens and alert users to breaking news. Push notifications are theoretically important because they transcend the traditional divide between purposeful and incidental news exposure. We analyze whether push notifications affect people’s reported use of a news app and what people learn about the news. In this paper, we report on the results of a 2 (install the CNN…
The Effects of News Site Design on Engagement and Learning
Several news websites have adopted a homepage design that emphasizes the reduction of visual clutter and the limiting of prominence cues. We examine how site design affects news engagement and what people learn from the news. Across three experiments conducted in the U.S., we provide evidence that a more contemporary, visual-based, grid-like design enhances page views and learning from the articles compared to a more classic, text-based, hierarch…
Hyperpartisan News Use: Relationships with Partisanship and Cognitive and Affective Involvement
This paper revisits the issue of partisan selectivity in the era of prevalent false, misleading, and biased information. We surveyed a representative sample of adults living in the United States to investigate the relationships among hyperpartisan news use, partisanship, and cognitive and affective involvement. First, we find that strong partisanship—from both Democrats and Republicans—relates to exposure to both left- and right-leaning hyperpart…
The effect of news labels on perceived credibility
Two online experiments examined whether news labels attract reader attention and affect news story credibility. Both studies showed that labels garner little attention from newsreaders and do not influence perceptions of news story credibility. However, Study 2 demonstrated that a label that explained the type of news story produced better recall of labels and more accurate recommendations of what the label should be. Findings suggest that if lab…
Diversity, Disagreement, and Expression across Liberal, Conservative, and Mixed Groups
The notion that a healthy democracy requires a public who discusses politics is based on the assumption that discussions expose people to perspective that differ from their own. That people generally prefer to avoid political disagreements, however, suggests that people may withhold their opinions during such encounters. This work couples survey responses and a content analysis of sixty political discussions from a nationally representative sampl…
Choosing a Candidate: Traits, Issues, and Electability
This research investigates the roles of issues, traits, and electability in the 2020 U.S. presidential nominating contest. These analyses utilize survey data gathered at political rallies in Iowa leading up to the caucuses and state and national news coverage. First, we identified the traits and issues respondents used to describe their support for a particular Democratic candidate over others. Next, we determined how issues, traits, and electabi…
Love and politics: The influence of politically (dis)similar romantic relationships on political participation and relationship satisfaction
People are more likely to seek out romantic partners who are politically similar to themselves. Nonetheless, romantic partners who disagree politically do exist. This study examines the influence of political (dis)similarity in romantic relationships on both political participation and relationship satisfaction. We found that (1) people in politically similar romantic relationships are more satisfied in their relationships and more politically pa…
Networks and Selective Avoidance: How Social Media Networks Influence Unfriending and Other Avoidance Behaviors
From time to time, some social media users avoid content posted by specific people in their networks. Most research on such selective avoidance has focused on individual motivations and other psychological factors rather than on social network characteristics, and there is a need for a systematic analysis of the relationships between individuals’ social media networks and selective avoidance. This study fills that gap in the literature, drawing o…
Using Moral Foundations to Assess Stereotypes: Americans' Perceptions of Immigrants and Refugees
This study considers the role of moral foundations in the formation and perpetuation of Americans’ stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. The results of two content analyses and an inductive thematic analysis of open-ended data show that American respondents hold different stereotypes of immigrants and refugees. Refugees were described using language relates to the care/harm moral foundation, while immigrants were described in terms of loyalty/b…
Monitoring and correcting: Why women read and men comment online
Using a probability sample of online news commenters and comment readers from the United States, we investigate gender differences in online commenting. We focus on two distinct behaviors in these spaces: commenting and reading and the motivations behind these practices. Our results indicate that men are more likely to leave online comments, while women are more likely to read online comments and not comment. Men are more likely than women to rep…
Detectable differences or functional equivalents? Assessing the reliability and validity of two measures of online network diversity
Political communication researchers commonly use one of two strategies to measure online network diversity: a “subjective” approach tapping participants’ impressions of the diversity in their networks, or a “structural” approach that asks about the socioeconomic position of individuals within their networks. While these measures are largely treated as functional equivalents in research about information technology and politics, we demonstrate tha…
Enabling play streets in Leeds’ priority neighbourhoods: Questions of social, spatial and environmental justice
The Relational Load of Political Dissimilarity in Romantic Relationships
Drawing on the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL), this study offers a novel integration of political and relational communication by examining how political differences operate within romantic relationships to shape relational strain. Survey data from more than 800 individuals in committed romantic relationships assessed perceived political similarity, the importance of (a) exchanging political opinions, (b) having similar political…
Political science (14 works) · Social Media and Politics (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Media Studies and Communication (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (5 works)