M Cruz
Biographic Data
| ID | 70081 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Cruz |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Cruz |
| SIGNATURE | CRUZ M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5244-5461 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Breaking Barriers to Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is recognized as a sustainable urban water management solution. However, community stewardship remains low for various reasons, many of which are socio-cognitive and context-specific. This research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the role of knowledge, experience, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and demographic factors in predicting residents’ GSI stewardship…
When Leaders Are Hard to Find
Diffusion of innovations theory proposes that opinion leaders can enhance the success of science communication campaigns. Such strategies hinge on an assumption that target communities include well-connected and trusted members who need only be identified and recruited. However, sparse or difficult to engage communication networks may not meet this assumption, making opinion leader-based interventions ineffective or impossible. This project revie…
Oneness With the Source as a Means of Reducing Motivated Reasoning About Climate Policy
Addressing climate change requires persuading political conservatives—many of whom remain skeptical of climate science—to support climate initiatives. A possible method of reducing conservatives’ resistance to such messages is to use a source that matches their political identity. We attempted to replicate previous findings that perceived oneness with the source may explain why source matching increases persuasiveness for both a targeted attitude…
Measurement invariance of core communication constructs across race, nationality, and age
Communication science has been criticized for relying on WEIRD samples. One question that arises from such criticisms is whether core communication constructs and measures generalize to different demographic groups. In other words, are measures of common communication variables interpreted similarly across groups? In this study, we assess the measurement invariance of numerous scales that are used commonly in research on communication science acr…
Testing the Predictive Power of a Cognitive-Structural Approach to Message Design
Several theoretical approaches suggest that a promising approach to designing effective, tailored persuasive messages may be to draw on insights from an audience’s shared cognitive structure. Specifically, a cognitive-structural approach to message design would suggest that messages targeting central concepts in an audience’s shared cognitive structure will have stronger persuasive effects than messages targeting more peripheral concepts. The pre…
A Responsabilidade Civil Dos Influenciadores Digitais Por Publicidade De Jogos De Azar Nas Redes Sociais
O presente trabalho tem por finalidade analisar a responsabilidade civil dos influenciadores digitais, ou digital influencers, na divulgação e veiculação de publicidade dos jogos de azar considerados ilegais pela legislação brasileira, a teor do Decreto-Lei no 3.688, de 03 de outubro de 1941. Com vistas a fundamentar o estudo, buscou-se analisar o que seriam os jogos de azar e sua diferenciação das apostas de quota fixa, regulamentadas recentemen…
Connecting education and persuasion
A Critical Analysis of the K–12 Movement for Ethnic Studies and Response to Fidelity at the Forefront
The Role of Fatigue in a Campus Covid-19 Safety Behaviors Campaign
Message fatigue is the aversive motivational state that results from excessive exposure to campaign messages or similar information over an extended period of time. When fatigued, individuals become less attentive, less responsive, and more resistant to campaign messages and related information. Thus, understanding the bases and functioning of fatigue in persuasive health campaigns has obvious value. Despite considerable interest in this importan…
On the nature of influence
An important component of theoretical and applied work on social influence is identifying influential people. Boster et al.'s theoretical framework on superdiffusers provides one method of doing so, but important questions on the nature of influence remain. In particular, because existing studies have primarily sampled U.S. college students, it remains unclear whether (a) the framework adequately characterizes superdiffusers in different populati…
Expansion and Exploration of the Superdiffuser Model With Agent-Based Modeling
The superdiffuser model predicts that the diffusion of a new behavior can be accelerated if superdiffusers (people who are connectors, persuaders, and mavens) are recruited to promote the behavior. We propose an expanded model where the importance of these traits varies by network structure and other network member characteristics. We assessed the plausibility of these proposed moderators using a simulation of an agent-based model in which each m…
The Roles of Identity- and Belief-Driven Motivated Reasoning and Source Credibility in Persuasion on Climate Change Policy
Developing effective messages to promote climate action requires an understanding of how these messages are processed by different groups. Though the influence of partisan identity on this processing is well established, much less is known about the role of preexisting climate beliefs. Furthermore, scholars have recently raised the possibility that what appear to be partisan effects on message judgments may simply be byproducts of accuracy-driven…
Seeking support via mediated channels
Previous research suggests that impression management goals and face threats can be barriers to seeking support, especially among college students and those facing severe problems that are highly stigmatized. In such cases, technologically-mediated communication channels (TMCCs) may be an important resource because they have unique affordances that can help overcome impression concerns and thereby promote well-being. To examine this possibility, …
Persuasive Messages, Social Norms, and Reactance
Efforts by universities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 include health campaigns intended to encourage students to wear masks. While well-intended, these efforts may produce counter-persuasion (e.g., decrease masking) if they are seen as threatening individuals’ freedom to choose. In a rolling cross-sectional study of one university campaign (n = 681), we found that the presence of the campaign did instigate a form of resistance known as reactan…
The role of social media activism in offline conservation attitudes and behaviors
Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages
Benchmarking methods and data for the whole-outline geometric morphometric analysis of lithic tools
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Cultural Evolution Society for funding this workshop. Additional costs were covered by funds made available by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (project COMPARCH, Grant Number 1113-00015B). David N. Matzig and Felix Riede's contributions are part of CLIOARCH, an ERC Consolidator Grant project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and …
Relational Communication as a Partnership-Building Tool for Environmental Nonprofits
Environmental nonprofits (ENPOs) play vital roles in addressing environmental problems. To succeed, ENPOs must be adept at developing and maintaining successful partnerships with businesses, government agencies, and other NPOs. Even though evidence suggests ENPOs rely on these partnerships more than NPOs in other cause areas, however, relatively few empirical studies have focused on how they find success. This study explored what types of partner…
Working with Institutional Stakeholders
Community engagement is a vital aspect of addressing environmental contamination and remediation. In the United States, the Superfund Research Program (SRP) forms groups of academic researchers from the social and physical sciences into Community Engagement Cores (CECs) and Research Translation Cores (RTCs), which focus on various aspects of informing and working with communities during and through the resolution of environmental crises. While th…
The Effect of Dioxin Contamination and Remediation on Property Values
Loss of property value is a major concern in communities faced with the toxic byproducts of industrial practices. Even after site remediation, stigma may persist and negatively affect market values of residential properties. To study the effects of contamination and of remediation on property values in Midland, Michigan, where dioxins have been released into the environment through the incineration of contaminated waste and the discharge of conta…
Trust in whom? Dioxin, organizations, risk perception, and fish consumption in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay watershed
Trust is generally recognized as important for risk-relevant behavior but research suggests that trust in different organizations may have varying effects. This research advances the literature by testing two hypotheses which postulate that this variability can be explained by risk perception. We collected data from 351 anglers regarding their trust in nine organizations whose efforts are relevant to dioxin contamination in Michigan's Saginaw Bay…
The relationships of political ideology and party affiliation with environmental concern
Environmental Stigma
This article examined the extent to which residents living in the Midland-Saginaw-Bay City area in Eastern Michigan felt stigmatized due to industrial contamination. Seventy in-depth interviews were conducted with local residents, focusing on the extent to which they experienced three aspects of stigma-affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Results indicated that although some participants were not concerned with living in a contaminated community…
Evaluation of an Instructional Activity to Reduce Plagiarism in the Communication Classroom
The presence of norms in the absence of groups? The impact of normative influence under hidden-profile conditions
The presence of norms in the absence of groups? The impact of normative influence under hidden-profile conditions
Benchmarking methods and data for the whole-outline geometric morphometric analysis of lithic tools
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Cultural Evolution Society for funding this workshop. Additional costs were covered by funds made available by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (project COMPARCH, Grant Number 1113-00015B). David N. Matzig and Felix Riede's contributions are part of CLIOARCH, an ERC Consolidator Grant project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and …
Seeking support via mediated channels
Previous research suggests that impression management goals and face threats can be barriers to seeking support, especially among college students and those facing severe problems that are highly stigmatized. In such cases, technologically-mediated communication channels (TMCCs) may be an important resource because they have unique affordances that can help overcome impression concerns and thereby promote well-being. To examine this possibility, …
Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages
Environmental Stigma
This article examined the extent to which residents living in the Midland-Saginaw-Bay City area in Eastern Michigan felt stigmatized due to industrial contamination. Seventy in-depth interviews were conducted with local residents, focusing on the extent to which they experienced three aspects of stigma-affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Results indicated that although some participants were not concerned with living in a contaminated community…
Evaluation of an Instructional Activity to Reduce Plagiarism in the Communication Classroom
The presence of norms in the absence of groups? The impact of normative influence under hidden-profile conditions
Evaluation of an Instructional Activity to Reduce Plagiarism in the Communication Classroom
Environmental Stigma
This article examined the extent to which residents living in the Midland-Saginaw-Bay City area in Eastern Michigan felt stigmatized due to industrial contamination. Seventy in-depth interviews were conducted with local residents, focusing on the extent to which they experienced three aspects of stigma-affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Results indicated that although some participants were not concerned with living in a contaminated community…
The relationships of political ideology and party affiliation with environmental concern
Trust in whom? Dioxin, organizations, risk perception, and fish consumption in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay watershed
Trust is generally recognized as important for risk-relevant behavior but research suggests that trust in different organizations may have varying effects. This research advances the literature by testing two hypotheses which postulate that this variability can be explained by risk perception. We collected data from 351 anglers regarding their trust in nine organizations whose efforts are relevant to dioxin contamination in Michigan's Saginaw Bay…
Working with Institutional Stakeholders
Community engagement is a vital aspect of addressing environmental contamination and remediation. In the United States, the Superfund Research Program (SRP) forms groups of academic researchers from the social and physical sciences into Community Engagement Cores (CECs) and Research Translation Cores (RTCs), which focus on various aspects of informing and working with communities during and through the resolution of environmental crises. While th…
The Effect of Dioxin Contamination and Remediation on Property Values
Loss of property value is a major concern in communities faced with the toxic byproducts of industrial practices. Even after site remediation, stigma may persist and negatively affect market values of residential properties. To study the effects of contamination and of remediation on property values in Midland, Michigan, where dioxins have been released into the environment through the incineration of contaminated waste and the discharge of conta…
Relational Communication as a Partnership-Building Tool for Environmental Nonprofits
Environmental nonprofits (ENPOs) play vital roles in addressing environmental problems. To succeed, ENPOs must be adept at developing and maintaining successful partnerships with businesses, government agencies, and other NPOs. Even though evidence suggests ENPOs rely on these partnerships more than NPOs in other cause areas, however, relatively few empirical studies have focused on how they find success. This study explored what types of partner…
Persuasive Messages, Social Norms, and Reactance
Efforts by universities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 include health campaigns intended to encourage students to wear masks. While well-intended, these efforts may produce counter-persuasion (e.g., decrease masking) if they are seen as threatening individuals’ freedom to choose. In a rolling cross-sectional study of one university campaign (n = 681), we found that the presence of the campaign did instigate a form of resistance known as reactan…
The role of social media activism in offline conservation attitudes and behaviors
Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages
Benchmarking methods and data for the whole-outline geometric morphometric analysis of lithic tools
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Cultural Evolution Society for funding this workshop. Additional costs were covered by funds made available by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (project COMPARCH, Grant Number 1113-00015B). David N. Matzig and Felix Riede's contributions are part of CLIOARCH, an ERC Consolidator Grant project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and …
Expansion and Exploration of the Superdiffuser Model With Agent-Based Modeling
The superdiffuser model predicts that the diffusion of a new behavior can be accelerated if superdiffusers (people who are connectors, persuaders, and mavens) are recruited to promote the behavior. We propose an expanded model where the importance of these traits varies by network structure and other network member characteristics. We assessed the plausibility of these proposed moderators using a simulation of an agent-based model in which each m…
The Roles of Identity- and Belief-Driven Motivated Reasoning and Source Credibility in Persuasion on Climate Change Policy
Developing effective messages to promote climate action requires an understanding of how these messages are processed by different groups. Though the influence of partisan identity on this processing is well established, much less is known about the role of preexisting climate beliefs. Furthermore, scholars have recently raised the possibility that what appear to be partisan effects on message judgments may simply be byproducts of accuracy-driven…
Seeking support via mediated channels
Previous research suggests that impression management goals and face threats can be barriers to seeking support, especially among college students and those facing severe problems that are highly stigmatized. In such cases, technologically-mediated communication channels (TMCCs) may be an important resource because they have unique affordances that can help overcome impression concerns and thereby promote well-being. To examine this possibility, …
Measurement invariance of core communication constructs across race, nationality, and age
Communication science has been criticized for relying on WEIRD samples. One question that arises from such criticisms is whether core communication constructs and measures generalize to different demographic groups. In other words, are measures of common communication variables interpreted similarly across groups? In this study, we assess the measurement invariance of numerous scales that are used commonly in research on communication science acr…
Testing the Predictive Power of a Cognitive-Structural Approach to Message Design
Several theoretical approaches suggest that a promising approach to designing effective, tailored persuasive messages may be to draw on insights from an audience’s shared cognitive structure. Specifically, a cognitive-structural approach to message design would suggest that messages targeting central concepts in an audience’s shared cognitive structure will have stronger persuasive effects than messages targeting more peripheral concepts. The pre…
A Responsabilidade Civil Dos Influenciadores Digitais Por Publicidade De Jogos De Azar Nas Redes Sociais
O presente trabalho tem por finalidade analisar a responsabilidade civil dos influenciadores digitais, ou digital influencers, na divulgação e veiculação de publicidade dos jogos de azar considerados ilegais pela legislação brasileira, a teor do Decreto-Lei no 3.688, de 03 de outubro de 1941. Com vistas a fundamentar o estudo, buscou-se analisar o que seriam os jogos de azar e sua diferenciação das apostas de quota fixa, regulamentadas recentemen…
Connecting education and persuasion
A Critical Analysis of the K–12 Movement for Ethnic Studies and Response to Fidelity at the Forefront
The Role of Fatigue in a Campus Covid-19 Safety Behaviors Campaign
Message fatigue is the aversive motivational state that results from excessive exposure to campaign messages or similar information over an extended period of time. When fatigued, individuals become less attentive, less responsive, and more resistant to campaign messages and related information. Thus, understanding the bases and functioning of fatigue in persuasive health campaigns has obvious value. Despite considerable interest in this importan…
On the nature of influence
An important component of theoretical and applied work on social influence is identifying influential people. Boster et al.'s theoretical framework on superdiffusers provides one method of doing so, but important questions on the nature of influence remain. In particular, because existing studies have primarily sampled U.S. college students, it remains unclear whether (a) the framework adequately characterizes superdiffusers in different populati…
Breaking Barriers to Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is recognized as a sustainable urban water management solution. However, community stewardship remains low for various reasons, many of which are socio-cognitive and context-specific. This research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the role of knowledge, experience, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and demographic factors in predicting residents’ GSI stewardship…
When Leaders Are Hard to Find
Diffusion of innovations theory proposes that opinion leaders can enhance the success of science communication campaigns. Such strategies hinge on an assumption that target communities include well-connected and trusted members who need only be identified and recruited. However, sparse or difficult to engage communication networks may not meet this assumption, making opinion leader-based interventions ineffective or impossible. This project revie…
Oneness With the Source as a Means of Reducing Motivated Reasoning About Climate Policy
Addressing climate change requires persuading political conservatives—many of whom remain skeptical of climate science—to support climate initiatives. A possible method of reducing conservatives’ resistance to such messages is to use a source that matches their political identity. We attempted to replicate previous findings that perceived oneness with the source may explain why source matching increases persuasiveness for both a targeted attitude…
Psychology (15 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Biology (5 works) · Business (5 works)