Emily B Falk
Biographic Data
| ID | 769997 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Emily B Falk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Emily B |
| FAMILY NAME | Falk |
| SIGNATURE | FALK E B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6383-1846 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Psychological correlates of self-reported code switching among Black Americans.
OBJECTIVES: Code switching is a concept that describes the ways people adapt their communication in different social settings, especially when there is potential for them to encounter social bias. In this study, we examine the psychosocial processes that are correlated with participants' self-reports of these everyday adaptations in their communication (i.e., participants' self-reported code switching tendencies). This work yields insight into po…
Staying connected: How close friendships supported emotional well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic
Close social relationships are critical for emotional well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted in-person contact with friends, particularly among young adults, for whom friendships support key developmental goals. In a longitudinal study of U.S. college students ( N = 205; 10,088 observations), we examined how close friendship networks related to emotional well-being during the early months of the pandemic (May-October 2020). Leveragi…
Finding agreement: Functional magnetic resonance imaginghyperscanning reveals that mental state space exploration facilitatesopinion alignment
To find agreement, conversation partners might focus solely on aligning their distinct perspectives. Alternatively, agreement might require partners to explore, by considering different, new perspectives. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) hyperscanning and natural language processing, we tested whether dyadic alignment or exploration during decision-making conversations was a more effective route to agreement. Dyads ( N = 60 dyad…
Profiles of Daily Positive Emotion Dynamics and Associations with Flourishing
Motivating and Supporting Youth to Vote Using Theory‐Driven Approaches
Many Americans distrust the government, are disillusioned with the political process, and don't view voting as an effective form of political engagement. Such disillusionment is higher among young Americans, who are disproportionately underrepresented in government. Although voting is an essential action citizens can take to influence and reshape the government, the majority of youth don't vote regularly. Youth face substantial structural and psy…
NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment
A socioemotional network perspective on momentary experiences of family conflict in young adults
Family conflict is an established predictor of psychopathology in youth. Traditional approaches focus on between‐family differences in conflict. Daily fluctuations in conflict within families might also impact psychopathology, but more research is needed to understand how and why. Using 21 days of daily diary data and 6‐times a day experience‐sampling data ( N = 77 participants; mean age = 21.18, SD = 1.75; 63 women, 14 men), we captured day‐to‐d…
Within-Person Temporal Associations Among Self-Reported Physical Activity, Sleep, and Well-Being in College Students
OBJECTIVE: A holistic understanding of the naturalistic dynamics among physical activity, sleep, emotions, and purpose in life as part of a system reflecting wellness is key to promoting well-being. The main aim of this study was to examine the day-to-day dynamics within this wellness system. METHODS: Using self-reported emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, anxiousness) and physical activity periods collected twice per day, and daily reports of s…
Causal effects of point-of-sale cigarette promotions and subjective social status on cigarette craving: A randomised within-person experiment
Viewing images of point-of-sale cigarette promotions can causally increase cravings to smoke, which may also apply to real-world retail settings that display cigarette promotions. Restricting point-of-sale promotions generally, and discounts specifically, could help reduce cigarette smoking and address tobacco use disparities in the USA
Daily Stressor-Related Negative Mood and its Associations with Flourishing and Daily Curiosity
There are pronounced individual differences in the extent to which affective responses are associated with daily stressor exposure. These individual differences have implications for health and well-being. We use 21 days of daily diary data in 167 participants (mean age = 25.37, SD = 7.34; 81.44% women) and test (1) the moderating effect of flourishing on daily stressor-related negative mood and (2) the moderating effect of daily curiosity on dai…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
Using first-person narratives about healthcare workers and people who are incarcerated to motivate helping behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic
Political Humor, Sharing, and Remembering: Insights from Neuroimaging
Over the last two decades, news-oriented comedy programs have risen to compete with traditional hard news media as sources of information about politics. To the extent that a politically knowledgeable electorate is necessary for a thriving democracy, understanding the mechanisms underlying the extent to which political comedy facilitates or inhibits a well-informed citizenry is critical. Across two studies, we use behavioral experiments and neuro…
Deliberation and Valence as Dissociable Components of Counterarguing among Smokers: Evidence from Neuroimaging and Quantitative Linguistic Analysis
Counterarguing is a key obstacle to successful persuasion. However, the difficulty of directly measuring counterarguing during message exposure limits knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. The current study combines neuroimaging and linguistic measures to unpack neurocognitive and psychological mechanisms associated with counterarguing among a sample of established smokers in response to anti-smoking messaging. We capture participants' neural a…
Gendered citation practices in the field of communication
In disciplines outside of communication, papers with women as first and last (i.e., senior) authors attract fewer citations than papers with men in those positions. Using data from 14 communication journals from 1995 to 2018, we find that reference lists include more papers with men as first and last author, and fewer papers with women as first and last author, than would be expected if gender were unrelated to referencing. This imbalance is driv…
Rejection sensitivity and interaction quality in everyday life
The elevated satisfaction that comes from interacting with close ties, as opposed to distal ties, is well-established in past research. What remains less clear is how the quality of daily interactions between close versus distal ties may vary as a function of personality. Drawing on data from a 2-week experience sampling study ( N = 108 participants, N = 7755 observations), we consider how trait rejection sensitivity (RS)-or the tendency to worry…
Message-Elicited Brain Response Moderates the Relationship Between Opportunities for Exposure to Anti-Smoking Messages and Message Recall
Campaign success is contingent on adequate exposure; however, exposure opportunities (e.g., ad reach/frequency) are imperfect predictors of message recall. We hypothesized that the exposure-recall relationship would be contingent on message processing. We tested moderation hypotheses using 3 data sets pertinent to “The Real Cost” anti-smoking campaign: past 30-day ad recall from a rolling national survey of adolescents aged 13–17 (n = 5,110); ad-…
Who likes to be reachable? Availability preferences, weak ties, and bridging social capital
In this paper, we investigate how individual differences in availability preferences are related to (1) self-reported quality of interaction with strong and weak ties and (2) perceptions of bridging social capital. We employed experience sampling methods and collected data over the course of two weeks—combined with surveys at baseline and endpoint, from a random sample of college students (N = 154). We show that individuals who prefer to be more …
Making social neuroscience less Weird: Using fNirs to measure neural signatures of persuasive influence in a Middle East participant sample
The large majority of social neuroscience research uses WEIRD populations-participants from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic locations. This makes it difficult to claim whether neuropsychological functions are universal or culture specific. In this study, we demonstrate one approach to addressing the imbalance by using portable neuroscience equipment in a study of persuasion conducted in Jordan with an Arabic-speaking sampl…
Promoting adolescent health: Insights from developmental and communication neuroscience
Adolescence is a period of remarkable psychosocial and neural development. Many life-long health habits are established during adolescence, making it a window of opportunity for health promotion. One way to promote adolescent health is through mass and social media campaigns. Although some health media campaigns that target adolescents are effective in changing health-relevant cognitions and behaviors, there is considerable room for improving the…
Self-Transcendent Values and Neural Responses to Threatening Health Messages
OBJECTIVE: Prioritizing self-transcendent values such as family and friends more than nontranscendent values such as wealth and privilege is associated with lower stress response. In this study, we tested whether having self-transcendent values can reduce specific responses in the brain in the context of potentially threatening health communications. METHODS: Sedentary adults (N = 67) who would likely feel threatened by health messages that highl…
Individual Differences in Learning Social and Non-Social Network Structures
Learning about complex associations between pieces of information enables individuals to quickly adjust their expectations and develop mental models. Yet, the degree to which humans can learn higher-order information about complex associations is not well understood; nor is it known whether the learning process differs for social and non-social information. Here, we employ a paradigm in which the order of stimulus presentation forms temporal asso…
The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation
Although the influence of peers on adolescent smoking should vary depending on social dynamics, there is a lack of understanding of which elements are most crucial and how this dynamic unfolds for smoking initiation and continuation across areas of the world. The present meta-analysis included 75 studies yielding 237 effect sizes that examined associations between peers' smoking and adolescents' smoking initiation and continuation with longitudin…
Neuroscience
Communication neuroscience is a subfield of communication studies that combines methods from social neuroscience and communications. Communication neuroscience encompasses studies that map neural systems associated with communication processes, as well as work that treats neural activity as a predictor, mediator, or moderator of communication processes and outcomes. For example, communication neuroscience aims to understand how direct and indirec…
Facebook in context(s): Measuring emotional responses across time and space
This article advances a contextual approach to understanding the emotional and social outcomes of Facebook use. In doing so, we address the ambiguity of previously reported relationships between Facebook use and well-being. We test temporal (shorter vs longer time spans) and spatial (at home vs away from home) dimensions of Facebook activity using an innovative approach. By triggering smartphone surveys in response to users’ naturalistic Facebook…
Impulsivity and inhibitory control deficits are associated with unhealthy eating in young adults
The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation
Although the influence of peers on adolescent smoking should vary depending on social dynamics, there is a lack of understanding of which elements are most crucial and how this dynamic unfolds for smoking initiation and continuation across areas of the world. The present meta-analysis included 75 studies yielding 237 effect sizes that examined associations between peers' smoking and adolescents' smoking initiation and continuation with longitudin…
Facebook in context(s): Measuring emotional responses across time and space
This article advances a contextual approach to understanding the emotional and social outcomes of Facebook use. In doing so, we address the ambiguity of previously reported relationships between Facebook use and well-being. We test temporal (shorter vs longer time spans) and spatial (at home vs away from home) dimensions of Facebook activity using an innovative approach. By triggering smartphone surveys in response to users’ naturalistic Facebook…
Neural Prediction of Communication-Relevant Outcomes
Understanding the mechanisms of effective communication may be advanced by knowledge from social and cognitive neuroscience. We build on prior brain research that mapped mental processes, and describe a brain-as-predictor approach that encompasses studies that treat measures of brain activity in response to communication relevant tasks as: 1) mediators between communication relevant stimuli and outcomes, 2) moderators of the relationship between …
Social in, Social out: How the Brain Responds to Social Language with More Social Language
Social connection is a fundamental human need. As such, people's brains are sensitized to social cues, such as those carried by language, and to promoting social communication. The neural mechanisms of certain key building blocks in this process, such as receptivity to and reproduction of social language, however, are not known. We combined quantitative linguistic analysis and neuroimaging to connect neural activity in brain regions used to simul…
Gendered citation practices in the field of communication
In disciplines outside of communication, papers with women as first and last (i.e., senior) authors attract fewer citations than papers with men in those positions. Using data from 14 communication journals from 1995 to 2018, we find that reference lists include more papers with men as first and last author, and fewer papers with women as first and last author, than would be expected if gender were unrelated to referencing. This imbalance is driv…
Rejection sensitivity and interaction quality in everyday life
The elevated satisfaction that comes from interacting with close ties, as opposed to distal ties, is well-established in past research. What remains less clear is how the quality of daily interactions between close versus distal ties may vary as a function of personality. Drawing on data from a 2-week experience sampling study ( N = 108 participants, N = 7755 observations), we consider how trait rejection sensitivity (RS)-or the tendency to worry…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
Using first-person narratives about healthcare workers and people who are incarcerated to motivate helping behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic
Making social neuroscience less Weird: Using fNirs to measure neural signatures of persuasive influence in a Middle East participant sample
The large majority of social neuroscience research uses WEIRD populations-participants from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic locations. This makes it difficult to claim whether neuropsychological functions are universal or culture specific. In this study, we demonstrate one approach to addressing the imbalance by using portable neuroscience equipment in a study of persuasion conducted in Jordan with an Arabic-speaking sampl…
Linking Neuroimaging with Functional Linguistic Analysis to Understand Processes of Successful Communication
Functional linguistic models posit a systematic link between language FORM and the FUNCTIONS for which language is used. This is a systematic (and therefore quantifiable) relationship. Yet many open questions remain about the mechanisms that link form, function and communication relevant outcomes. Neuroimaging methods can provide insight into such processes that are not apparent from other methods. We argue that the combination of neural and ling…
Impulsivity and inhibitory control deficits are associated with unhealthy eating in young adults
Sharing the small moments: Ephemeral social interaction on Snapchat
Ephemeral social media, platforms that display shared content for a limited period of time, have become a prominent component of the social ecosystem. We draw on experience sampling data collected over two weeks (Study 1; N = 154) and in-depth interview data from a subsample of participants (Study 2; N = 28) to understand college students’ social and emotional experiences on Snapchat, a popular ephemeral mobile platform. Our quantitative data dem…
Neural Prediction of Communication-Relevant Outcomes
Understanding the mechanisms of effective communication may be advanced by knowledge from social and cognitive neuroscience. We build on prior brain research that mapped mental processes, and describe a brain-as-predictor approach that encompasses studies that treat measures of brain activity in response to communication relevant tasks as: 1) mediators between communication relevant stimuli and outcomes, 2) moderators of the relationship between …
Linking Neuroimaging with Functional Linguistic Analysis to Understand Processes of Successful Communication
Functional linguistic models posit a systematic link between language FORM and the FUNCTIONS for which language is used. This is a systematic (and therefore quantifiable) relationship. Yet many open questions remain about the mechanisms that link form, function and communication relevant outcomes. Neuroimaging methods can provide insight into such processes that are not apparent from other methods. We argue that the combination of neural and ling…
Social in, Social out: How the Brain Responds to Social Language with More Social Language
Social connection is a fundamental human need. As such, people's brains are sensitized to social cues, such as those carried by language, and to promoting social communication. The neural mechanisms of certain key building blocks in this process, such as receptivity to and reproduction of social language, however, are not known. We combined quantitative linguistic analysis and neuroimaging to connect neural activity in brain regions used to simul…
Big Data under the Microscope and Brains in Social Context: Integrating Methods from Computational Social Science and Neuroscience
Methods for analyzing neural and computational social science data are usually used by different types of scientists and generally seen as distinct, but they strongly complement one another. Computational social science methodologies can strengthen and contextualize individual-level analysis, specifically our understanding of the brain. Neuroscience can help to unpack the mechanisms that lead from micro- through meso- to macro-level observations.…
Neuroscience
Communication neuroscience is a subfield of communication studies that combines methods from social neuroscience and communications. Communication neuroscience encompasses studies that map neural systems associated with communication processes, as well as work that treats neural activity as a predictor, mediator, or moderator of communication processes and outcomes. For example, communication neuroscience aims to understand how direct and indirec…
Facebook in context(s): Measuring emotional responses across time and space
This article advances a contextual approach to understanding the emotional and social outcomes of Facebook use. In doing so, we address the ambiguity of previously reported relationships between Facebook use and well-being. We test temporal (shorter vs longer time spans) and spatial (at home vs away from home) dimensions of Facebook activity using an innovative approach. By triggering smartphone surveys in response to users’ naturalistic Facebook…
Self-Transcendent Values and Neural Responses to Threatening Health Messages
OBJECTIVE: Prioritizing self-transcendent values such as family and friends more than nontranscendent values such as wealth and privilege is associated with lower stress response. In this study, we tested whether having self-transcendent values can reduce specific responses in the brain in the context of potentially threatening health communications. METHODS: Sedentary adults (N = 67) who would likely feel threatened by health messages that highl…
Individual Differences in Learning Social and Non-Social Network Structures
Learning about complex associations between pieces of information enables individuals to quickly adjust their expectations and develop mental models. Yet, the degree to which humans can learn higher-order information about complex associations is not well understood; nor is it known whether the learning process differs for social and non-social information. Here, we employ a paradigm in which the order of stimulus presentation forms temporal asso…
The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation
Although the influence of peers on adolescent smoking should vary depending on social dynamics, there is a lack of understanding of which elements are most crucial and how this dynamic unfolds for smoking initiation and continuation across areas of the world. The present meta-analysis included 75 studies yielding 237 effect sizes that examined associations between peers' smoking and adolescents' smoking initiation and continuation with longitudin…
Promoting adolescent health: Insights from developmental and communication neuroscience
Adolescence is a period of remarkable psychosocial and neural development. Many life-long health habits are established during adolescence, making it a window of opportunity for health promotion. One way to promote adolescent health is through mass and social media campaigns. Although some health media campaigns that target adolescents are effective in changing health-relevant cognitions and behaviors, there is considerable room for improving the…
Message-Elicited Brain Response Moderates the Relationship Between Opportunities for Exposure to Anti-Smoking Messages and Message Recall
Campaign success is contingent on adequate exposure; however, exposure opportunities (e.g., ad reach/frequency) are imperfect predictors of message recall. We hypothesized that the exposure-recall relationship would be contingent on message processing. We tested moderation hypotheses using 3 data sets pertinent to “The Real Cost” anti-smoking campaign: past 30-day ad recall from a rolling national survey of adolescents aged 13–17 (n = 5,110); ad-…
Who likes to be reachable? Availability preferences, weak ties, and bridging social capital
In this paper, we investigate how individual differences in availability preferences are related to (1) self-reported quality of interaction with strong and weak ties and (2) perceptions of bridging social capital. We employed experience sampling methods and collected data over the course of two weeks—combined with surveys at baseline and endpoint, from a random sample of college students (N = 154). We show that individuals who prefer to be more …
Making social neuroscience less Weird: Using fNirs to measure neural signatures of persuasive influence in a Middle East participant sample
The large majority of social neuroscience research uses WEIRD populations-participants from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic locations. This makes it difficult to claim whether neuropsychological functions are universal or culture specific. In this study, we demonstrate one approach to addressing the imbalance by using portable neuroscience equipment in a study of persuasion conducted in Jordan with an Arabic-speaking sampl…
Political Humor, Sharing, and Remembering: Insights from Neuroimaging
Over the last two decades, news-oriented comedy programs have risen to compete with traditional hard news media as sources of information about politics. To the extent that a politically knowledgeable electorate is necessary for a thriving democracy, understanding the mechanisms underlying the extent to which political comedy facilitates or inhibits a well-informed citizenry is critical. Across two studies, we use behavioral experiments and neuro…
Deliberation and Valence as Dissociable Components of Counterarguing among Smokers: Evidence from Neuroimaging and Quantitative Linguistic Analysis
Counterarguing is a key obstacle to successful persuasion. However, the difficulty of directly measuring counterarguing during message exposure limits knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. The current study combines neuroimaging and linguistic measures to unpack neurocognitive and psychological mechanisms associated with counterarguing among a sample of established smokers in response to anti-smoking messaging. We capture participants' neural a…
Gendered citation practices in the field of communication
In disciplines outside of communication, papers with women as first and last (i.e., senior) authors attract fewer citations than papers with men in those positions. Using data from 14 communication journals from 1995 to 2018, we find that reference lists include more papers with men as first and last author, and fewer papers with women as first and last author, than would be expected if gender were unrelated to referencing. This imbalance is driv…
Rejection sensitivity and interaction quality in everyday life
The elevated satisfaction that comes from interacting with close ties, as opposed to distal ties, is well-established in past research. What remains less clear is how the quality of daily interactions between close versus distal ties may vary as a function of personality. Drawing on data from a 2-week experience sampling study ( N = 108 participants, N = 7755 observations), we consider how trait rejection sensitivity (RS)-or the tendency to worry…
Daily Stressor-Related Negative Mood and its Associations with Flourishing and Daily Curiosity
There are pronounced individual differences in the extent to which affective responses are associated with daily stressor exposure. These individual differences have implications for health and well-being. We use 21 days of daily diary data in 167 participants (mean age = 25.37, SD = 7.34; 81.44% women) and test (1) the moderating effect of flourishing on daily stressor-related negative mood and (2) the moderating effect of daily curiosity on dai…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
Using first-person narratives about healthcare workers and people who are incarcerated to motivate helping behaviors during the Covid-19 pandemic
Within-Person Temporal Associations Among Self-Reported Physical Activity, Sleep, and Well-Being in College Students
OBJECTIVE: A holistic understanding of the naturalistic dynamics among physical activity, sleep, emotions, and purpose in life as part of a system reflecting wellness is key to promoting well-being. The main aim of this study was to examine the day-to-day dynamics within this wellness system. METHODS: Using self-reported emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, anxiousness) and physical activity periods collected twice per day, and daily reports of s…
Causal effects of point-of-sale cigarette promotions and subjective social status on cigarette craving: A randomised within-person experiment
Viewing images of point-of-sale cigarette promotions can causally increase cravings to smoke, which may also apply to real-world retail settings that display cigarette promotions. Restricting point-of-sale promotions generally, and discounts specifically, could help reduce cigarette smoking and address tobacco use disparities in the USA
A socioemotional network perspective on momentary experiences of family conflict in young adults
Family conflict is an established predictor of psychopathology in youth. Traditional approaches focus on between‐family differences in conflict. Daily fluctuations in conflict within families might also impact psychopathology, but more research is needed to understand how and why. Using 21 days of daily diary data and 6‐times a day experience‐sampling data ( N = 77 participants; mean age = 21.18, SD = 1.75; 63 women, 14 men), we captured day‐to‐d…
Psychology (25 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (11 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Neuroscience (10 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (8 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Cognitive science (7 works) · Medicine (7 works)