Hayeon Song

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Sungkyunkwan University

Sketch-based drawing assessments in art therapy are widely used to understand individuals’ cognitive and psychological states, such as cognitive impairments or mental disorders. Along with self-reported measures based on questionnaires, psychological drawing assessments can augment information regarding an individual’s psychological state. Interpre...

Given the amount of misinformation being circulated on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential threat to public health, it is imperative to investigate ways to hinder its transmission. To this end, this study aimed to identify message features that may contribute to misinformation sharing on social media. Based on the theory of...

This study proposes Magic Brush, an AI-based application for dementia prevention targeting middle-aged individuals who may be at risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. In order to prevent dementia effectively at home, it is important to strengthen their intrinsic motivation. Promoting motivation is a critical issue in designing compu...

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining mainstream attention, but little is known about the effects of VR advertising (VR ad). This study examined 360-degree video-based advertising, which presented an entire view of the scene and allowed users to pan around the view interactively. In particular, the study sought to answer the following questions: (a) does...

Despite increasing interest in using virtual reality (VR) for tourism marketing, limited empirical evidence exists regarding consumers’ psychological response toward VR. The current study investigates the effectiveness of different media – head-mounted display (HMD) or computer – used to view 360-degree tourism promotional videos as well as the imp...

Once frequently associated with a social disconnection and a sedentary life style, digital games are inviting reconsideration of their values for health benefits and community building. Pokémon GO, a location-based mobile game application, has the capacity to motivate their users to get out and explore the community. Based on a survey with 325 Poké...

Delving into motivations for and the impact of social comparison among students in the U.S. and South Korea, the present study examined cross-cultural differences in social comparison on Facebook. Following Helgeson and Mickelson [1995. “Motives for social comparison.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (11): 1200–1209. doi:10.1177/01461...

Extant research has yet to uncover whether cultural differences exist in reactions to family member illness and how observed differences may be explained theoretically. The current project examines the impact of cultural worldview on health assessment and behavior—using inclusive measures capturing a range of health promoting activities—when a fami...

Acknowledging the importance of teacher–student relationship for effective learning experiences, the present study examined the role of teacher self-disclosure and social presence in online education. An online survey was conducted from a sample of 262 undergraduate students with online class experiences. The findings suggest that students’ percept...

Social TV viewing is generally understood as a simultaneous act of watching TV and engaging in communication about the TV program with other TV viewers connected online. In response to the increasing popularity of this new TV viewing practice, the current study examined how individuals’ extrovert personality and loneliness influence social TV viewi...

Social presence is a concept found to facilitate effective learning experiences in online education. However, there is limited understanding of the theoretical notion in the literature. In an attempt to broaden the understanding of social presence, the current investigation examined two issues: a) distinction between social presence and interactivi...

Adopting Nisbett’s theory of analytic and holistic thinking, the current study examines cultural influence on perceptions about the health benefits of holistic foods and nutritional elements. Consistent with the theory, Korean older adults (n = 84) tended to believe that consuming whole, natural foods (e.g., honey, aloe vera, green tea) is more hel...

Background The Internet has increasingly become a popular source of health information by connecting individuals with health content, experts, and support. More and more, individuals turn to social media and Internet sites to share health information and experiences. Although online health information seeking occurs worldwide, limited empirical stu...

The Internet has increasingly become a popular source of health information by connecting individuals with health content, experts, and support. More and more, individuals turn to social media and Internet sites to share health information and experiences. Although online health information seeking occurs worldwide, limited empirical studies exist...

We examined the cultural influence on perceived body weight and the level of health practices at a national and individual level. At a national level, we found that Japanese women (n = 80) overestimate body weight more than Korean (n = 82) and American (n = 63) women. At an individual level, individuals with interdependent self-construal were more...

Health communication researchers, public health workers, and health professionals must learn more about the health information-gathering behavior of low-income minority men at risk for prostate cancer in order to share information effectively with the population. In collaboration with the Milwaukee Health Department Men's Health Referral Network, a...

Limited empirical research can be found that specifically compares the perceptions of stigma among individuals with alcohol disorders and their family members. Thus, the present study investigates the stigma-related perceptions and experiences of alcohol-dependent patients and their family members. The sample collected in South Korea included 106 p...

This study investigated how celebrities’ self-disclosure on their personal social media, particularly Twitter, affects fans’ perceptions toward those celebrities. An online survey method was utilized among a sample of 429 Twitter users who follow celebrities on Twitter. Results found that celebrities’ professional self-disclosure (e.g., sharing the...

Purpose: This paper presents a multipart investigation of the benefits and challenges in deploying automated question-answering as an alternative to web-based searching to provide information about prostate cancer screening for low-income men age 40 years and older. Methods: The study comprised: 1) a survey assessing current use of the Internet, m...

This study compares messages displayed on children's and adults' cereal boxes. In total, 127 cereal boxes were collected and content analysed. On the front panel, we found an interesting contradiction between health-related textual and graphical messages. The nutrient claim appeared on more than half of cereals for children, which is significantly...

Previous studies have consistently found associations between low income and infant health outcomes. Moreover, although health information-seeking is a maternal behavior related to improved health outcomes, little is known about the health information-seeking behaviors and information needs of low-income pregnant women. The purpose of the current i...

A large number of college smokers refuse to self-identify as smokers, instead referring to themselves as social smokers. With little or no information on how social smokers perceive risks and levels of efficacy related to smoking cessation, designing effective anti-smoking campaigns may be problematic. Based on the theoretical underpinning of the R...

The purpose of the current paper is to develop a theoretical model that identifies why people blog personal content and explains the effects of blogging in “real life.” Data from an online survey are analyzed using maximum likelihood procedures in LISREL 8.75 to test the structural model. Among 531 respondents from Cyworld, a popular social network...

This study investigates how cancer survivors construct their identities and the impact on their psychological health, as measured by depression and survivor self-efficacy. Fourteen young adult survivors of pediatric cancer participated in a customized social networking and video blog intervention program, the LIFECommunity, over a 6-month period. S...

We are investigating question-answering systems for different applications within consumer health, including health promotion and health information attainment. Our work focuses on the interaction environment afforded by text and multimedia (SMS and MMS) messaging because of the growing popularity of text messaging and because of the prevalence of...

The experience of surviving cancer diagnosis and treatment alter a young person's life in many ways. Young adult survivors of childhood cancers face ongoing medical risks, in addition to a range of social and psychological complications that may affect their development. For example, they confront stereotypes about cancer survivors, as well as stre...

A new generation of exercise video games (exergames) shows promise as a tool to motivate and engage users in physical activity. However, little research has been conducted to examine whether exergames work equally well across diverse populations and contexts. Therefore, in the present study, the authors investigated the effects of an individual psy...

This study seeks to examine the ways in which transnational life is lived at different " local" levels. In particular, we ask: What are some of the important aspects of immigrants' life that are enacted across borders? To what extent are ethnic media that serve the immigrant population connected to home countries in content and operation? To what e...

This study examines factors (including gender, self-monitoring, the big five personality traits, and demographic characteristics) that influence online dating service users’ strategic misrepresentation (i.e., the conscious and intentional misrepresentation of personal characteristics). Using data from a survey of online dating service users (N = 5,...

Intrinsic motivation has been reported to be one of the strongest determinants of exercise adherence. The role of competition in exergames was studied to determine the ways to increase intrinsic motivation. We tested the competitive exercise setting as a contextual factor, and competitiveness as individual characteristic, to investigate their effec...

This article investigates the content of ethnic media to better understand their roles in contemporary immigrant communities under the forces of globalization, population diversity, and new communication technologies. Drawing upon communication infrastructure theory (CIT), we argue that globalization is always experienced in the local context. We t...

This study tests the effect of long-term artificial development of a robot on users' feelings of social presence and social responses toward the robot. The study is a 2 (developmental capability: developmental versus fully matured) × 2 (number of participants: individual versus group) between-subjects experiment (N= 40) in which participants intera...