Nathan Walter

Northwestern University | NU · Department of Communication Studies

Following Kunda's (1990) defense of the influence of motivations on reasoning, a growing body of communication research has coalesced around the idea that specific motivations can influence decision-making. At the same time, this body of research has been subjected to criticisms highlighting alternative explanations that do not involve motivated pr...

The emergent body of scholarship on social media influencers (SMIs) highlights their potential to yield positive brand advertising outcomes. However, the literature is undermined by the lack of clarity regarding how SMIs conceptually compare to celebrity endorsers and their impact on advertising outcomes. The study aims to clarify these differences...

Prior studies have examined correlates of health information seeking and scanning separately, focusing on distinct theoretical frameworks, antecedents, and outcomes. In this meta-analysis we synthesize this research (k = 21; N = 39,510) by examining the relationship between health information seeking and scanning, and their key antecedents and outc...

BACKGROUND Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by HIV. Although pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective biomedical HIV prevention method, PrEP awareness and uptake among SGM adolescents is low. There are no teen-centered PrEP social marketing campaigns in the U.S., which have the po...

Although veritable libraries have been written about anger, the practical and theoretical understanding of its effects has been somewhat hampered by the difficulty of experimentally manipulating this emotion. Thus, key questions related to methodological precision and theoretical clarity remain, specifically with regard to whether and how anger ind...

Psychological reactance is a key construct in persuasion, but experimental inductions often confound imperative language with epistemically certain language (i.e., language that belies grounds for doubt). Two online experiments examine the effects of each language type on indicators of psychological reactance across two scientific contexts. In Stud...

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....

A typology rooted in the field's common object-a communicative act-and the notion that communication begets more communication is presented and evaluated. The organizing power of the typology is illustrated by showing key differences and similarities among existing theories in terms of their communicative dynamics concerning information getting and...

A meta-analysis evaluated the persuasive effects of political satire and how such effects may differ between Horatian (light-hearted) and Juvenalian (acerbic) satire types. A synthesis of 33 studies ( N = 7,469) revealed that political satire is no more persuasive than serious news, but the data find several contingencies when distinguishing betwee...

Communication seeks internal coherence and external distinction as its research profile grows and diversifies. The present essay calls for the establishment of scientific principles to guide future communication research and solidify the field’s unique scholarly identity within the marketplace of ideas. An argument is made that the field has achiev...

Social media is often viewed as a breeding ground for misinformation, given the anger-laden nature of its content. Despite the persuasiveness of anger and misinformation on social media, little is known about how misinformation surges in power when users are exposed to misinformation-related anger appeals and/ or misinformation-unrelated (i.e. ambi...

Introduction This qualitative study examined the perspectives of sexual and gender minority (SGM) teen-focused HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) social marketing campaigns among Chicago-area adults who work with or parent SGM teens. Methods Thirty adults (Mage = 37.5 years; 53.3% racial/ethnic minority) participated in online interviews from Mar...

Many media users feel as if they are engaging in an interaction or have a personal relationship with people they see in the media. These phenomena are collectively referred to as parasocial experiences (PSEs). This handbook offers a thorough synthesis of the fast-growing, international, and multidisciplinary research of PSEs, not only celebrating t...

Many media users feel as if they are engaging in an interaction or have a personal relationship with people they see in the media. These phenomena are collectively referred to as parasocial experiences (PSEs). This handbook offers a thorough synthesis of the fast-growing, international, and multidisciplinary research of PSEs, not only celebrating t...

A set of two experiments examined the effect of a narrative depicting either a concordant or a discordant character whose position on gun control was either central (Study 1: N = 153) or peripheral (Study 2: N = 654) to the storyline. Four potential mechanisms of narrative persuasion (perceived similarity, identification, transportation, and counte...

This research extends initial work on media prescriptions by offering a first test of a fundamental assumption of the paradigm—that prescribed hope-inducing media are more effective than self-selected media for goal pursuit and achievement. Two longitudinal datasets were collected, one with college students and one with U.S. adults, in which partic...

The chapter provides background about the fact-checking movement, summarizes key findings, and discusses potential pitfalls associated with this approach to correction of misinformation.

This research attempts to both replicate initial research on media prescriptions - the assignment of small doses of positively-valenced media for the purposes of reducing perceived stress - and, through the lens of the broaden-and-build theory, shed light on the process through which this effect might emerge. Two longitudinal data sets were collect...

Background The impact of misinformation about vapes’ relative harms compared with smoking may lead to increased tobacco-related burden of disease. To date, no systematic efforts have been made to chart interventions that mitigate vaping-related misinformation. We plan to conduct a scoping review that seeks to fill gaps in the current knowledge of i...

This study examines the role of an entertainment-education intervention in informing Mexican adolescents and parents about sexual and reproductive health-related discussion and information-seeking. A survey of young adult (N = 491) and parent (N = 223) viewers of the Spanish-language program Vencer el Miedo assessed the influence of exposure to the...

In the United States, a growing number of television shows have introduced storylines involving abortion and reproductive health which have the potential to inform and educate viewers. In light of this increase in both the number and diversity of representations, there remain questions regarding their impact on audience attitudes toward this conten...

Research assessing the persuasiveness of guilt has generally focused on appeals made to larger groups (collective guilt) or to individuals (personal guilt). However, a direct comparison of the two messaging strategies is crucial to discerning effective methods of behavior change in the context of risks to wellbeing where issue responsibility lies w...

Background The duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic depends in a large part on individual and societal actions which is influenced by the quality and salience of the information to which they are exposed. Unfortunately, COVID-19 misinformation has proliferated. To date, no systematic efforts have been made to evaluate interventions that mit...

Resistance to vaccines has hindered attempts to contain and prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases for centuries. More recently, however, the term “vaccine hesitancy” has been used to describe not necessarily outright resistance but also a delay in acceptance or uncertainty regarding vaccines. Given concerns about hesitancy and its impact on vacc...

The impact of misinformation about vapes' relative harms compared with smoking may lead to increased tobacco-related burden of disease and youth vaping. Unfortunately, vaping misinformation has proliferated. Despite growing attempts to mitigate vaping misinformation, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding the ability to effectively curb th...

After decades of study, much of what comprises ‘funny’ content remains subjective. A meta-analysis of 80 experimental humor manipulations sought to identify what makes a stimulus funny by focusing on its content, audience, and research design. Results suggest that content which draws upon theoretically grounded techniques like surprise, tension rel...

Formation of accurate risk perceptions and adoption of protective measures play a key role in reducing transmission and stopping the spread of infectious diseases. Extant research, however, has shown that perceptions of risk are not necessarily correlated with the level of actual risk, including that of COVID-19. Informed by the social amplificatio...

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to answer the critical question: How does media use aid (or subvert) emotion- and problem-focused coping with significant life stressors? Based on a national survey (N = 564) conducted on March 20–25, 2020, the week after COVID-19 was declared a U.S. national emergency, evidence offered strong su...

The duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic depends largely on individual and societal actions which are influenced by the quality and salience of the information to which they are exposed. Unfortunately, COVID-19 misinformation has proliferated. Despite growing attempts to mitigate COVID-19 misinformation, there is still uncertainty regarding...

The current study assessed whether vicariously experiencing story characters granting a small favor can induce similar intentions from its audiences. Acting upon the perspectives of story characters, audiences may agree to a subsequent larger request to the same cause, as in the case of vicarious foot-in-the-door (VFITD). Study 1 found that a VFITD...

Using two experiments, the present studies examine the motivations (accuracy goals versus directional goals) underlying verification intentions and fact-checking. Study 1 explores the role of news article uncertainty and ideological congruence in motivating individuals to fact-check, proposing a mediation model that involves perceptions of speaker...

CONTEXT Entertainment television can impact viewers' knowledge, attitudes, and reproductive health behaviors, yet little research has examined the impact of scripted abortion plotlines on viewers' abortion knowledge or social supportiveness for those having abortions. We examined the impact of an abortion storyline from Grey's Anatomy on US-based v...

Background: The duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic depends in a large part on individual and societal actions which is influenced by the quality and salience of the information to which they are exposed. Unfortunately, COVID-19 misinformation has proliferated. To date, no systematic efforts have been made to evaluate interventions that mi...

Background: The impact of misinformation about vapes’ relative harms compared with smoking may lead to increased tobacco-related burden of disease. To date, no systematic efforts have been made to chart interventions that mitigate vaping-related misinformation. We plan to conduct a scoping review that seeks to fill gaps in the current knowledge of...

While teen pregnancy rates in the United States have been declining for decades, they remain the highest of all western countries. Within the U.S., Black and Latina teens experience disproportionate rates of unplanned pregnancy. Plan A is an entertainment-education video intervention that was developed to help address these disparities, in part by...

While teen pregnancy rates in the United States have been declining for decades, they remain the highest of all western countries. Within the U.S., Black and Latina teens experience disproportionate rates of unplanned pregnancy. Plan A is an entertainment-education video intervention that was developed to help address these disparities, in part by...

Although the prominence of fact-checking in political journalism has grown dramatically in recent years, empirical investigations regarding the effectiveness of fact-checking in correcting misperceptions have yielded mixed results. One understudied factor that likely influences the success of fact-checking initiatives is the presence of opinion sta...

Research identifies contradictory effects of anger in political communication, engendering heuristic processing of information that exacerbates partisan bias in some situations, but increasing attention and deepening information processing in others. This study addressed these contradictions by positing subjective hope as a moderator of anger’s eff...

The current meta-analysis synthesizes four decades of research (k = 120) on the antecedents and effects of parasocial relationships (PSRs). In line with contemporary theorization of PSRs as an extension of, rather than as a substitution for social relationships, the meta-analysis does not find a significant relationship between social deficiencies...

The cognitive functional model (CFM) of the effects of discrete negative emotions draws from cognitive response models and functional accounts of emotion to establish an integrated decision‐making framework that emphasizes cognitive elaboration and emotional response. Designed by Robin Nabi, the CFM theorizes that discrete negative emotions (specif...

The current study assessed whether vicariously experiencing story characters granting a small favor can induce strong intentions from its audiences. Acting upon the perspectives of story characters, audiences may agree to a subsequent larger request to the same cause, as in the case of vicarious foot-in-the-door (VFITD). Study 1 found that a VFITD...

Social media poses a threat to public health by facilitating the spread of misinformation. At the same time, however, social media offers a promising avenue to stem the distribution of false claims – as evidenced by real-time corrections, crowdsourced fact-checking, and algorithmic tagging. Despite the growing attempts to correct misinformation on...

The current article tests the metacognitive proposition that the relative ease or difficulty with which narrative messages are processed can affect subsequent judgment. Challenging the assertion that experienced disfluency is mostly negative and undesirable, it is argued that disfluent (difficult-to-process) narratives are well-positioned to facili...

The literature suggests that in‐class oral participation is associated with various positive outcomes that directly contribute to academic success. The goal of the current study was to investigate the role played by psychological barriers to oral participation, focusing on commitment and self‐affirmation as methods to bypass barriers to participati...

Informed by communication infrastructure theory (CIT) and the social capital approach to health, this study focused on the role played by communication hotspots: physical places in a community (e.g., parks, churches, or restaurants) where health information is shared between network actors. By analyzing survey data that included information about c...

Despite its growing prominence in news coverage and public discourse, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding when and how fact-checking affects beliefs. Informed by theories of motivated reasoning and message design, a meta-analytic review was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of fact-checking in correcting political misinformation (...

Although recent streams of research have suggested that emotions play a key role in generating framing effects, little is known about the affective dimension of gain and loss framing and its potential impact on persuasion. The current study adopted a meta-analytical approach, synthesizing over 30 years of literature ( k = 25, N = 5,772), to investi...

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the extent of continued influence of misinformation in the face of correction and the theoretical explanations of this phenomenon. Aggregation of results from 32 studies (N = 6,527) revealed that, on average, correction does not entirely eliminate the effect of misinformation (r = –.05, p = .045). Corrective...

In communication research, credibility typically refers to audience perceptions of the expertise, trustworthiness, and goodwill of the communicator. While issues pertaining to credibility arise in many domains, they are especially relevant for journalism, as the inability to believe the news media makes it impossible to inform the public and monito...

Empirical research has found that self-affirmation that precedes exposure to threatening information can reduce resistance and exert a positive effect on attitudes and beliefs. However, the effortful methods currently used to induce self-affirmation (e.g., writing an essay about an important value) limit its applicability. Informed by narrative per...

According to the cognitive perspective, the generation of counterarguments is a key obstacle to persuasion. Following the metacognitive view, however, the experience of difficulty that accompanies increased counterarguing may benefit persuasion. These two contrasting predictions were evaluated in two experiments (N1 = 392; N2 = 210) by manipulating...

Despite the increasing use of anger in persuasive messaging, such as political ads and health campaigns, very little is known about when and how anger affects persuasion. Building on theoretical propositions derived from four theoretical models that have addressed the link between anger and persuasion, the current meta-analysis (k = 55, N = 6,805)...

The study explored the role of second-screen use and binge-watching in moderating entertainment education (EE) effects. A pretest/posttest experiment of 273 viewers of East Los High measured the effects of exposure to three subplots, concerning alcohol abuse, abortion, and immigration. The effect of identification with characters on change in attit...

The continued fragmentation of information and the proliferation of communication resources necessitate a shift toward perspectives that situate communication practices in a multilevel ecosystem. The current article offers a method to map and analyze communication ecologies—defined as the networks of communication connections that individuals depen...

The study reports on a meta-analysis of attempts to correct misinformation (k = 65). Results indicate that corrective messages have a moderate influence on belief in misinformation (r = .35); however, it is more difficult to correct for misinformation in the context of politics (r = .15) and marketing (r = .18) than health (r = .27). Correction of...

Despite its long history in communication, scholars continue to debate whether humor enhances or undermines persuasive attempts. To better understand the contingencies of humor effects, we conducted a meta-analysis of 89 studies across the various fields in which humor has been researched over time. Overall, humor has a weak and significant effect...

An analysis of all published research articles in the Journal of Communication (N = 1574) revealed a slow progression toward openness and diversity of thought, interrupted by temporal slowdowns and declines. Among the recorded gaps is the overwhelmingly small representation of voices outside the United States. The assumption of interdisciplinarity...

This study provides evidence for the independent and additive effects of story exploration and character customization induced by fictional narratives on causal attribution and support for marginalized groups. In Study 1 (N = 163), participants read a story about a trans-gender teenager. Story exploration influenced identification and narrative eng...

This study provides evidence for the independent and additive effects of story exploration and character customization induced by fictional narratives on causal attribution and support formarginalized groups. In Study 1 (N = 163), participants read a story about a transgender teenager. Story exploration influenced identification and narrative engag...

While prior research has demonstrated the benefits of self-affirming individuals prior to exposing them to potentially threatening health messages, the current study assesses the feasibility of inducing self-affirmation vicariously through the success of a character in a narrative. In Study 1, college-age participants who regularly use e-cigarettes...

Objectives: Latinos have a disproportionately high risk for obesity and hypertension. The current study analyzes survey data from Latin American women to detect differences in rates of obesity and hypertension based on their number of health-related social ties. Additionally, it proposes individuals’ health-related media preference (ethnic/ mainstr...

Informed by the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) and ego-network analysis, the present study outlines the mechanisms that contribute to the creation and maintenance of social norms and their subsequent behavioral outcomes. By analyzing different patterns of normative influence associated with cervical cancer detection among Latinas (N = 9...

The 2016 Orlando shooting offers an intriguing lens through which to evaluate the boundaries of media frames in the interpretation of terrorism. Using an experimental design (N = 243), the current study investigated the effects of two dominant frames—the homophobic hate crime and the Islamic terrorism frame—on collective guilt, collective victimiza...

Limited attention has been given to the medium of story presentation in this process of narrative persuasion. The present study (N = 243) fills this gap by directly comparing narrative involvement across print and audiovisual versions of the same cervical cancer-related story. The mediation analysis revealed that exposure to an audiovisual narrativ...

Political entertainment has many consequences. It influences or reinforces attitudes, informs audiences about the political world, affects the criteria they use when judging politicians, impacts system-level perceptions such as political trust and cynicism, and shapes political tolerance and empathy. Some of our perceptions of ethnic and racial gro...

This study investigated the role played by level of acculturation in the effect of narrative persuasion on health-related outcomes. A random sample of 186 Mexican American females watched either a narrative designed to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake or an equivalent nonnarrative film. While message format failed to exert a direc...

Background: Vaccine compliance has long been a cause for concern for health authorities throughout the world. However very little effort has been made to examine parental discourse during the decision-making process. Methods: An online survey was conducted (N = 437) to examine predictors of parents' attitudes regarding childhood vaccination. Re...

This study explores whether self-affirmation has the capacity not merely to reduce the perceived threat associated with health-related information but also to facilitate interpersonal discussion and affect health information–seeking behavior. The context for the study is the ongoing California drought, which serves as suitable context to examine th...

Self-affirmation theory posits that thoughts and actions that affirm an important aspect of the self-concept can make people more susceptible to change by casting their self in a positive light. Whereas much of the current literature has been restricted to individual-level concerns, the current study provides longitudinal evidence for behavioral ou...

This article analyzes the ongoing dialogue between administrative research and critical studies in health communication, focusing on contrasts and points of tangency. Following Lazarsfeld's work, we conclude with a proposition to adopt an integrative approach to the study of health, balancing between administrative tools and critical concerns.

This article analyzes the ongoing dialogue between administrative research and critical studies in health communication, focusing on contrasts and points of tangency. Following Lazarsfeld's work, we conclude with a proposition to adopt an integrative approach to the study of health, balancing between administrative tools and critical concerns.

The current research focuses on the 2013 polio outbreak in Israel as a case study to analyze the sources of information used in new media platforms, examining whether the new media have changed the ways in which we communicate about health issues. Specifically, we tracked and coded polio-related references on Hebrew news websites, blogs, forums, an...

This study examines the effect of interactivity on the attribution of responsibility for the character’s actions in a violent video game. Through an experiment, we tested the hypothesis that identification with the main character in Grand Theft Auto IV mediates the effect of interactivity on attributions of responsibility for the main character’s a...

This article examines the effect of historical transgressions associated with individuals' in-group on attribution of responsibility for the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. While the capacity of media frames to induce emotional states is well documented, the current study expands the understanding of the underlying processes...

This study examines the effect of interactivity on the attribution of responsibility for the character’s actions in a violent video game. Through an experiment, we tested the hypothesis that identification with the main character in Grand Theft Auto IV mediates the effect of interactivity on attributions of responsibility for the main character’s a...

Recent years have seen advances in theories and models of risk and crisis communication, with a focus on emerging epidemic infection. Nevertheless, information flow remains unilateral in many countries and does not take into account the public's polyvocality and the fact that its opinions and knowledge often "compete" with those of health authoriti...

This study addresses the issue of valence framing effect in the context of immunization, a preventive behavior often addressed by the equation of benefit versus risk. The authors examined how framing (support vs. oppose) the issue of HPV vaccination in Israel’s immunization routine affects attitudes regarding vaccine regulations. The study also exa...

Background: The emergence of the avian influenza A (H7N9) in China during 2013 illustrates the importance of health care professionals as a mediating channel between health agencies and the public. Our study examined health care professionals' risk perceptions considering their unique position as representing the health care system and yet also be...