Shirley S. Ho

Nanyang Technological University | ntu · Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Qualities of organizations constitute dimensions of trustworthiness. Guided by the integrative model of organizational trust, we developed dimensions of trustworthiness of policymakers, technology developers, and media organizations that are involved in introducing artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles. We collected data through six focus...

This study examines how individuals’ prior beliefs (i.e. food neophilia and food neophobia) serve as precursors to the influence of the presumed media influence model in shaping their perceptions of cultivated meat. An online survey of 1031 Singapore residents revealed that food neophobia and food neophilia are positively related to individuals’ me...

Traditional trust in artificial intelligence (AI) scholarship has assumed trust as an attitude placed exclusively in the AI system. We offer a more articulated view of trust in AI, extending the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model by integrating news media attention, trust in AI system, trust in AI engineers,...

Despite the recent approval of cultured meat products in Singapore, the understanding of public perceptions towards this novel food technology remains limited. Utilizing attitude formation theory and the mental models approach, this study compares the mental models of the general public and experts regarding their risk and benefit perceptions of cu...

This study examines how halal consciousness acts as a precursor to the influence of presumed media influence model to explain Muslims’ views (i.e., attitudes and behavioral intentions) toward cultured meat. A survey of 658 Muslim Singaporeans found that halal consciousness positively correlated with Muslims’ attention to media messages on the benef...

Research on factors influencing information credibility judgment is increasing, whereas their findings are mixed. This study conducted a meta-analysis of 85 empirical studies, synthesizing the effects of 12 frequently examined source, content, channel, and receiver factors on information credibility perception. Results reveal that message quality,...

BACKGROUND Although COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, it remains pervasive in Singapore, a city-state situated in Southeast Asia, with periodic waves of infection. Complementing disease management, strong communication strategies are critical in the government’s response to the pandemic to keep the public updated and equip them in pr...

Background Although COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, it remains pervasive in Singapore, a city-state situated in Southeast Asia, with periodic waves of infection. In addition to disease management, strong communication strategies are critical in the government’s response to the pandemic to keep the public updated and equip them in p...

Despite the recent approval of cultured meat products in Singapore, the understanding of public perceptions towards this novel food technology remains limited. Utilizing attitude formation theory and the mental models approach, this study compares the mental models of the general public and experts regarding their risk and benefit perceptions of cu...

Solar geoengineering is a controversial climate policy measure that could lower global temperature by increasing the amount of light reflected by the Earth. As scientists and policymakers increasingly consider this idea, an understanding of the level and drivers of public support for its research and potential deployment will be key. This study foc...

In a bid to strengthen food security, cities are embracing urban farming to produce food. It is believed that urban farming is a sustainable means of cultivating crops for urban populations. Urban farms are equipped with advanced technology to optimize crop yield. Meanwhile, multiple media contents have reviewed the risks and benefits of urban farm...

Episodes of mass buying occurred in many parts of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This study applied the influence of presumed media influence model (IPMI) model to examine the development of intention to make more purchases during the pandemic in Singapore. The results, which were based on a sample of 1,007 Singaporeans, showed tha...

Episodes of mass buying occurred in many parts of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This study applied the influence of presumed media influence model (IPMI) model to examine the development of intention to make more purchases during the pandemic in Singapore. The results, which were based on a sample of 1,007 Singaporeans, showed tha...

An online experiment involving 251 Singaporeans assessed how social media influencers' (SMIs) prototypicality (i.e., embodiment of group attitudes) and social attraction affected their popularization of nuclear energy development. Participants exposed to a SMI with high prototypicality perceived the YouTube video more favorably, displayed greater i...

Scientists play important roles in conducting public engagement, but evidence shows that scientists perceive great challenges in doing so. Drawing broadly from the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examines factors predicting scientists’ willingness to conduct public engagement. This study further examines how perceived behavioral contro...

Science communication encompasses communication about science, as well as communication of science, each with its own aims. The communication about science aims to involve the public in defining the boundaries of science, thus enabling them to shape and conduct science. The communication of science, on the other hand, conveys scientific information...

As Southeast Asia faces the energy challenge, environmental groups are key in facilitating discussions on energy use. However, limited research on the communication strategies of environmental groups in the region has hampered evaluation of the efficacy of extant communication efforts. We conducted online focus group discussions with 26 environment...

This study seeks to understand how online discussion, fact‐checking, and sources of fact‐checks will influence individuals’ risk perceptions toward nuclear energy when they are exposed to fake news. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design, 320 participants were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions. Results showed an interaction eff...

Traditionally reliant on fossil fuels, Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – plan to introduce cleaner energy (e.g., renewable energy) into their energy mix. To gauge public support, an understanding of their risk and benefit perceptions of energy technologies is necessary. In the absence of technical knowledge, lay peopl...

Expanding upon the Influence of Presumed Media Influence (IPMI) model, our study investigates prior beliefs as precursors to the IPMI model in predicting individuals’ willingness to pay more for plant-based meat. Our survey of 1,008 adult Singaporeans revealed that attention to benefit media messages on plant-based meat was positively associated wi...

Alternative aquafeed is currently being researched as a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to bolster aquaculture production, which plays an integral role in supplying global seafood demand. Guided by the cognitive miser model, this study aims to examine factors predicting public support for funding the development of alternative aquafeed...

By applying the cognitive mediation model, this study seeks to investigate factors influencing public knowledge of nuclear energy in Singapore. In addition, this study seeks to extend the cognitive mediation model by explicating the knowledge variable into four facets – general science knowledge, perceived familiarity, content nuclear knowledge and...

Public support is important for countries that are at nascent stages of nuclear energy development. This study seeks to examine factors shaping public support for nuclear energy development in five Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Using surveys (with n = 1,000 in each country), results show that the...

In line with social psychology research on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and ecological economics research on the provision of public goods, this study applied an interdisciplinary approach to understand media effects in addressing the public goods dilemma of climate change mitigation. By integrating the influence of presumed media influence (IP...

One major gap in existing health communication research is that few studies have synthesized findings from the literature to map out what are the key factors related to workplace (a) safety awareness, (b) safety risks, (c) health awareness, and (d) health risks. This study bridges the gap by systematically reviewing what these organizational, cultu...

Nuclear energy is an important consideration for decarbonisation. However, for Singapore – a country at the nascent stage of nuclear energy development – the building of a nuclear research reactor could be a precursor to a full-fledged nuclear energy plan. Guided by the cognitive miser model and the knowledge deficit model, this study examines fact...

This study examines the knowledge gap hypothesis in the United States and Singapore in the context of nanotechnology. This study proposes that academic discipline serves as a better indicator than education levels in predicting nanotechnology knowledge gaps. To reflect the contemporary media landscape, this study examines how attention to online me...

It is imperative to provide emergency preparedness messages so that the public can react appropriately to potential nuclear crises. Considering the mass media's extensive audience outreach, this study investigates how emergency preparedness message frames and the type of communication channels can influence individuals’ trust in government, risk pe...

Fake science news is a type of fake news that can threaten the credibility of the scientific community. Scientists’ attention to fake science news can indirectly influence the way they react to tackling fake science news through socio-psychological factors. Applying the influence of presumed media influence (IPMI), this study examines how scientist...

Parents are important sources of influence in the development of healthy eating among children and adolescents. Besides gatekeeping and modeling, parents serve as health educators and promoters, using intentional and persuasive communication to encourage healthier eating preferences and behaviors in children. Despite this, a lack of reliable and va...

Informed by the notion of spillover effects between two phenomena, this study examines how differences in prior attitudes would influence the relationships posited by the influence of presumed media influence (IPMI) model. Specifically, this study examines how pre-existing favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) food ar...

The novel affordances and unique features on social media have transformed the way people assess public opinion. Drawing on the spiral of silence (SOS) theory, this study examines the roles that user-generated comments (UGCs) and aggregated user representations (AURs), represented by reaction emojis, play in shaping perceptions of the opinion clima...

This study employs the cognitive miser model and science literacy model as theoretical frameworks to investigate motivations behind public willingness to use driverless cars in Singapore. Findings from a large-scale survey of 1,006 adult Singaporeans indicate that public willingness to use driverless cars was strongly related to value predispositio...

This study identifies the outreach activities that scientists engage in, as well as their perceived motivations and barriers towards such activities. It examines the forms of communication training that Singapore-based scientists have undergone and the types of communication training they would like to receive. Five focus groups were conducted with...

This study identifies the outreach activities that scientists engage in, as well as their perceived motivations and barriers towards such activities. It examines the forms of communication training that Singapore-based scientists have undergone and the types of communication training they would like to receive. Five focus groups were conducted with...

Purpose Social media use carries both opportunities and risks for children and adolescents. In order to reduce the negative impacts of social media on youth, the authors focus our efforts on parental mediation of social media. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to enhance the conceptualization and operationalization of parental mediation of...

Guided by neo-institutional theory, this study compares how researchers from science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines differ from researchers from the arts, humanities, and social sciences fields in terms of how macro- and meso-level concerns shaped their willingness to conduct public engagement. Focus group discussions conducted amon...

By acknowledging that people are cognitive misers, this study proposes that people may rely on the illusion of knowing as cognitive devices for attitudinal or behavioral change, in addition to factual knowledge. Accordingly, this study shifted the focus of inquiry from assessing media effects in increasing factual knowledge to assessing how media c...

Understanding public perception is critical to developing effective policies for nuclear energy. This study conducted focus group discussions with the Thai and Vietnamese public to understand their trust in potential stakeholders, benefit perception, risk perception, and acceptance of nuclear energy. The participants in both countries preferred eco...

This study investigates the extent to which communication variables, namely, interpersonal communication and attention to mass media, as well as the key components in the theory of planned behavior (TPB), including, attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control, are associated with healthy lifestyle intention in Singapore. Healthy lifes...

Many Southeast Asian countries are considering the adoption of nuclear energy to meet the rising energy demands and achieve energy efficiency. Considering the emerging regional salience of nuclear energy, this study seeks to understand the public’s media consumption patterns regarding nuclear-related information, and credibility perceptions of nucl...

Existing research has highlighted the concept of parental third-person effect, where parents' perceive greater negative media effects on other children versus their own, and act upon those beliefs. Despite this, much of the research has remained rooted in the traditional understanding of the third-person perception, examining how third-person effec...

BACKGROUND Promoting safety and health awareness and mitigating risks are of paramount importance to companies in high-risk industries. Yet, there are very few studies that have synthesized findings from existing online workplace safety and health literature to identify what are the key factors that are related to (a) safety awareness, (b) safety r...

Communication scholars have conflicting views on the relationship between exposure to science news and knowledge, and its subsequent influence on attitudes. Such mixed sentiments could arise from the vague definition of knowledge. Therefore, this paper explicates science knowledge into factual knowledge and subjective knowledge. It also compares th...

Considering the growing salience of nuclear energy in Southeast Asia, this study examines public perceptions of nuclear energy in Singapore, a technologically-advanced and affluent nation well-equipped to develop nuclear energy capabilities. Drawing from the source credibility theory, this study examines the public's credibility perceptions of nucl...

This study advances the cognitive mediation model (CMM) by examining the factors behind acquiring knowledge about climate change. Based on a nationally representative survey of Singaporeans (N = 1,083), this study supported the original CMM. The extended CMM showed that surveillance gratification was positively associated with traditional and onlin...

This study examined the effects of complementary and competitive framing environments on people’s support for and attitudes toward pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) and green energy technologies (GETs). Results suggest that frames have different effects on attitudes and policy support. Relative to the control group, complementary anti-climate acti...

The future of nano-food largely hinges on public perceptions and willingness to accept this novel technology. The present study utilizes the scientific literacy model and psychometric paradigm as the key theoretical frameworks to examine the factors influencing public support for labeling and banning of nano-food in Singapore. Using data collected...

The development and use of nanotechnology in the food industry (nanofood) have grown steadily. While visions for nanofood suggest that the applications will improve quality and safety, they are also controversial for several reasons including potential health risks coupled with difficulty in assessing low-dosage nanoparticle risks as well as values...

Nuclear energy is widely regarded as a controversial technology that polarizes public opinion. Guided by the scientific literacy and cognitive miser models, this study systematically identified and examined the magnitude of the effects of 19 predictors on public perceptions of benefits, risks, and acceptance of nuclear energy. We meta-analysed 34 e...

The subjectivity detection is an important binary classification task that aims at distinguishing natural language texts as opinionated (positive or negative) and non-opinionated (neutral). In this paper, we develop and apply recent subjectivity detection techniques to determine subjective and objective tweets towards the hot topic of nuclear energ...

This study examines the impact of photographic-textual and risk-benefit frames on the level of visual attention, risk perception, and public support for nuclear energy and nanotechnology in Singapore. Using a 2 (photographic-textual vs. textual-only frames) x 2 (risk vs. benefit frames) x 2 (nuclear energy vs. nanotechnology) between-subject design...

This paper aims to explore factors influencing people’s attitudes toward nanofood in Singapore. Drawing on expectancy-value theories, this paper conducted a web-based survey (N=1,001) to measure the influences of beliefs of food technology, evaluations of food naturalness, and media consumption about food safety on attitudes toward nanofood and wil...

Using an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study explores how the original TPB variables (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control), personality traits, privacy concern, past privacy protection behaviors, as well as parental mediation strategies relate to adolescents’ intention to engage in privacy protection measu...

This study applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine how factors in the TPB, along with personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion), need to belong, self-identity, and self-esteem relate to excessive social network sites (SNSs) use and SNSs addiction among Singaporean adolescents and adults. We conducted two nationally represent...

Health communication research has often focused on how features of persuasive health messages can directly influence the intended target audience of the messages. However, scholars examining presumed media influence on human behavior have underscored the need to think about how various audience’s health behavior can be unexpectedly influenced by th...

Abstract Background The family is an important social context where children learn and adopt eating behaviors. Specifically, parents play the role of health promoters, role models, and educators in the lives of children, influencing their food cognitions and choices. This study attempts to systematically review empirical studies examining the influ...

Exergaming has been discussed as a possible strategy to encourage children to engage in physical activity. This study explores presence as a mechanism through which exergames may be associated with positive mood experiences and game enjoyment among children. Structural equation modeling using survey data from children aged 9–12 in Singapore reveale...

Climate change is causing severe negative consequences to small low-lying islands. To mitigate and adapt to climate change, it is important to improve public knowledge on its causes and consequences. As a social issue that needs collective action to address, the knowledge gap among different segments of population would be a barrier to people’s beh...

This research—a pilot study on the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) in Singapore—seeks to revisit and test the applicability of an extended CMM in the context of nanotechnology, by examining perceived familiarity as a separate outcome variable in addition to factual knowledge. A cross-sectional survey was administered to a nationally representative...

This study examines the impact of photographic-textual and risk-benefit frames on the level of visual attention, risk perception, and public support for nuclear energy and nanotechnology in Singapore. Using a 2 (photographic-textual vs. textual-only frames) x 2 (risk vs. benefit frames) x 2 (nuclear energy vs. nanotechnology) between-subject design...

This research draws upon the extended social cognitive model to examine how external factors such as adolescents’ relationship with their parents, and personal antecedents including depression, loneliness, self-reactive outcome expectation, self-identity, deficient self-regulation, and habit strength, relate to Singaporean adolescents’ time spent o...

Opinion expressions on Facebook are characterized by “click speech” in which people express their opinions and support (or disagreement) of posts through the “like,” “comment,” and “share” buttons. This study uses a 2 (low vs. high opinion congruency) x 2 (message civility vs. incivility) between-subject factorial experiment to examine the spiral o...

This study extends the cognitive mediation model (CMM) by examining the role of social media in cultivating public science knowledge. A sample of 901 Singaporeans was collected through an online survey panel. The results showed that the CMM could be applied to a social media context with a focus on science literacy. Specifically, the findings indic...

The prevalence of social network sites (SNSs) has sparked a growing interest in understanding the development of problematic SNSs use among adolescents. Yet, this nascent area of research is marked by some deficiencies in existing theoretical paradigms. This manuscript seeks to review the state of research in problematic SNSs use—broadly with a spe...

Based on the influence of presumed media influence (IPMI) model as the theoretical framework, this study examines how injunctive norms and personal norms mediate the influence of healthy lifestyle media messages on public intentions to engage in two types of healthy lifestyle behaviors-physical activity and healthy diet. Nationally representative d...

This study applies the social comparison theory to examine the effects of adolescents’ engagement in comparison with friends and celebrities on social network sites (SNSs) on (a) their body image dissatisfaction (BID) and (b) their drive to be thin (DT) or muscular (DM). The study also examines celebrity involvement as an antecedent of the outcome...

Although interventions targeting the health of students in schools are becoming common, few studies have examined how health messages operate at the group level in school environments. This study examines the effects of message-based health interventions (extrinsic vs. intrinsic goal framing) in group environments (exergame competitive vs. exergame...

The focus on knowledge acquisition is an important component of health communication. This study tests the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) in the breast cancer context in Singapore, where a nationally representative survey data was collected from 802 women between the ages of 30 and 70 through random digit dialing. Results supported the augmented C...

Cyberbullying has become a critical social issue, which severely threatens children and adolescents’ physical and psychological health. The current research systematically examined the predictors of cyberbullying from the social cognitive and media effects approach. Specifically, this study identified 16 predictors of cyberbullying perpetration and...

The spiral of silence theory describes the process in which people who perceive their opinion to be in the minority are unwilling to express it due to fear of isolation from society. This article gives an overview of the spiral of silence theory. It describes the underlying processes and key assumptions of the theory. It reviews the empirical resea...

A nationally representative telephone survey (n = 1,006) was conducted to understand how different groups of Singaporeans regard the issue of climate change and their inclination toward action in dealing with it. We measured attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of the problem of climate change and the role of various stakeholders in addressing it....

Extending the influence of presumed media influence model, this study examined direct and indirect media influences on pro-environmental behavioral intentions. We empirically tested perceived media influence on others as a distinct and independent mediator between perceived media exposure of others and perceived social norms, using a nationally rep...

Homosexuality has been rendered as a controversial topic and a focal area of public discourse in Singapore. Although studies have been conducted on public attitudes toward homosexuals and its predictors, little research has been done to explore factors associated with equal rights support for homosexuals especially in Asia. To identify predictors o...

Public level of familiarity with nanotechnology partly determines their acceptance or rejection of the technology. This study examines the differential influence of public attention to science news in the media and reflective integration on perceived familiarity with nanotechnology among people in the higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) gro...

Numerous health communication studies have highlighted the importance of factual knowledge as an antecedent to health behavior, but few have explored other dimensions of health knowledge, such as structural knowledge. This study seeks to fill this gap by investigating conceptual differences between these two kinds of knowledge in the context of bre...

An international symposium for nanosafety was held recently at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Topics relating to understanding nanomaterial properties, tools, and infrastructure required for predicting hazardous outcomes, measuring nanomaterial exposure levels, systems approach for risk assessment and public’s perception of nano...

The original knowledge gap hypothesis posits differential knowledge gains between people in the higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups. This study put forth the notion of “perceived familiarity” as another dimension of knowledge and proposes a complementary model—the “perceived familiarity gap hypothesis”—that examines how media attenti...

Applying the theory of planned behavior and media dependency theory, this study examines the effects of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), media dependency, traditional media attention, Internet attention, and interpersonal communication on two types of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)—green-buying and environmental c...

Background and objectives: Social media innovations offer opportunities for general public to contribute to disease surveillance through crowdsourcing mechanisms. However, psychosocial factors that influence the active participation in such initiatives are understudied given the virgin state-of-science of technology-based civic engagement in public...

Background and objectives There is a growing interest in how exergaming can be used to address childhood obesity by motivating children’s exercise intention. Yet few studies have examined gender specific differences in approaches and responses to the exergame phenomenon. This study is conducted to examine the relationship between exergame exposure...