Yanni Ma

• Ph.D
• Assistant Professor at Oregon State University

This study examines how consumers form judgments of authenticity regarding corporate social advocacy initiatives. A common way to show support for a cause is through a brand promise in which a business shares its intent to support, donate, or act in accordance with an advocacy issue. Grounded in consumer-brand relationship theory, we conducted an e...

As the coronavirus spreads across the globe, xenophobia and racism against Chinese and Asians at large are also surging. In a two-wave survey, we focused on U.S.-dwelling Chinese (N = 1,256), a minority group that was targeted by racial discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the relationships among a number of media and percep...

In today’s increasingly polarized political environment, people are becoming resistant to persuasive messages, which creates challenges for those communicating about environmental issues to the public. Scholars have noted that opinion-challenging information could either be ineffective or lead to boomerang effects. As a result, research has started...

In this study, we use Social Identity Theory to examine whether political ideology, where people live, and time correlate with trust in news media in the US. Moreover, we examine whether the correlation between ideology and where a person lives with trust in the press varies over time. We also examine a three-way interaction to determine if decreas...

As an unprecedented global disease outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic is also accompanied by an infodemic. To better cope with the pandemic, laypeople need to process information in ways that help guide informed judgments and decisions. Such information processing likely involves the reliance on various evidence types. Extending the Risk Information S...

In a recent article, van der Linden, Maibach, and Leiserowitz ([2019]. Exposure to Scientific Consensus Does Not Cause Psychological Reactance. Environmental Communication, 1–8) claim that exposure to a consensus message on climate change does not cause psychological reactance. In doing so, they provide a critique and “replication” of our recently...

Scholars continue to search for solutions to shift climate change skeptics’ views on climate science and policy. However, research has shown that certain audiences are resistant to change regarding environmental issues. To explore this issue further, we examine the presence of reactance among different audiences in response to simple, yet prominent...

Although prior research has identified communication strategies for reducing climate change skepticism, recent research suggests such approaches can backfire. To explore this issue, we report on a preliminary study investigating two prominent messaging styles: consensus and targeted messages. While consensus messaging did not produce significant ef...

This study investigated consumers’ attitudes toward advertising by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners, and how attitudes varied among different demographic groups and user experiences in TCM. A survey using quota sampling was conducted. Altogether 1,039 adults aged 20 or above in Hong Kong filled in an online questionnaire in March 20...

Introduction China’s future major health problem will be the management of chronic diseases – of which mental health is a major one. An instrument is needed to measure mental health inclusion outcomes for mental health services in Hong Kong and mainland China as they strive to promote a more inclusive society for their citizens and particular disad...

Whether and how immigrants are included in the host society has become a hot topic in the context of globalization. How inclusive a society is for immigrants can be answered by comparing the inclusion of immigrants to near-culture host society and those to a different-culture society. This paper reports the social inclusion and their correlation wi...