Xiaoli Nan

University of Maryland, College Park | UMD, UMCP, University of Maryland College Park · Department of Communication

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common, sexually transmitted virus with several strains responsible for nearly all cervical cancer and many anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers worldwide (de Martel et al., 2017). Since 2006, several HPV vaccines have shown marked success in decreasing HPV infection and related cancers (Bruni et al., 2016; Centers f...

Health-related misinformation is a major threat to public health and particularly worrisome for populations experiencing health disparities. This study sets out to examine the prevalence, socio-psychological predictors, and consequences of beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation among unvaccinated Black Americans. We conducted an online national...

This meta-analysis investigated the persuasive effects of temporal framing in health messaging. Our analysis included 39 message pairs from 22 studies in 20 articles (N = 4,998) that examined the effects of temporal framing (i.e. present-oriented messages vs. future-oriented messages) on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors in health contexts. We f...

In this study we examine the role of moral values in predicting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans. Guided by moral foundations theory, we assess the associations between six moral foundations (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, purity, liberty) and attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination. Results of a national survey of...

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease first identified in December 2019 and has caused a pandemic of respiratory illness. During a global public health crisis like this one, health communication serves an instrumental role in controlling the spread of the virus. This entry provides a brief overview of the public health communication practices in...

Concerns are rising about the detrimental impact of health misinformation. Yet it is unclear whether and how health misinformation exerts harmful effects on individual well-being. We conducted a systematic review of published empirical studies (N = 57) that examined the psychological (cognitive, attitudinal, volitional, affective) and behavioral im...

Rationale Health misinformation poses a significant threat to public health. Understanding why people believe health misinformation and who are at risk is crucial for developing effective interventions to reduce the harmful impact of misinformation. Approach We conducted a systematic review of published empirical research that examined individual...

Background Guided by the 5C (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility) model of vaccination behavior, we examine the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (i.e. attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination) among Black Americans, a group disproportionately affected by the coronaviru...

In light of the ongoing debate about the nature of misinformation and the urgent need for a clear definition of health misinformation, this chapter aims to critically review current definitions of health misinformation, identify key challenges in defining health misinformation, and finally propose a tentative, unifying definition of health misinfor...

How do consumers perceive risks associated with food contamination? How do they respond to foodborne illness outbreaks and food recalls resulting from food contamination? We report findings from an experiment (N = 1,010) in which participants were exposed to a simulated news report on a food contamination incident that had led to a foodborne illnes...

This article reports a scoping review of emerging research on COVID-19 health communication. We reviewed and analyzed 206 articles published in 40 peer-reviewed communication journals between January 2020 to April 2021. Our review identified key study characteristics and overall themes and trends in this rapidly expanding field of research. Our rev...

Health misinformation poses a significant threat to public health. Understanding why people believe health misinformation and who are at risk is crucial for developing effective interventions to reduce the harmful impact of misinformation. We conducted a systematic review of published empirical research that examined individual differences in susce...

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalenc...

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that effective public health messaging is an indispensable component of a robust pandemic response system. In this article, we review decades of research from the interdisciplinary field of communication science and provide evidence-based recommendations for COVID-19 public health messaging. We take a princip...

This experiment assessed how the frame of promotional vaccine messages elicited psychological reactance differently for African American parents according to their level of perceived vaccine efficacy. We found that those with low perceived HPV vaccine efficacy experienced more psychological reactance in response to loss-framed messages compared to...

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalenc...

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalenc...

Objective Examine predictors of social media use among a nationally representative sample of adults with children in the household. Methods Data were collected from the Health Information National Trends (HINTS) Survey from 2017-2020 (N=3,559). Multivariate logistic regression models assessed the association between sociodemographic variables and...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination can prevent numerous cancers, yet uptake remains low for adolescents. Given disproportionate burden of cancers among African Americans, it is important to identify factors that influence HPV vaccination decisions among African American parents, specifically the role and preferences of vaccine campaign messages...

Self-affirmation theory has inspired numerous studies that have tried to understand the effects of self-affirmation on defensive processing of threatening health messages and subsequent behavior. Despite the overall positive effects of self-affirmation, psychological processes through which self-affirmation exerts such impact remain unclear. We exa...

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalenc...

Self-affirmation has shown promise in promoting pro-health attitudes following exposure to threatening health messages by reducing defensive processing of such messages. We examine the impact of self-affirmation prior to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels on implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking in a sample of African American smoker...

Purpose – This study examined the effects of self-affirmation on African American smokers’ intentions to quit smoking sooner and desire to stop smoking altogether in response to viewing graphic cigarette warning labels. It also tested the mediating role of perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy in explaining the impact of self-affirmation. De...

Background: Though human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is a safe and effective method of protecting against associated cancers, uptake rates remain low among adolescents. Few studies have examined how social media use contributes to HPV-related knowledge gaps among parents and caregivers. Objective: To investigate the association between soci...

Objectives. To compare how human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination was portrayed on Pinterest before and after the platform acted to moderate vaccine-related search results to understand (1) what the information environment looked like previously and (2) whether Pinterest’s policy decisions improved this environment in terms of sources and content....

This entry introduces the concept of need for closure (NFC), proposed by Kruglanski and Webster as a motivated tendency, its influence on human behaviors, and implications for media psychology research. The entry is organized as follows: The first section briefly introduces the NFC and reviews development of this concept and corresponding scales; t...

Research on health misinformation has grown rapidly as concerns about the potential harmful effects of health misinformation on individuals and society intensify amid a “post-truth” era. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of current research and evidence concerning the many facets of health misinformation, including its sources, prevalenc...

Given the potential for severe health consequences of consuming contaminated foods during pregnancy, effective communication of food contamination risks to pregnant women is especially important. This study examines pregnant women’s risk perceptions and intentions to adopt risk-reduction behaviors following exposure to a simulated news story about...

Previous research found that health risk messages framed to be congruent with people’s independent or interdependent self-construal were not consistently more effective than incongruent messages. We argue that people potentially process the self-construal congruent health risk messages in a biased manner. To test this proposition, we examined the r...

Many parts of a food package label can influence consumers’ product judgments. In this study we investigate how strategic product naming influences consumers’ perceptions of snack food products’ healthfulness and nutritional content by focusing on snack food names that include (versus do not include) the noun “vita.” We also analyze how the effects...

This study examines how the relative effects of independent and interdependent self-affirmation might be influenced by individuals’ self-construal. A controlled experiment involving 186 Chinese adult smokers revealed a significant interactive effect of self-affirmation type and self-construal on message derogation and posttest attitudes toward smok...

Past research has consistently shown that people have the tendency to discount future outcomes. However, most health messages emphasize the long-term consequences of behaviors. Building upon past research on temporal discounting, time orientation, and construal level, the current research examines how dispositional time orientation (present and fut...

This research examines how and why trust in health information from medical authorities (i.e., doctors or health care professionals and government health agencies) predicts acceptance of the HPV vaccine for one’s child among African American parents. A survey of African American parents recruited from community venues revealed that low trust in hea...

Objective Promoting smoking cessation through effective health messaging among African American smokers is of great urgency as African Americans suffer disproportionally more from smoking-related diseases compared to White smokers. This research examines the potential impact of self-affirmation on reducing defensive processing of graphic cigarette...

A significant body of literature has examined the relative persuasiveness of gain- vs. loss-framed messages. Despite the amount of research, when and why one message frame may be more persuasive than the other is not fully understood. This article provides a review of theoretical perspectives that have been proposed to explain message framing effec...

This study examined the influence of norm-based messages on U.S. college students’ binge drinking intentions, focusing on norm type, locomotion and assessment regulatory modes, and level of alcohol consumption as possible moderators. Results of an online experiment (N = 519) revealed significant three-way interactions among regulatory mode (assessm...

This study examines the moderating role of message framing in narrative persuasion in the context of promoting smoking cessation. A controlled experiment involving 101 college smokers revealed a significant interaction effect between message framing (gain-framing vs. loss-framing) and evidence type (narrative vs. non-narrative) on smoking-related r...

Is parents’ support for mandating human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for their adolescent children influenced by how the policy advocacy message is framed? In this research, we conducted an experiment in which a group of African-American parents were exposed to messages advocating HPV vaccination mandates that were framed in either gains or los...

This study examines the role of narrative persuasion in promoting acceptance of mental illnesses. Specifically, we investigate the relative persuasiveness of narrative vs. non-narrative messages, as well as the relative effectiveness of first-person vs. third-person narratives. Findings of a between-subjects experiment (N = 562) suggested that narr...

Abstract Introduction This research examined (1) smokeless tobacco users' comparative optimism in assessing the health and addiction risks of their own product in comparison with cigarettes, and (2) the effects of comparative optimism on cessation information-seeking. Methods A nationally-representative sample from the 2015 Health Information Nati...

Nutrient content claims (NCCs) may inflate perceived healthfulness of nutritionally poor foods. The aim of this study is to experimentally test the effects of NCCs on consumers’ perceptions of fortified snack foods in terms of the presence of both healthful and less healthful nutrients, as well as their intentions to consume such products. It also...

Purpose – China and the U.S. are among the countries where depression is most prevalent. However, the treatment rate of depression is relatively low in these two countries. Negative attitude toward depression is one major contributor to the low treatment rate. This study examines the use of narratives to promote positive attitudes toward depression...

This study examines nonsmokers’ responses to anti-smoking messages. Informed by construal level theory, it investigates whether and how evidence type (narrative vs. non-narrative) and social distance might interact to influence nonsmokers’ attitudes toward others’ quitting smoking and intentions to persuade others to quit smoking. Results of a cont...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of independent vs. interdependent self-construal in non-smokers’ responses to an anti-smoking message that focuses on either personal or relational consequences of smoking. Design/methodology/approach Two web-based experimental studies were conducted among U.S. college non-smokers. In the...

Counterfactual thinking is the process of mentally undoing the outcome of an event by imagining alternate antecedent states. For example, one might think that if they had given up smoking earlier, their health would be better. Counterfactuals are more frequent following negative events than positive events. Counterfactuals have both aversive and be...

We conducted a systematic analysis of 24 peer-reviewed literary works that examined Asian Americans' breast, cervical, and colon cancer screening, focusing on empirical findings from large-scale public health surveys (i.e., NHIS, CHIS, HINTS, BRFSS). We provide an overview of relevant research in terms of study characteristics, samples, predictor/c...

Past research involving the persuasive impact of entertainment narratives on health attitudes and behavior has largely been limited to dramatic narratives. The current research focuses on humorous narratives related to unprotected sex. We conducted an experiment (N = 161) in which female viewers were exposed to a humorous story line about unprotect...

This research examines the interaction effect of message framing (gain vs. loss) and perceived susceptibility (i.e., perceived likelihood that one's child is at risk of contracting HPV) on African American parents' intentions to vaccinate their children against HPV. Results of an experiment (N = 193) in which parents were exposed to either a gain-f...

This study examines predictors of American consumers’ preferences for fortified foods, focusing on sociodemographic as well as psychological correlates. Analysis of a probability-based survey (N = 6,728) revealed that females and the more educated tended to have greater preferences for fortified foods. Whites held the least favorable views on forti...

This research examines the effects of two incidental discrete emotions-fear and anger-on health risk perception (i.e., perceived susceptibility to a health problem) and persuasion. In two experiments, fear and anger were induced before participants were exposed to a public service announcement that advocated sun protection behaviors to prevent skin...

This research examines the sources from which U.S. consumers obtain their food safety information. It seeks to determine differences in the types of information sources used by U.S. consumers of different sociodemographic background, as well as the relationships between the types of information sources used and food safety risk perceptions. Analyzi...

In the context of public service advertisements promoting human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, the current research examines 1) the relative persuasiveness of narrative vs. non-narrative messages and 2) the influence of narrative perspective (first- vs. third-person) and modality (text-based vs. audio-based) on message effectiveness. Results of...

Building upon extant research on temporal framing effect (i.e., relative persuasiveness of present- vs. future-oriented messages), this study investigates whether temporal framing effect differs for narrative versus non-narrative messages in the context of promoting human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among young adults. Results of a controlled...

This study examines how individual difference in consideration of future consequences (CFC) and temporal framing (i.e., present- vs. future-oriented message) interact to influence the persuasive outcomes of a health message promoting human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among young adults. Results of an experiment (N = 416) showed a significant i...

This study examines consumers’ changing beliefs toward advertising in the 1990s. Survey results based on nationally representative data indicate a decreasing linear trend in evaluation of advertising’s informational value and an increasing linear trend in openness to advertising content. Consumers also seem to become less critical of advertising’s...

We examined the persuasive effects of ironic and sarcastic versus no humor appeals in health messages and the potential differential effects of ironic versus sarcastic humor. Findings of a controlled experiment (N = 303) suggested that sarcastic messages, as compared to no humor messages, resulted in less negative affect, more counterarguing, and d...

This research investigates the interrelationships between cancer risk perceptions (absolute and comparative risk perceptions), cancer worry, and cervical cancer screening. Using a nationally representative survey data set (N = 2,304) from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey Circle 1, we found that although neither absolute risk perce...

This research advances and tests a normative mediation model of media effects on youth smoking. The model predicts that exposure to various types of smoking-related media messages, including anti-smoking ads, cigarette ads, and smoking scenes in movies and television shows, exerts indirect effects on youth smoking intentions through the mediation o...

The authors investigated the effect of individual difference in consideration of future consequences (CFC) on the uptake of the HPV vaccine among a group of young adults. A cross-sectional survey of 676 college students was conducted. Findings indicated that CFC had no direct effect on HPV vaccine uptake. However, CFC had significant effects on a n...

This research examines the influence of evidence type (statistical, narrative, or hybrid) and narrative type (first-person or third-person) on risk perception about human papillomavirus (HPV) and behavioral intention to get the HPV vaccine. In total, 174 college students who had not received the HPV vaccine participated in a controlled experiment....

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Two vaccines have been approved to protect against the virus. Politicians have pushed for legislation to increase HPV vaccination rates and stop the spread of this cancer-causing disease. During the Republican presidential primary of 2011, HPV vac...

This study examines the effect of mixed online information, in the form of user-generated blogs, related to the HPV vaccine on perceived efficacy and safety of this vaccine. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of biased assimilation and need for closure, this research hypothesizes that exposure to mixed blogs about the HPV vaccine will lead to pol...

This research examines the influence of temporal framing (long-term vs. short-term) and individual difference in consideration of future consequences (CFC) on the effectiveness of cigarette health warnings among smokers and at-risk nonsmokers in a college population. An online experiment (N = 395) revealed a three-way interaction among temporal fra...

Some researchers believe that consumer distrust of advertising impedes advertising credibility and reduces marketplace efficiency (e.g., Calfee and Ringold 1987) and therefore is of great importance. From the perspective of individual advertisers, understanding consumers’ attitudes toward advertising is important because overall attitudes have been...

In response to the vast and sometimes conceptually inconsistent literature on valence framing, Levin and colleagues (1998) advanced a typology of valence framing that organized the differing results by risky choice, attribute, and goal framing. This study furthers the literature on goal framing by (a) applying it to the context of a social issue, e...

This study examines the effectiveness of cigarette warning labels, with a specific focus on the impact of graphics, message framing (gain vs. loss), and temporal framing (present-oriented vs. future-oriented) among nonsmokers in the United States. A controlled experiment (N = 253) revealed that graphic warning labels were perceived as more effectiv...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of cigarette warning labels that used text-only or text-plus relevant graphics. The labels were framed in terms of either the negative consequences of smoking (loss frame) or the benefits of not smoking (gain frame). The role of smoking identity – the centrality of being a smoker to one's s...

Social responsibility is a key aspect of advertising that has generated considerable legal and ethical debate. This chapter provides a review and critique of current research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in advertising, with particular attention to CSR in the international advertising setting. Three popular forms of CSR programs identif...

This research examines the influence of cultural worldviews and message framing on public opinions toward the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination mandate. Consistent with the cultural theory of risk, we found that individuals with a hierarchical (vs. egalitarian) worldview perceived the HPV vaccination mandate as less beneficial and riskier. The...

This research examines the influence of individual difference in consideration of future consequences on H1N1 vaccine uptake and H1N1-related health beliefs (i.e., perceived susceptibility to and severity of the H1N1 flu, perceived efficacy and safety of the H1N1 vaccine, and perceived self-efficacy in obtaining the H1N1 vaccine). A survey of 411 c...

This research examines parental cancer beliefs and trust in health information from medical authorities as predictors of HPV vaccine acceptability. Specifically, the authors investigated how parents' perceived susceptibility to and severity of cancer, fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention, and trust in health information from doctors/health pr...

This study investigates how individual need to evaluate and timing of source identification (before or after message exposure) influence the strength of the effect of perceived source credibility on advertising persuasiveness. It also explores the psychological processes underlying the credibility–persuasion relationship. In a laboratory experiment...

This chapter examines the interplay of incidental affect (positive vs. negative) and message framing (loss vs. gain) on individuals' beliefs and behavioral intentions related to sun protection behaviors. Existing theoretical frameworks concerning the influence of incidental affect on persuasion and information processing are reviewed (e.g., mood in...

This chapter provides a review of theory and evidence concerning the relative persuasiveness of gain- versus loss-framed messages in health contexts, with particular attention to research surrounding proposed moderators of message framing effects, including type of health behavior advocated, message recipients' involvement with the health issue and...

Previous research has shown that self-affirmation can reduce individuals’ defensive processing of threatening health messages. In this study, we examine two audience characteristics—smoking experience and trait reactance—that might regulate the effects of self-affirmation on negative message responses within the context of college smoking. Results...

This research examines the impact of exposure to online blogs about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine on vaccine-related risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. In a controlled experiment (N = 341), college students were exposed to either a negative blog post about the HPV vaccine or a positive one. Compared to the control grou...

The authors investigated the independent and interactive effects of perceived risk and perceived efficacy on seeking of general, breast, and prostate cancer information. Analysis of the 2003 Health Information National Trend Survey indicates that perceived absolute risk and perceived response efficacy have generally independent-rather than interact...

Vaccination against disease is a powerful public health tool, and persuading people to be vaccinated is a correspondingly important challenge. A number of studies have compared the effectiveness of gain-framed and loss-framed appeals in this domain, often expecting gain-framed appeals to be more persuasive. A meta-analytic review (k = 32, N = 11,81...

This research examines the influence of message framing (gain vs. loss), motivational orientation (approach vs. avoidance), and gender on intentions to receive human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and HPV-/HPV vaccine-related risk perceptions among young adults ages 18-26 years. Results of an experiment show an interaction between message framing...

This chapter provides an integrative review of two lines of attitudes research guided by theories of behavioral intention (i.e., the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior) and dual-process models (i.e., the elaboration likelihood model and the heuristic-systematic model). These theories are chosen because they are among the most...

This chapter provides an integrative review of two lines of attitudes research guided by theories of behavioral intention (i.e., the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior) and dual-process models (i.e., the elaboration likelihood model and the heuristic-systematic model). These theories are chosen because they are among the most...

This research examines how young adults' attitudes toward human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and their intentions to get the vaccine are influenced by the framing of health messages (gain vs. loss) and time orientation (i.e., the extent to which people value immediate vs. distant consequences of their decisions). Results of an experiment showed...

This study examines the relative effectiveness of using gain- versus loss-framed messages to promote H1N1 vaccination among older adults, focusing on the moderating roles of perceived vaccine safety and efficacy. An experiment was conducted with older adults recruited from senior centers in the state of Maryland. Results show that older adults who...

This article reports a content analysis of YouTube videos related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. In total, 172 YouTube videos were examined with respect to video sources, tones, and viewer responses. Additionally, coverage of specific content was analyzed through the lens of the Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 197418. Rosenstock , L....

Surveys have shown that many people now turn to the Internet for health information when making health-related decisions. This study systematically analyzed the HPV vaccine information returned by online search engines. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease and is the leading cause of cervical cancers. We conducted a content analysis...

This study investigates the influence of TV viewing and sensation seeking on adolescents' estimates of smoking prevalence and perceptions about smokers. Analysis of a nationally representative sample of adolescents (N = 6,792) indicates that more TV viewing is associated with higher estimates of smoking prevalence. Heavier TV consumption and higher...

This article reports a content analysis of health- and nutrition-related claims used in food advertisements in popular women's and men's magazines. The authors analyzed 734 food ads and 100 magazine issues. Their research shows that nutrient content claims (i.e., ones that focus on a specific nutrient component such as "low in fat") are the most pr...

The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) can help identify what the adverse ripple effects may be following a disaster, and what communication messages need to be developed to elicit desired behavioral responses (Kasperson & Kasperson, 1996). The framework posits that the public’s risk perceptions and ripple effects can be amplified by ins...

Self-affirmation has been shown to reduce biased processing of threatening health messages. In this study, the impact of self-affirmation on college smokers' reactions to gain- versus loss-framed antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) was examined. A consistent pattern of interaction was observed wherein self-affirmation produced more favo...

This study examines the joint effects of mood and ad context on ad memory and evaluations. It is argued that mood (negative vs. positive) and ad context (competitive vs. non-competitive) both influence the type of processing (item-specific vs. relational processing) adopted by message recipients. As a result, mood and ad context are expected to int...

In this research, we examine the influence of liking for antismoking public service announcements (PSAs), relative to that of PSAs' perceived argument strength, on adolescents' smoking-related behavioral intentions. Data from the first Legacy Media Tracking Survey (LMTS-I) suggest that the relative persuasive impact of PSA liking and perceived argu...