Refereed Research Articles
* denotes graduate and undergraduate co-authors
1. Zhao, X., Ma, Z., & Ma, R. (accepted for publication). Analyzing narrative contagion through user storytelling in social media conversations: An AI-powered computational approach. New Media & Society.
2. Zhao, X., Shaw*, J., & Ma, Z. (2024). How discrete emotions affect the processing of narrative misinformation on social media: Roles of anger and sadness. Online Media and Global Communication. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2024-0021
3. Ma, Z., Lu, Y., & Zhao, X. (2024). Impact of emotional awareness on responses to vaccine-related narrative misinformation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 68(3), 356-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2024.2337866
4. Saucier*, C. J., Ma, Z., Montoya, J. A., Plant, A., Suresh*, S., Robbins, C. L., & Fraser, R. (2024). Overcoming health information inequities: Valley fever information repertoires among vulnerable communities in California. Health Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2288380
5. Ma, Z. (2024). “I can see a story from the warning”: Understanding the role of perceived narrativity in pictorial warning. Health Communication. 39(4), 675-684. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2181050
6. Ma, Z., Ma, R., Chen, M., & Walter, N. (2024). Present, empathetic, and persuaded: A meta-analytic comparison of storytelling in high versus low immersive mediated environments. Human Communication Research. 50(1), 27-38.https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqad030
7. Zhao, X., Ma, Z., Xu, S., & Austin, L. (2024). How information repertoire affects vaccine hesitancy: Processes of information verification and cognitive elaboration. Health Communication. 39(1), 62-72.https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2154017
8. Ma, Z., Hintz, E.A., & Cassano*, B. (2023). “You are telling the story yourself”: Defining and developing narrative pictorial warning labels. Health Communication. Advance online publication.https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2293324
9. Ganti*, A., Hussein*, E., Wilson, S., Ma, Z., & Zhao, X. (2023). Narrative style and the spread of health misinformation on Twitter. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2023, 4266–4282, Singapore. Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2023.findings-emnlp.282
10. Ma, Z., Ma, R., Zhao, X., & Wang, X. (2023). Stories that engage the audience: An investigation of popular breast cancer narratives on social media. Telematics and Informatics, 85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2023.102048
11. Ma, Z., Ma, R., & Ledford, V. (2023). Is my story better than his story? Understanding the effects and mechanisms of narrative point of view in the opioid context. Health Communication. 38(9), 1847-1855. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2037198
12. Ma, Z., & Ma, R. (2023). Designing cancer warning labels for alcoholic beverages: Examining the impact of visual elements. Health Education & Behavior. 50(5), 586–594. https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981231166696
13. Ma, R., & Ma, Z. (2023). How are we going to treat Chinese people during the pandemic? Media cultivation of intergroup threat and blame. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. 26(3), 515-533. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302221075695
14. Ma, Z. (2022). The use of immersive stories to influence college students’ attitudes and intentions related to drinking and driving. Journal of American College Health. 70(7), 2042-2049. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1842418
15. Ma, R., & Ma, Z. (2022). “You know nothing about how alcohol might lead to cancer!” Effects of threatening and hedging languages on intentions to reduce and stop drinking alcohol. Journal of Health Communication. 27(7), 460-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2121880
16. Zhao, X., Wang, X., Ma, Z., & Ma, R. (2022). Primacy effect of emotions in social stories: User engagement behaviors with breast cancer narratives on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior. 137. 107405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107405
17. Ganti*, A., Wilson, S., Ma, Z., Zhao, X., & Ma, R. (2022). Narrative detection and feature analysis in online health communities. Proceedings of the 4th Workshop of Narrative Understanding (WNU2022), 57–65, Seattle, United States. Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2022.wnu-1.7
18. Ma, Z. & Yang, G. (2022). Show me a photo of the character: Exploring the interaction between text and visuals in narrative persuasion. Journal of Health Communication. 27(2), 125-133. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2065387
19. Ma, R., & Ma, Z. (2022). Social media use and demographics predicted knowledge about alcohol as a cancer risk factor. American Journal of Health Promotion. 36(6), 1025-1028. https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171221087098
20. Nan, X., Iles, I., Yang, B. & Ma, Z. (2022). Public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: Lessons from communication science. Health Communication. 37(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1994910
21. Nan, X., Iles, I., & Ma, Z. (2022). Impact of self-affirmation on responses to health warning messages: Does consideration of future consequences matter? Health Communication. 37(10), 1253-1263. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1885773
22. Ma, Z. (2022). The role of narrative pictorial warning labels in communicating alcohol-related cancer risks. Health Communication. 37(10), 1345-1353. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1888456
23. Ma, Z., & Ma, R. (2022). Predicting intentions to vaccinate against COVID-19 and seasonal flu: The role of consideration of future and immediate consequences. Health Communication. 37(8), 952-961. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1877913
24. Ma, R., & Ma, Z. (2021). What if I tell you e-cigarette users are inferior? An investigation of social identity threat in health messaging. Journal of Health Communication. 26(5), 289-298.https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1933654
25. Ma, Z., Huang, K, & Yao, L. (2021). Feasibility of a computer role-playing game to promote empathy in nursing students: The role of immersiveness and perspective. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 24(11), 750-755. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0371
26. Zytko, D., Ma, Z., Gleason*. J., Lundquist*, N., & Taylor*, M. (2021). Immersive stories for health information: Design considerations from binge drinking in VR. In K. Toeppe, H. Yan, & S. Chu (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 12645. Diversity, divergence, dialogue (pp. 313-327). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71292-1_25 **Runner-up for the Lee Dirks Award for Best Full Research Paper
27. Ma, Z., & Zytko, D. (2021). Designing immersive stories for health: Choosing character perspective based on the viewer’s modality. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 37(15), 1423-1435. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2021.1886486
28. Iles, I., Nan, X., Ma, Z., Feldman, R., Butler, J., & Wang, M. (2021). Self-affirmation does not change smokers’ explicit or implicit attitudes toward smoking following exposure to graphic cigarette warning labels. Communication Research Reports, 38(1), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2020.1870448
29. Ma, Z., Nan, X., Iles, I., Butler, J., Feldman, R., & Wang, M. (2020). Effects of self-affirmation on responses toward graphic cigarette warning labels: Testing the mediating role of perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy. Health Education, 121(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-06-2020-0039
30. Ma, Z. (2020). Effects of immersive stories on prosocial attitudes and willingness to help: Testing psychological mechanisms. Media Psychology, 23(6), 865-890. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2019.1651655
31. Ma, Z., & Nan, X. (2019). Positive facts, negative stories: Message framing as a moderator of narrative persuasion in anti-smoking communication. Health Communication, 34(12), 1454-1460. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2018.1499702
32. Ma, Z., & Nan, X. (2019). Investigating the interplay of self-construal and independent vs. interdependent self-affirmation. Journal of Health Communication, 24(3), 293-302. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2019.1601300
33. Iles, I., Nan, X., Ma, Z., Feldman, R., Butler, J., Wang, M.Q., & Zhao, Z. (2019). Self-affirmation and defensive processing of graphic cigarette warning labels among African American Smokers: A community-based study. Health Education Journal, 78(3), 301-314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896918805129
34. Ma, Z., & Hample, D. (2018). Modeling parental influence on teenagers’ food consumption: An analysis using the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) survey. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 50(10), 1005-1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2018.07.005
35. Ma, Z., & Nan, X. (2018). Role of narratives in promoting mental illnesses acceptance. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 26(3), 196-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2018.1471925
36. Ma, Z., Nan, X., Qin, Y., & Zhou, P. (2018). Using narrative persuasion to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts. Health Education, 118(3), 239-249. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-08-2017-0041
37. Ma, Z., & Nan, X. (2018). Friends don’t let friends smoke: How storytelling and social distance influence nonsmokers’ responses to antismoking messages. Health Communication, 33(7), 887-895. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1321162
38. Ma, Z. (2017). How the media cover mental illnesses: A review. Health Education, 117(1), 90-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-01-2016-0004
39. Nan, X., Futerfas, M., & Ma, Z. (2017). Role of narrative perspective and modality in the persuasiveness of public service advertisements promoting HPV vaccination. Health Communication, 32(3), 320-328. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2016.1138379
Encyclopedia Entry
1. Ma, Z., Nan, X., van Weert, J., Ou, M., & Ho, S. (2022). COVID-19. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, & J. van Weert (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119678816.iehc0897