Behavior Change
Communication
Communication
Individual behavioral choices play an important role in public health---they determine whether a person seeks screening for disease, accepts vaccination, or engages in substance abuse. Policymakers can influence these decisions by distributing warning labels, PSAs, and other forms of mass communication, but doing so effectively demands a studied understanding of both the relevant behaviors and of theories of persuasion and social influence.
My research applies established theories to communication about emerging public health issues like HPV vaccination, cannabis use, and COVID-19 vaccination, among others.
Figures from Kim & Minich et al., 2022
Selected Publications and Presentations
Kim, S. J.*, Minich, M.*, Tveleneva, A., Liu, J., Padon, A., Silver, L., Yang, S. (2022) Textual and Pictorial Enhancement of Cannabis Warning Labels: An Online Experiment Among At-Risk U.S. Young Adults. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
*Equal contributions
Christy, K., Minich, M., Tao, R., Riddle, K., Kim, S. (2022) To Tailor or Not to Tailor: An investigation of Narrative Tailoring for Health Communication. Journal of Health Communication
Tveleneva, A., Kim, S.J., Minich, M., Liu, J., Padon, A., Silver, L., Yang, S. (in press) Yet again conversations matter: The importance of interpersonal discussions, educational campaigns, and advertising on cannabis-related knowledge, attitudes and intentions in at-risk young adults. Journal of Health Communication.
Shen, L., Li, J., Tao, R. Minich, M., Okada, T., Borah, P., Yang, S. (2021, Oct). Diverging Roles of COVID-19 Misperceptions in Predicting Vaccination Intentions: Implications for Communication Campaigns. Paper present at the annual conference of the American Public Health Association (APHA), Denver
Minich, M. (2017, June). How comics persuade: The effects of narrative transportation and character identification on persuasion in the medium of comics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Cartagena